ZAPPATORE is one of the several films based on the same very popular story, actually a very famous Neapolitan song with verses by L. Bovio and Music by F. Albano. The music can be heard on the synchronized soundtrack of this late silent-era picture from Italy, produced by Any-Film of Naples, so that it is technically a talkie, but only by a stretch of the imagination. It is mostly a silent movie with musical accompaniment. The story and the song strike a deep chord in many Italians where the alienation or waywardness of a family member is seen as the worst conceivable tragedy in life. The word "zappatore" means peasant-farmer, actually "one who uses a hoe, a 'zappa'". It refers to the father who has sacrificed everything so that his son can have an education and a better life as a lawyer. The son instead fails his exams, squanders the money on a life of luxury and ease in Naples, has an affair with a high-society woman, wrangles a law degree through that family's influence, abandons his own family. The climatic scene in the film is actually the one described in the song-ballad. The father barges into a party where his son is, confronts him saying that he ought to be ashamed of himself. His words might be summarized as, "I, as your father, have sacrificed everything for you. What do you do? You don't write. You don't visit. Your poor mother is dying. She calls you back. Shame on you! Get down on your knees and kiss these hands of mine!". And he does. And the story ends in a predictable reconciliation. This film opened in New York in 1932 at a 42nd Street theater, the Harris, with electric lights announcing "The Great Italian Epic." It did not get good reviews. It didn't matter to the patrons for whom this movie was intended and who came to enjoy a good cry. Italian-American audiences of the time flocked to see it, and it played all the ethnic enclaves including the Columbus/Uptown Theatre in Providence. The piece was directed by Gustavo Serena, the director who had made, with Francesca Bertini, the unforgettable 1915 ASSUNTA SPINA. It starred Gustavo Serena himself as the father, Silvio Orsini as his son. Ralph DeLuca provided the music track that complemented the ballad. The movie was remade in 1950 and then again in 1980 in a very popular version with actor Mario Merola. The movie was re-introduced to audiences in 1989 by film-collector and scholar William K. Everson at his New School series in New York, was also part of the 1993-94 "Napoletana: Images of a City" series at the Museum of Modern Art, and was a revival presentation of the Italian Film Society of Rhode Island.
