Lido Manetti a.k.a. Arnold Kent

Italian actor Lido Manetti (1899-1928) had a prolific career as a young leading man in Italian silent cinema. He was brought to America and renamed Arnold Kent, but he died before living up to his promise.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 537A.


'Foreign' postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3382/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount. Arnold Kent in Beau Sabreur (John Waters, 1928).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3673/1, 1928-1929. Photo: United Artists. Lido Manetti (Arnold Kent) in The Woman Disputed (Henry King, Sam Taylor, 1928).

Male love interest

Lido Manetti was born in Florence, Italy in 1899 (according to all our sources, but this must be a mistake, looking at his film curriculum with his first leading film roles already in 1917). He studied civil engineering, but entered the theatre and then films subsequently to his schooling. His first Italian film was probably La principessa/The Princess (Camillo De Riso, 1917) starring diva Leda Gys for Caesar Film.

From then on, Manetti would be the male love interest in many diva-like films such as Il processo Clemenceau/The Clemenceau Affair (Alfredo De Antoni, 1917) and Malia/Liliana (Alfredo De Antoni, 1917), both with Francesca Bertini, and La passagera/The Passager (Gero Zambuto, 1917) with Pina Menichelli. In 1918 followed Addio giovinezza/Good-bye Youth (Augusto Genina, 1918) with both Maria Jacobini and Helena Makowska, Femmina/Female (Augusto Genina, 1918) with Italia Almirante Manzini, and L’onestà del peccato/The Wife He Neglected (Augusto Genina, 1918) with Maria Jacobini.

The next year saw Una donna funesta/A Baleful Woman (Camillo De Riso, 1919) with Tilde Kassay, Il bacio di Dorina/The Kiss of Dorina (Giulio Antamoro, 1919) with Lina Millefleurs, La signora delle rose/The Lady of the Roses (Diana Karenne, 1919) starring Diana Karenne herself, and La fiamma e il cenere/The Flame and the Ashes (Giulio Antamoro), 1919 with Karenne again.

Memorable titles from the early 1920s were Amore rosso/Red Love (Gennaro Righelli, 1921) and La preda/The Prey (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1921), both co-starring Maria Jacobini and Amleto Novelli, La statua di carne/The Statue of Meat (Mario Almirante, 1921) with Italia Almirante Manzini, Il richiamo/The Call (Gennaro Righelli, 1921) with Maria Jacobini, La madre folle/Through the Shadows (Carmine Gallone, 1923) with Soava Gallone, La leggenda delle Dolomiti/The Legend of the Dolomites (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1920) and Povere bimbe/Poor Girls (Giovanni Pastrone, 1924) both with Linda Pini.

The plot of La statua di carne looks a bit like Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958) and its literary predecessor, Bruges-la-Morte by Georges Rodenbach. Well-to-do Paul has an affair with simple, innocent flower shop girl Mary until she dies of a weak heart. He meets Noemi, an eccentric femme fatale who is the spitting image of Mary, and who agrees to pose for him every day as Mary. Noemi falls in love with Paul, but cannot stand that he doesn’t love her, but only the deceased Mary. In contrast to Rodenbach, here the man doesn’t kill the lookalike, but he duels for her with her ex-lover. In the end, he wins the duel but also admits his love for Noemi.


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Milano, no. 142. Photo: Lido Manetti, Ruggero Capodaglio and Maria Jacobini in Addio giovinezza/Good-bye Youth (Augusto Genina, 1918), a silent film adaptation of the play by Sandro Camasio and Nino Oxilia.


Italian postcard, no. 430. Photo: Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in Addio giovinezza/Good-bye Youth (Augusto Genina, 1918).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 67. Publicity still of Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in Il richiamo/The Call (Gennaro Righelli, 1921). A print of this film is in the Komiya Collection at the National Film Center in Tokyo. A restored version was shown at the festival Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna in 2012.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Italia Almirante Manzini, Lido Manetti and Oreste Bilancia in the closing scene of La statua di carne/The Statue of Meat (Mario Almirante, 1921).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Italia Almirante Manzini and Lido Manetti in La chiromante/The Fortune Teller (Mario Almirante, 1921).

Car accident on a Hollywood street

Lido Manetti also performed in strongman films such as Saetta, principe per un giorno/Saetta, Prince for a Day (Mario Camerini, 1924) starring Domenico Gambino alias Saetta, and Maciste contro lo sceicco/Maciste against the Sheikh (Mario Camerini, 1926) starring Bartolomeo Pagano as Maciste. It would be one of his last Italian films.

While he had a small part as Roman Guard in the epic Quo vadis? (Gabriellino d’Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924) starring Emil Jannings as Nero, Manetti had major parts in films such as Il focolare spento/The Extinguished Fire (Augusto Genina, 1925) with Carmen Boni and La bocca chiusa/The Closed Mouth (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925) starring Maria Jacobini.

In La bocca chiusa, Manetti plays a British duke who seduces a poor country girl (Jacobini). Her stepfather (Augusto Poggioli) sells her child to the duke, making her believe the child died. With the money, he embellishes his house, but when the girl finds out, she goes mad, burns down the house and becomes a wanderer. Twenty years later, her son (Manetti again) lovingly takes her into his service, not knowing who she is. She recognises a picture, though, and not wanting to destroy his happiness, she silently goes away. At that time, the Italian film production was in decline, and when Manetti was spotted by a Universal studio talent scout in 1925, he moved to Hollywood. He played a small part in The Love Thief (John McDermott, 1926) starring Norman Kerry and Greta Nissen.

After two more small roles in Universal productions, he signed a contract with Paramount. He was renamed with the less ethnic stage name Arnold Kent and got male leads or major supporting roles in films like The World at Her Feet (Luther Reed, 1927) with Florence Vidor, The Woman on Trial (Mauritz Stiller, 1927) with Pola Negri, Hula (Victor Fleming, 1928) starring It-girl Clara Bow, and the adventure film Beau Sabreur (John Waters, 1928) starring Gary Cooper.

Handsome Kent appeared often in the fan magazines, and the rising young star bought a La Salle standard seven-passenger sedan. He was playing a prominent role in the adventure film The Four Feathers (Merian C. Cooper, Lothar Mendes, Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1929) when one evening a car driven by a film extra struck him on a Hollywood street. Arnold Kent, aka Lido Manetti, died of injuries from the road accident. He was replaced in the film and his scenes were reshot (probably with Theodore Von Eltz). He had been considered for a role in Mary Pickford’s Coquette (1929) at the time of his death. Actor Matt Moore later portrayed this role in a film that won Pickford an Oscar. The last film in which Arnold Kent is credited was the part-talkie The Woman Disputed (Henry King, Sam Taylor, 1928) with Norma Talmadge.


Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori, Bologna, no. 348.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano (La Fotominio), no. 355. Photo: A.P. Film. Rina de Liguoro and Lido Manetti in La via del peccato/The Way of Sin (Amleto Palermi, 1925).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano (La Fotominio), no. 361. Rina de Liguoro and Lido Manetti in La via del peccato/The Way of Sin (Amleto Palermi, 1925).


Italian postcard, no. 511. Photo: FERT. Lido Manetti in Maciste contro lo sceicco (Mario Camerini, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3382/1, 1928-1929. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1929. Photo: Paramount. Arnold Kent in Beau Sabreur (John Waters, 1928).

Sources: Jim Beaver (IMDb), Hans J. Wollstein (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Wikipedia (French and English) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 27 April 2025.

Addio giovinezza! (1918)

Augusto Genina's silent film Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth (1918) 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 (Lido Manetti) begins a romance with a seamstress, Dorina (Maria Jacobini), however he is lured away by a sophisticated older woman (Helena Makowska) to Dorina's distress.


Italian postcard by Ed. G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 142. Photo: Itala Film. Lido Manetti, Ruggero Capodaglio and Maria Jacobini in Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth! (Augusto Genina, 1918).


Italian postcard by Ed. G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 430. Photo: Itala Film. Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth! (Augusto Genina, 1918).


Italian postcard by Ed. G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 431. Photo: Itala Film. Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth! (Augusto Genina, 1918).


Italian postcard by Ed. G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 429. Photo: Itala Film. Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth! (Augusto Genina, 1918).


Italian postcard by Ed. G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 1048. Photo: Itala Film. Maria Jacobini in Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth! (Augusto Genina, 1918).

Maria Jacobini's tribute to her killed boyfriend

Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth (1918) was adapted from the 1911 play of the same name by Nino Oxilia and Sandro Camasio. The play had already been adapted to film in 1913 for Itala Film and directed by Camasio and would be adapted (directed again by Genina) in 1927, while a sound version was done in 1940 by Ferdinando Maria Poggioli. Giuseppe Pietri also turned the same play into a popular stage operetta in 1915.

Augusto Genina was also responsible for the script. Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth is set in Turin at the beginning of the twentieth century. Mario, a student (Lido Manetti), begins a romance with a seamstress, Dorina (Maria Jacobini), the daughter of his landlady. However, he is lured away by a sophisticated older woman (Helena Makowska) to Dorina's distress. With the help of Leone, Mario's friend, Dorina manages to have a talk with Elena, convincing her to give up the boy.

Elena, the lady, is willing to give up Mario after hearing the pleas of Dorina, but Mario, arriving too late, becomes angry with Dorina and leaves her. After many comical and dramatic scenes, misunderstandings, love and quarrels, Mario and Dorina say goodbye after his graduation before he returns to his natal town.

Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth (1918) was produced by Itala Film of Turin. Shooting of the film started a few months after the death of Nino Oxilia. Oxilia, who should have directed the film, fell in battle at the age of twenty-eight on Mount Tomba on 18 November 1917 and was substituted by Genina. Maria Jacobini, who had been Oxilia's girlfriend, was the star of the film. The work was heralded in the press as a tribute to Oxilia by the diva and their friend, director Augusto Genina.

On its release (6 December 1918), in a very difficult historical period (the war had just ended), Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth! was not as successful as hoped. While in Europe all prints and even the camera negative of Addio giovinezza were lost, a copy found its way, most likely in the 1920s, into the collection of Tomjiro Komiya, a restaurateur in Tokyo and a great fan of European cinema from the 1910s. After being restored by the Cineteca di Bologna in collaboration with the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin and the National Film Center in Tokyo, it was presented in 2014 at the Festival del Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna.


Spanish cromo (collector card) by Chocolate Imperiale, card 1 of 6. Photo: Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona / Itala Film. Maria Jacobini in Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth! (Augusto Genina, 1918). The Spanish release title was Adios, juventud!


Spanish collector card by Chocolate Imperiale, card 2 of 6. Photo: J. Verdaguer, Barcelona / Itala Film. Helena Makowska and Lido Manetti in Addio giovinezza/Goodbye Youth! (Augusto Genina, 1918).


Spanish collector card by Chocolate Imperiale, card 3 of 6. Photo: Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona / Itala Film. Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth! (Augusto Genina, 1918).


Spanish collector card by Chocolate Imperiale, card 4 of 6. Photo: Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona / Itala Film. Maria Jacobini and Helena Makowska in Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth! (Augusto Genina, 1918).


Spanish collector card by Chocolate Imperiale, card 5 of 6. Photo: Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Maria Jacobini and Helena Makowska in Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth! (Augusto Genina, 1918).


Spanish collector card by Chocolate Imperiale, card 6 of 6. Photo: J. Verdaguer, Barcelona / Itala Film. Maria Jacobini in Addio giovinezza/Goodbye Youth! (Augusto Genina, 1918).

Another discovery

The rediscovery of Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth! (1918) led to a further discovery: Claudia Gianetto, then head of the film archive of the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin, recognised Segundo de Chomón in a shot together with Jacobini at minute 01:08:06:23 of Addio giovinezza!. This would be the only film fragment in which the famous film pioneer and special effects master of the silent classic Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone, 1914) is immortalised.

In 2016, a study on Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth! (1918) was published in which author Patrizia Deabate pointed out how director Augusto Genina had realised a kind of wartime actualisation of the story, inserting an implicit parallelism between the farewell to love of the seamstress Dorina and the real one of Maria Jacobini, who had tragically lost her partner.

Indeed, at the time of its first release, G. Lega already wrote in the journal La Cine-Fono: "Today with the beautiful, pure face of Maria Jacobini you [Dorina] have returned for us. And this singular actress, first among the first, was able to give you all her faith as a woman, all her aristocratic finesse as a performer. [...]

We have lost many things with you, Dorina; and also many very precious things. Behind the flowering gardens of our dying hopes open boundless cemeteries and our surviving youth has gone away with you. [...] And, almost, today one can no longer weep over memories because the strong people - the ones in charge - say it is cowardice. Everything, you know, Dorina, everything today is forbidden to us. Even loving. Mario was much happier than us, even in his tremendous pain; and his 'goodbye' is for us, now."

In 2020 Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth! (1918) was included in a DVD box with four films by Augusto Genina, released by Il Cinema Ritrovato, which also includes the 1927 version starring Carmen Boni. The box, 'Augusto Genina. Il prezzo della bellezza/The Price of Beauty', curated by Mariann Lewinsky and Andrea Meneghelli, also contains La maschera e il volto (1919), with Italia Almirante Manzini, and Prix de beauté (1930), with Louise Brooks.


Spanish postcard by Leonar. Union universal de correos. Photo: Itala Film. Maria Jacobini in Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth! (Augusto Genina, 1918).


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


Romanian postcard. Clara Calamai as the rich seductress Elena in Addio, giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth! (Ferdinando Maria Poggioli, 1940).

Sources: Gian Luca Farinelli and Claudia Gianetto (Il Cinema Ritrovato), Wikipedia (Italian and English) and IMDb.

La via del peccato (1925)

Despite the title and an all-star cast, the Italian silent drama La via del peccato/The Way of Sin (Amleto Palermi, 1925) is quite an incoherent and tame film. The postcards promise wild scenes in the underworld with femme fatales and Apache dance, but none of it can be seen in the film. Whatever happened between filming and the premiere?


Italian postcard by Edizione G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 340. Photo: La Fotominio / A.P. Film. Rina de Liguoro in La via del peccato/The Way of Sin (Amleto Palermi, 1925).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 355. Photo: La Fotominio / A.P. Film. Rina De Liguoro and Lido Manetti in La via del peccato/The Way of Sin (Amleto Palermi, 1925).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 361. Photo: La Fotominio / A.P. Film. Rina de Liguoro and Lido Manetti in La via del peccato/The Way of Sin (Amleto Palermi, 1925).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 362. Photo: La Fotominio / A.P. Film. Rina de Liguoro and Lido Manetti in La via del peccato/The Way of Sin (Amleto Palermi, 1925).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 364. Photo: La Fotominio / A.P. Film. Emilio Ghione and Kally Sambucini in La via del peccato/The Way of Sin (Amleto Palermi, 1925). Sambucini's first name is misspelt on the card.

A terrible nightmare

For La via del peccato/The Way of Sin (1925), A.P. film had contracted an all-star cast. There are even two divas in the film, Soava Gallone and Rina De Liguoro. But also stars like Ruggero Ruggeri, Gustavo Serena, Mario Bonnard, Cecyl Tryan, Luigi Serventi, Lido Manetti (later known in the US as Arnold Kent), Mary-Cléo Tarlarini and Lamberto Picasso, appear in the film.

Ruggero Ruggeri stars as Marco Selva, who presumedly died in prison. After six years, he suddenly returns home and finds his fiancee Giovanna (Soava Gallone) married to his best friend (Gustavo Serena). He concocts a ruse to separate her from her husband and children and he nearly manages to do so. She is almost in doubt whether to give in, following her ex-lover to America.

While Marco is booking a cabin, Giovanna falls asleep and has a terrible nightmare. Her house is destroyed, and her husband and she have died. Their children first well cared for, grow up and become reckless, caught by adventures and morbid passions. They gradually descend into vice, even crime, leading to the woman (probably Diomira Jacobini) being assassinated by her companions and the man (probably Lido Manetti) being killed by the guillotine. Awakened, Giovanna decides to flee from her old flame and returns home, while. Marco leaves for faraway places to construct a life of his own.

On our postcards, there are no pictures of Ruggero Ruggeri or Diomira Jacobini. The film's publicity stills rather focused on Rina De Liguoro as a femme fatale. They also show Emilio Ghione and Kally Sambucini, who were famous for their underworld characters Za-la-Mort and Za-la-vie. Most postcards seem to deal with Giovanna's dream.

Reportedly, the filmmakers had spiced up the nightmare with lurid scenes of the underworld and even nudity. The result was immediately annulled by the Italian censor. All sinful scenes were cut. It made the film that finally was presented in the cinemas quite incoherent and tame and it was not a success. Perhaps someday a restoration of the film including the censored scenes, may raise a new appreciation for this film. Anyway, Soava Gallone and Emilio Ghione were much more successful in their subsequent film, La cavalcata ardente/The Fiery Cavalcade (Carmine Gallone, 1925), a historical melodrama about the conquest of Naples by Garibaldi.


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 365. Photo: La Fotominio / A.P. Film. Soava Gallone and Gustavo Serena in La via del peccato/The Way of Sin (Amleto Palermi, 1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 369. Photo: La Fotominio / A.P. Film. Rina de Liguoro and Emilio Ghione performing a 'danse apache' in La via del peccato/The Way of Sin (Amleto Palermi, 1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 370. Photo: La Fotominio / A.P. Film. Rina de Liguoro and Emilio Ghione performing a 'danse apache' in La via del peccato/The Way of Sin (Amleto Palermi, 1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 387. Photo: La Fotominio / A.P. Film. Soava Gallone and Gustavo Serena in La via del peccato/The Way of Sin (Amleto Palermi, 1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 398. Photo: La Fotominio / A.P. Film. Emilio Ghione, Kally Sambucini, Rina De Liguoro and Lido Manetti in La via del peccato/The Way of Sin (Amleto Palermi, 1925).

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano, 1923-1931) and IMDb.

La bocca chiusa (1925)

Italian diva Maria Jacobini stars as a poor country girl in the silent drama La bocca chiusa/The closed mouth (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925). Lido Manetti aka Arnold Kent plays a British duke who seduces her. Later, her stepfather sells her child to the duke, making her believe the child died.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: SAIC. Publicity still of Maria Jacobini in La bocca chiusa/The closed mouth (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: SAIC. Publicity still of Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in La bocca chiusa/The closed mouth (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: SAIC. Publicity still of Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in La bocca chiusa/The closed mouth (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: SAIC. Publicity still of Maria Jacobini in La bocca chiusa/The closed mouth (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925).

The sad tale of a poor country girl

Director Guglielmo Zorzi himself wrote the story for La bocca chiusa//The closed mouth (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925). His film was produced by the S.A.I.C., which also produced La cavalcata ardente (Carmine Gallone, 1925) in the same year.

In La bocca chiusa, Lido Manetti plays a British duke who seduces a poor country girl (Maria Jacobini). Her stepfather (Augusto Poggioli) sells her child to the duke, making her believe the child died.

