Fra Diavolo, actually Michele Pezza, was a colourful guerilla leader against the French in the age of Napoleon in the kingdom of Naples. His career in brief: advancing from a mountain brigand in the hills around Naples, leading a band robbing travellers, he became a leading figure of the state with considerable political influence, at the same time leading his bandits in a guerilla warfare against the French under Napoleon and having two mistresses at the same time, marrying one of them but remaining faithful also to the other, both sincerely loving him and never betraying him. Naturally this true swashbuckling adventure inspired many stories, even several in English, a French opera and a number of films, which all have in common that they are very liberal with the legend and usually give it a happy end, although he in reality was hanged by the French at only 35.
There was a spectacular film in 1942 by Luigi Zampa, his first, which also elaborated freely on the legend, avoiding the hanging, and Mario Soldati turns the whole thing to a burlesque comedy, like a picaresque novel. Soldati was a very literate director, he later wrote the scripts of epics like King Vidor's "War and Peace", John Huston's "The Bible" and "Waterloo" and devoted his life equally to films and literature. The Fra Diavolo legend he used in his very own way, concentrating on the central character which is rendered as close as possible to the true figure, and spinning around him a web of picaresque intrigues of politics and love and war - the fighting scenes here are all magnificent. He was especially very skilful in creating great polyphonic dramaturgy with many characters acting at the same time in towering spectacles of complications, of which this film as a perfect example - it is sometimes difficult to follow the tumultuous amassment of events, as the action is generally very fast for 1950 and faster than most of Errol Flynn's films. The result is an accomplished caleidoscope of amorous events and rustic warfare, and of course a villain is not missing. Mario Soldati's films are all quite replenished with great acting and dramaturgy, but he never falls to the temptation of just making filmed theatre, but it is all very cinematographic, which is the main interest of his films: they are all cinematographically extremely fascinating in their professional accomplishment. Another of his films was one of Sophia Loren's very first great performances, "La donna del fiume" (1954, "The River Girl").
