La preda (1921)

La preda/The Prey (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1921) was an Italian silent melodrama starring diva Maria Jacobini, Amleto Novelli and the young Carmen Boni.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 33. Photo: Fotominio. Maria Jacobini and Carmela Bonicatti (Carmen Boni) in La preda (1921).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 34. Photo: Maria Jacobini, Carmela Bonicatti (Carmen Boni) and Maria Moreno in La preda (1921).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 46. Photo: Fotominio. Publicity still for La preda (1921) with Maria Jacobini and Amleto Novelli.

She doesn't hesitate and kills him

The script of La preda/The Prey (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1921) was written by French screen writer and film director Camille de Morlhon. From 1908 to 1912, he was a prolific director, making over a hundred films for the Pathé company. Pathé sent him to Algeria to shoot a few films, and when he returned to France in 1912, he founded his own production company, Les Films Valetta. He was one of the first directors to sign his films, and in 1917 he founded the Société des auteurs de films to defend authors.

Italian writer and film director Guglielmo Zorzi directed La preda/The Prey for the Fert company. He was one of the most important and active playwrights in the inter-war period. His comedies generally dealt with problems of morality and psychology, which was particularly evident in 'La vena d'oro' (1919), his most successful comedy. In 1914, he was hired by Milano Films as art director and director. He also worked for other film companies such as Cines, Silentium Film and Fert. Zorzi directed around thirty films in the silent period,

In La preda/The Prey, the explorer Cesare Colleoni (Amleto Novelli) returns to Italy after a long stay in Africa. At his father's place, he meets his three cousins Anna (Mara Cassano), Maria (Maria Jacobini) and Gioietta (Carmela Bonicatti aka Carmen Boni), whom he all courts at the same time.

He gets engaged with Anna, but right on the day before his wedding, he tries to seduce Maria. She resists, though. Afterwards, when Cesare has married Anna, Maria discovers he has managed her youngest sister Gioietta to hopefully fall in love with him and want to elope with him. Maria doesn't hesitate and kills Cesare.

Other cast members of La preda/The Prey were well-known Italian actors as Ida Carloni Talli, Alfonso Cassini, Lido Manetti and Augusto Mastripietri.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 51. Photo: Fotominio. Maria Jacobini, Carmen Boni and Maria Moreno in La preda/The Prey (Gugielmo Zorzi, 1921).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 51. Photo: Fotominio. Maria Jacobini and Amleto Novelli in La preda (1921).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 153. Photo: Maria Jacobini and Alfonso Cassini in La preda (1921).

The interior dilemma of the female protagonist

La preda/The Prey (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1921) was produced by Fert, a film studio founded in Turin by Enrico Fiori in 1919. The Fiori Enrico Roma Torino studio (hence the acronym Fert) was one of the most important Italian studios until the appearance of sound. The studio produced mostly B-films in the sound era. Till 1973, Fert produced 180 films.

In 1920, Fert had hired Maria Jacobini as ‘prima actress’. At Fert, she became professionally and emotionally bound to Gennaro Righelli, one of the most important Italian film directors of the time. With him she had a son Angelo Jacobini in 1921 and in 1925 they married. There were numerous films in which she was directed by Righelli, including Amore rosso/Red Love (1921), Il viaggio/The Voyage (1921) and L'isola e il continente/The Island And The Continent (1922).

La preda/The Prey premiered on 10 January 1922, in Rome. The Naples journal La Cine-fono praised Maria Jacobini's acting but the critic thought the characters were not individualised enough and the script had better be used for a stage play, where the interior dilemma of the female protagonist would have been expressed better.

Instead, the Turin journal La vita cinematografica praised both director and actors - Maria Jacobini in the first place - and thought that only the cinematography could have been better.

While film historian Vittorio Martinelli mentions Mara Cassano playing Anna, one postcard suggests this could have been Maria Moreno. Although both English Wikipedia and IMDb claim that La preda is a French-Italian coproduction, the production company, Fert was an Italian studio. Italian Wikipedia and Vittorio Martinelli write that it's an Italian production.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 154. Photo: Maria Jacobini and Carmela Bonicatti (Carmen Boni) in La preda (1921).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 191. Photo: Amleto Novelli and Maria Moreno in La preda (1921).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 315. Photo: Maria Jacobini in La preda (1921).

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano: I film degli anni venti, 1921 - Italian), Wikipedia (English and Italian) and IMDb.

Carmen Boni

Italian silent film star Carmen Boni (1901-1963) had a successful career in the Italian cinema of the early 1920s, before moving to Germany where she made one film after another till the sound era.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 535-A.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 51. Photo: Fotominio. Maria Jacobini, Carmen Boni and Maria Moreno in the Italian silent film La preda/The Prey (Gugielmo Zorzi, 1921).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 698. Photo: Films Genina. Carmen Boni in Addio giovinezza/Goodbye Youth (Augusto Genina, 1927).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 772. Photo: Carmen Boni in the German late silent film Ihr letztes Liebesabenteuer (Max Reichmann, 1927), released in Italy as Matrimonio in pericolo.


French postcard by Europe, no. 300. Photo: Cineromans / Films de France.


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 710. Photo: Sofar. Carmen Boni in the German late silent film Quartier Latin/Latin Quarter (Augusto Genina, 1929). Orplid-Film produced the film, Messtro-Film distributed it in Germany.

The European Clara Bow

Carmen Boni was born Maria Carmela Bonicatti in 1901 in Rome, Italy. She was the sister of cinematographer Mario Bonicatti. In 1919, she made her first film appearance under her own name for Nova Film in La pecorella/The Sheep (Pio Vanzi, 1920) with Ignazio Lupi. Then she played in the Italian silent drama Ave Maria (Memmo Genua, Diana Karenne, 1920). For this film, she was still credited with her birth name. Diana Karenne suggested she change her name, so enter Carmen Boni.

That year, the young actress also played leads in Miss Dorothy (Giulio Antamoro, 1920) with Lia Formia and Diana Karenne, Il fiore del Caucaso/The Flower of the Caucasus (Augusto Camerini, 1920), and Monella di strada/Monella Street (Umberto Fracchia, 1920) opposite Romano Calò. In the early 1920s, Boni had a successful career in Italian cinema. She worked with director Guglielmo Zorzi at La preda/The Prey (1921), La piccola ignota/The little unknown (1923), and Il riscatto/The Redemption (1924) opposite André Habay and Lido Manetti.

A success was the comedy La dama de Chez Maxim's (Amleto Palermi, 1923) in which she co-starred with Pina Menichelli. It is an adaptation of the 1899 play La Dame de chez Maxim by Georges Feydeau. With director Augusto Genina, she made La moglie bella/The beautiful wife (1924) with Ruggero Ruggeri, Il focolare spento/The hearth turned off (1925) with Lido Manetti, her international breakthrough L'ultimo lord/The last lord (1926) with Oreste Bilancia and Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth (1927).

Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth was adapted from the 1911 play of the same name by Nino Oxilia and Sandro Camasio. The film is set in Turin at the beginning of the Twentieth century, where a student (Walter Slezak) begins a romance with a seamstress Dorina (Boni). However, he is lured away by a sophisticated older woman (Elena Sangro) leaving Dorina distressed. Genina had previously directed an earlier version of the play in 1918. It was remade as a sound film of the same title in 1940.

These films were produced by Genina Film. Genina was both her Pygmalion and her husband. Together they moved to Germany when the Italian film industry got into a crisis in the mid-1920s and there were no possibilities anymore for Genina Film.


Finnish postcard by Kortcentralen/Korttikeskus, Helsingfors, no. 813, 1926. Photo: Marino, Roma.


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, no. 480. Photo: Film Genina. Carmen Boni in L'ultimo lord/The last lord (Augusto Genina, 1926).


Italian postcard, no. 242. Card mailed in Italy in 1930. Photo: FotoEbung. Probably publicity still for L'ultimo lord/The last lord (Augusto Genina, 1926).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Ed., no. 688. Photo: Films Genina. Probably publicity still for L'ultimo lord/The last lord (Augusto Genina, 1926).


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 953. Photo: Verleih Engel & Welter.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1783/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Arthur Ziehm, Berlin.

Suicide Attempt

Berlin was the European film capital at the time and Carmen Boni made one film after another during the late 1920s. Her German films include Venus im Frack/Venus in Tails (Robert Land, 1927) with Georg Alexander and Henri de Vries, Gehetzte Frauen (Richard Oswald, 1927) starring Asta Nielsen as Boni's mother, and Scampolo (Augusto Genina, 1928) in which she played a young Roman orphan. Reviewer Luke-28 at IMDb: "An unpretentious but amazingly witty little comedy, Scampolo confirms Genina's special 'touch': a mix of subtle irony and social satire akin to Lubitsch's own bittersweet vision of the world. Scampolo also serves as a perfect vehicle for Carmen Boni's verve and comic skills."

With her verve and comic skills, Boni managed to switch from big laughter to genuine emotion with uncommon natural ease. Carmen Boni had a modern type of beauty, and she became the European equivalent of Hollywood stars like Clara Bow, Colleen Moore and Louise Brooks. The last postcard in this post mentions the Karl Grune Film. This company only made one film with Carmen Boni: Katharina Knie (Karl Grune, 1929), based on the 1928 play of the same title by Carl Zuckmayer. Carmen Boni played the title role as the circus princess, with Eugen Klöpfer as her father. It was her last film in Germany.

After some more films in Italy, La Grazia/The Grace (Aldo De Benedetti, 1929), she moved to France where she performed in several Italian versions of Paramount films in the early 1930s, shot at the Paramount studios in Joinville. These films included the dramas Il richiamo del cuore/Appeal of the Heart (Jack Salvatori, 1930) and La vacanza del diavolo/The Devil's Holiday (Jack Salvatori, 1931).

In France, she also made with her husband the comedy La femme en home/The Woman Dressed As a Man (Augusto Genina, 1932) with Armand Bernard, and Ne sois pas jalousie/Don't be jealous (Augusto Genina, 1934). When Genina divorced her, she tried to commit suicide. Then she focused on other things instead of cinema. In 1938 she married the French actor Jean Rigaux.

She returned in only two more French films. The first was the Swashbuckler Le comte de Monte Cristo, 2ème époque: Le châtiment/The Count of Monte Christo, Part II (Robert Vernay, Ferrucio Cerio, 1943) featuring Pierre Richard-Willm, and based on the classic novel by Alexandre Dumas père. Her final film was D'Homme à homme/Man to Men (Christian-Jaque, 1948), about the founder of the Red Cross, Henri Dunant, played by Jean-Louis Barrault. In 1963 Carmen Boni was killed in Paris by a reckless car driver while crossing a zebra path. She was 62.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3034/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Oertel, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3610/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Ernst Schneider, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3696/1, 1928-1929. Photo Lichtenstein, Berlin / Greenbaum Film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4024/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4185/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4344/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Orplid Messtro Film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4920/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Atelier Gerstenberg.


Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5351. Photo: Gaumont-Film. Publicity still for Prinzessin Olala/Princess Olala (Robert Land, 1928) with Walter Rilla.


French postcard by Europe, no. 717. Photo: Karl Grune Film. Publicity still for Katharina Knie (Karl Grune, 1929).


French postcard by A.N. (A. Noyer, Paris), no. 875 Photo: Lipnitzki. The bottom part of the card was cut off, possibly to fit in an album.


French postcard. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Le dive del silenzio - Italian), Luke-28 (IMDb), Wikipedia (English and Italian) and IMDb

This post was last updated on 14 June 2023.