Bragaglia, Carlo Ludovico

(1894-1998)

   Photographer, screenwriter, theater and film director. Son of the first managing director of the Cines, Francesco Bragaglia, and brother of writer and director Anton Giulio and painter Alberto, Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia nurtured a passion for photography from a very young age. In 1922, together with brother Anton Giulio, he founded the experimental theater company, Il Teatro degli Indipendenti. With the coming of sound he began working at the Cines, first as set photographer and then as film editor. He then served as assistant director to his brother, Anton Giulio, on Vele ammainate (Lowered Sails, 1931), before directing his first solo film, O la borsa o la vita (Either the Stock Exchange or Life, 1933), a surrealistic comedy adapted from a popular radio play. After another handful of undistinguished comedies, he made Animali pazzi (Mad Animals, 1939), the first film to feature master comic Toto. He subsequently directed the popular stage duo Eduardo and Peppino De Filippo in Casanova farebbe cosi! (After Casanova's Fashion, 1942) and Non ti pago! (I'm Not Paying! 1942) and made another series of comedies featuring Toto, including the extremely popular Toto le Moko (1949) and Le sei mogli di Barbablu (Bluebeard's Six Wives, 1950). In the early 1960s, before retiring from the cinema altogether, he also directed a number of colorful sword-and-sandal epics that included Gli amori did Ercole (The Loves of Hercules, 1960), Annibale (Hannibal, 1960), and Ursus nella valle dei Leoni (Ursus in the Valley of the Lions, 1961).

   Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira