Righelli, Gennaro

(1886-1949)

   Director and scriptwriter. After some experience of acting on the Neapolitan stage, Righelli joined the Cines studios as a scriptwriter in 1909 and by 1911 had graduated to directing. Soon thereafter he moved to Naples, where for the next decade he directed some 30 films, mostly for the Vesuvio Film Company, many of which featured his wife, diva Maria Jacobini. Best remembered from this period are L'Innamorata (The Woman in Love, 1920), the story of a dark brooding vamp that was censored for what was regarded as its excessive sensuality, and Caina, I'isola e il continente (Caina: The Island and the Mainland, 1921), a film shot on location in Sardinia.

   In the wake of the crisis in the Italian film industry in the early 1920s, Righelli and Jacobini moved to Germany, where he directed some 15 features, including an adaptation of Stendhal's Le Rouge et le noir (The Red and the Black, 1928) and Der Bastard (The Bastard, 1926), a weepy but impressive melodrama in which an unwed mother relentlessly pursues the father of her child literally around the globe. In 1929 Righelli returned to Italy to direct La canzone dell'amore (The Song of Love, 1930), the first Italian sound film made at the newly restored Cines studios. Another heartstringtugging melodrama, loosely based on a short story by Luigi Pirandello, the film was shot simultaneously in several different languages. The Italian version achieved an immediate if short-lived popularity, not least for the catchy song "Solo per tu Lucia" ("Only for You, Lucia"), especially composed for the film by Cesare Andrea Bixio.

   Among Righelli's many subsequent sound films were Italy's first aviation feature, L'armata azzurra (The Blue Fleet, 1932), and a number of light comedies that employed the talents of famed Sicilian stage actor Angelo Musco, the best of these being Pensaci Giacomino (Think It Over, Jack, 1937), adapted from a play by Pirandello.

   Righelli's flood of productivity reduced to a trickle after the war. Abbasso la miseria (Down with Misery, 1945) was followed by Abbasso la ricchezza (Peddlin' in Society, 1946), both starring Anna Magnani in fairly lightweight comic roles. His last film, Il corriere del re (The King's Courier, 1947), was another adaptation of Stendhal's The Red and the Black.

   Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira