Leda Gloria

Italian film star Leda Gloria (1912-1997) had a prolific career during the 1930s and 1940s. She was one of the favourite film actresses of the young Federico Fellini but is also remembered as the wife of Mayor Peppone in the Don Camillo films of the 1950s and 1960s. She appeared in 66 films between 1929 and 1965.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, 1937. Photo: Ghergo.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1940. Photo: Ghergo.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1942. Photo: Ghergo.


Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scarmiglia Ed., Roma), no. 40. Photo: Venturini.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 834. Photo:[Max..., Roma?].

Lively and spontaneous country girls

Leda Gloria, pseudonym of Leda Nicoletti was born in Rome, Italy, in 1912. She started her film career already at a young age, winning a film contest held by an American film company in Italy. She dropped her studies as a harpist and acted in various silent Italian and German films.

Gloria’s first film seems to have been the comedy Ragazze non scherzate/Girls do not Joke (Alfred Lind, 1929) with Maurizio D’Ancora. Another of her early film roles was next to Lil Dagover in the German sound film Es gibt eine Frau die dich niemals vergisst/There is a Woman Who Never Forgets You (Leo Mittler 1930), also with Iván Petrovich.

With the coming of sound cinema, she became one of the most active and popular Italian actresses. She first made her mark with two films by Alessandro Blasetti, Terra madre/Mother Earth (1931) and Palio (1932), playing lively and spontaneous country girls. In Terra madre, Gloria played country girl Emilia opposite Sandro Salvini, former love interest in the silent diva films. Here he plays a duke who wants to sell his estate and move to the city, but after a fire is extinguished with the help of the farmers he decides to stay.

In Palio, jockeys represent various neighbourhoods ('contradas') in the Italian city of Siena. The jockeys fight each other and love makes them blind. Jockey Zarre (Guido Celano) breaks up his affair with the young Fiora (Gloria) when she is courted by a captain from a rival contrada. When a singer (Laura Nucci) in whom he is infatuated, sets up a trap together with his rival in love and horse-riding, Zarre almost fails. Finally, he manages to win the Palio and gains Fiora back as a bonus.

Contrasting the bleak and bloodless 19th-century vamps, Gloria showed a healthy beauty and simple but often convincing and solid acting. Examples of this she showed in La tavola dei poveri/The Table of the Poor (Alessandro Blasetti, 1932) and Il cappello a tre punte/Three Cornered Hat (Mario Camerini, 1934) with Eduardo De Filippo and Peppino De Filippo. Leda Gloria encountered a big success with her first dramatic character in Montevergine (Carlo Campogalliani, 1939), starring Amedeo Nazzari in a story about a man bound for revenge as he has been wrongly accused of murder and innocently imprisoned.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 15. Photo: Cines-Pittaluga, Roma. Postcard for the Italian early sound film Terra madre/Mother Earth (Alessandro Blasetti, 1931), starring Leda Gloria, Sandro Salvini and Isa Pola. On the right Gloria as Emilia and Salvini as Duke Marco. Left in the back, Isa Pola as Daisy and her friend, played by Giorgio Bianchi.


Italian postcard by Produzione Cines-Pittaluga, no. 30. Photo: Leda Gloria had in the rural drama Terra madre (Alessandro Blasetti, 1931).


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, 1938. Photo: Manenti Film.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1941. Sent by mail in 1943. Photo: Venturini.

Fellini's favourite actress

Among Leda Gloria’s films from the war years are Antonio Meucci (Enrico Guazzoni, 1940) starring Luigi Pavese as the telephone inventor and Gloria as his wife Ester, Anime in tumulto/Souls in turmoil (Giulio Del Torre, 1942) on a surgeon’s wife who steals a baby when she cannot have one, and Dagli Appennini alle Ande/From the Apennines to the Andes (Flavio Cavalzara, 1943) on a boy (Cesare Barbetti) crossing the ocean and the whole of Argentine in search of his mother (Gloria).

After the war, she was involved in Variety at the Company of Giulio Donadio. She returned to the cinema with a serious, supporting part in the Neorealist film Il mulino del Po/The Mill on the Po (Carlo Lizzani, 1949), starring Carla Del Poggio and Jacques Sernas and situated in the late 19th-century countryside near Ferrara. Future film director Federico Fellini was one of the scriptwriters for this film. He later recalled that she had been one of his favourite actresses.

Subsequently, Leda Gloria worked as a supporting actress, often in parts as the mother of the leading character, but her performances were always moderated and well-delivered. She played Cosetta Greco’s mother in Le ragazze di Piazza di Spagna/Girls of the Spanish Steps (Luciano Emmer, 1952) and Raf Mattioli’s mother in the successful comedy Guendalina (Alberto Lattuada, 1957). Leda Gloria also played Eduardo De Filippo’s wife in the comedy Napoli milionaria/Side Street Story (Eduardo De Filippo, 1950). It tells the story of ordinary people living on a Naples sidestreet, from 1940 to 1950 under the dominance of the Fascists, the Nazis and then the Allies occupation forces.

Gloria is well remembered as Signora Botazzi, Peppone's wife, in the Don Camillo comedies with Gino Cervi as the communist mayor Peppone and Fernandel as his opponent Don Camillo. The series included Don Camillo/The Little World of Don Camillo (Julien Duvivier, 1952), Il ritorno di Don Camillo/The Return of Don Camillo (Julien Duvivier, 1953), Don Camillo e l’onorevole Peppone/Don Camillo's Last Round (Carmine Gallone, 1955), Don Camillo monsignore… ma non troppo/Don Camillo: Monsignor (Carmine Gallone, 1961) and Il compagno Don Camillo/Don Camillo in Moscow (Luigi Comencini, 1965), Leda Gloria's last film.

After a long illness, Leda Gloria died in Rome, Italy, in 1997. She was 84. Gloria had two twin daughters: Atte Ughetti and Ilia Ughetti. Both appeared with their mother in Redenzione/Redemption (Marcello Albani, 1943). It was their first and only screen appearance.


Italian postcard by Aser, no. 37. Photo: Venturini.


Italian postcard by Casa Editr. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 2254. Photo: Gneme / E.N.I.C. May refer to the film Il cavaliere di Kruja/The Knight of Kruja (Carlo Campogalliani, 1941).


Italian postcard by Casa Editr. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 25555. Photo: serie Cines / Pittaluga.


Italian postcard by Casa Editr. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 25549. Photo: serie Cines / Pittaluga.


Italian postcard, printed by Pizzi & Pizio, Milano, commissioned by Melloni, Bologna. Photo: Luxardo, Rome.

Sources: Adnkronos (Italian), Wikipedia (English and Italian) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 16 June 2024.

Terra madre (1931)

Terra madre/Mother Earth (Alessandro Blasetti, 1931), is an Italian early sound film starring Leda Gloria, Sandro Salvini, and Isa Pola. The rural drama was produced by Cines-Pittaluga. The photography of the film shows a great expressive value in chiaroscuro and depth, as can be seen on the postcards, published by G.B. Falci.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 14. Photo: Cines-Pittaluga, Roma. Sandro Salvini in Terra madre/Mother Earth (Alessandro Blasetti, 1931). Here in the middle, Duke Marco (Salvini) quarrels with another man, who is difficult to recognise. he could be Vasco Creti, who plays the foreman and father of Emilia.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 15. Photo: Cines-Pittaluga, Roma. Leda Gloria and Sandro Salvini in Terra madre/Mother Earth (Alessandro Blasetti, 1931). On the right Gloria as Emilia and Salvini as Duke Marco. Left in the back, Isa Pola as Daisy and her friend, played by Giorgio Bianchi.

An indication of the social and lyrical value of rural life

Sandro Salvini plays Duke Marco, who has been living in the city for a long time, far from the lands he owns. He only returns when he decides to sell them to maintain a costly standard of living which also includes his mistress Daisy (Isa Pola).

His return is welcomed by peasants hoping he'll stay with them. During a solitary tour of his lands, in which he remembers his youth in the countryside with growing nostalgia, Marco meets Emilia (Leda Gloria), the farmer's daughter, and is struck by her spontaneous energy and freshness. When the peasants learn about the news of the sale their enthusiasm turns into disappointment, but Marco, pressured by financial needs, returns to the city with Daisy to sign the documents.

Here he is joined by a phone call from Emilia informing him of a serious fire that broke out on the farm. At that point, Marco leaves everything, runs into the countryside, directs the victorious fight against the fire and decides to revoke the sale. He will stay to take care of his lands and he will marry Emilia.

Terra Madre was drawn from a subject entitled 'Passa la morte', written in 1930 by Camillo Apolloni, a former actor of silent cinema, which was purchased in 1930 by Cines, which was relaunched by Stefano Pittaluga as the first Italian company in the production of sound cinema.

On the basis of this text, Alessandro Blasetti, in collaboration with the writer and silent film director Gianni Bistolfi, wrote the script with the intention of providing "an indication of the social and lyrical value of rural life". Two parties contested the originality of the story, but years after, Blasetti claimed that from the original story "only the boots of the farmer" had remained.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 16. Photo: Cines-Pittaluga, Roma. Leda Gloria and Sandro Salvini in Terra madre/Mother Earth (Alessandro Blasetti, 1931).

A current of fascism or Soviet-style realism?

Alessandro Blasetti was one of the group of critics gathered around the magazine Cinematografo, who vehemently criticised Pittaluga for years. In 1930, Blasetti and some of his collaborators entered the Cines and became its staunch defenders. The Roman director thus had the opportunity, after the searing failure of Sole (1929) to resume the themes of 'rebirth' at his new studio Cines-Pittaluga.

He did this first with Resurrectio (1931) and then with Terra Madre (1931), in which he revived the 'ruralist' spirit already present in his debut film Sole. It was the contrast between the urban world, considered indolent and parasitic (the 'Stracittà'), and the peasant one (the 'Strapaese'), seen as strong and healthy by a current of fascism, the one born in the countryside, favourable to the preservation of the rural character of the Italian people. Along with Blasetti's other early films, Terra Madre also shows a strong influence of Soviet-style realism.

The film - one of the 10 feature films issued by Cines-Pittaluga in the 1930-1931 season - was shot at theatre 3 of the Cines in Via Vejo in Rome, between September 1930 and January 1931. Locations in the Roman countryside were used for the exteriors. Like the first sound film released in Italy, Gennaro Righelli's La canzone dell'amore, Terra Madre was a co-production of which a German version was made, again at the Cines, on behalf of the company Atlas of Berlin. Kennst Du das Land (1931) was interpreted in the two main roles by Hans Adalbert Schlettow and Maria Solveg (as Maria Matray), and directed by Constantin J. David, who also had directed the German version of the Righelli film.

The future directors Ferdinando Maria Poggioli and Goffredo Alessandrini also worked on the set of Terra Madre. They had entered the Cines as scriptwriter and assistant, both from the group around Cinemagrafo. In early 1931, the magazine had ceased publication when most of its authors were employed by Pittaluga.

Particularly important for highlighting the contrast between city and countryside was the musical comment given on one side to Foxtrot motifs and the other to the rhythm of a popular 'saltarello' and to five choirs performed by the Camerata Lughese of the Canterini Romagnoli. A lot of attention was also paid to photography, so much so that to the two hired operators (Montuori and De Luca) a third assistant joined them, the almost newcomer Clemente Santoni, producing a result of great expressive value in chiaroscuro and depth.

Terra madre was released in March 1931 and was a big success, both critically and commercially. This also was the case for the German version, and equally for a French dubbed version called Le rappel de la terre. Also in Latin America, it was very successful.

Critics were not unanimous in their praise. Some rather praised Pittaluga's effort to raise the new national sound cinema and were less convinced by Blasetti's direction, claiming that in comparison with Sole, in Terra madre the landscape had lost their primitive, raw and pure beauty. Others, such as Leo Longanesi, considered Sole and Terra madre on a par, on equal height. Longanesi called it "a masterpiece of rural rhetoric, an oleograph of our times."


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 20. Photo: Cines-Pittaluga, Roma. Publicity still for Terra madre/Mother Earth (Alessandro Blasetti, 1931).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 30. Photo: Cines-Pittaluga, Roma. Leda Gloria in Terra madre/Mother Earth (Alessandro Blasetti, 1931).

Source: Wikipedia (Italian and English) and IMDb.