With the money, he embellishes his house, but when the girl finds out, she goes mad, burns down the house and becomes a wanderer.

Twenty years after, her son (Lido Manetti again) lovingly takes her into his service, not knowing who she is. She recognises a picture, though, and not wanting to destroy his happiness, she silently goes away.

Maria Jacobini (1892-1944) was an island of serenity among the divas of the Italian silent cinema,  as film historian Vittorio Martinelli expressed it. She was the personification of goodness, of simple love. Her weapon was her sweet and gracious smile.

Lido Manetti (1899-1928) also had a prolific career in the Italian silent cinema. He was then brought to Hollywood as a young leading man under the name of Arnold Kent. Sadly, he died before he could live up to his promise.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 348. Maria Jacobini in La bocca chiusa/The closed mouth (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. The film title on this card is a mystery. Maria Jacobini did not play in La via del peccato (Amleto Palermi 1925), but her sister Diomira Jacobini did. Maria acted in a film called L'onestà del peccato (Augusto Genina, 1918). But this is probably a card for La bocca chiusa/The closed mouth (1925), for the moment when the aged Maria, now a domestic to a lord, sees a childhood photo and realises her employer is her own son.



Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: SAIC. Publicity still of Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in La bocca chiusa/The closed mouth (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: SAIC. Publicity still of Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in La bocca chiusa/The closed mouth (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

La statua di carne (1921)

La statua di carne/The statue of flesh (1921) is a silent Italian film directed by Mario Almirante. The stars are his wife, diva Italia Almirante Manzini and Lido Manetti a.k.a. Arnold Kent. Italia Almirante plays a beautiful, worldly femme fatale, who falls in love with a man who has drunk all the cups of life. He finds in her, the memory of a dead woman he previously loved and to which the woman looks like a drop of water. He uses her as a statue of flesh.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 213. Italia Almirante, Bianca Renieri, Lido Manetti and Oreste Bilancia in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). After a wild night of slumming to chase the bad experience of his infidel upper-class girlfriend, count Paolo di Santa Flora (Manetti) with his rotund friend (Bilancia) meet early in the morning a group of lower-class girls going to work. Among them Maria (Almirante) and her friend (Renieri). The girls adopt the men, thinking they are poor artists, and offer them breakfast.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 215. Oreste Bilancia, Italia Almirante and Lido Manetti in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). After their first meeting, Paolo continues the charade to stay close to Maria. He pretends to be a poor artist. His friend knows why.

Different versions

La statua di carne/The statue of flesh was based on a stage play by Theobald Ciconi, which was adapted by Luciano Doria. The 1862 play had already been brought twice to the screen. The earlier film versions date from 1912 and 1919.

In 1943 director Camillo Mastrocinque implemented a new, naturalistic film edition of the play, La statua vivente/The Living Statue. The leads were played by Fosco Giachetti and Laura Solari.

A restored version of 67 minutes of La statua di carne (1921) was presented to the Pordenone Silent Film Festival of 1991. Another version of 75 minutes was presented by the Bologna Cinematheque at the Cinema Ritrovato festival 2010. Originally, the film was about 80 minutes.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 220. Bianca Renieri, Italia Almirante, Oreste Bilancia and Lido Manetti in the film La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). Rich but bored Count Paolo (Manetti) and his equally well-to-do friend (Bilancia) pretend to be quite penniless, in order to stay close to the girls of the flower-making atelier, in particular Maria (Almirante) and her friend (Renieri). The men even assist in the shop. From the extreme right to the left, this picture shows Manetti, Bilancia, Almirante, and Renieri working in the shop.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 104. Photo: La Fotominio. Italia Almirante in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). Maria secretly visits Paolo's apartment next door and brings him flowers.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no number. Photo: La Fotominio. Oreste Bilancia and Bianca Renieri in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). Paolo's friend reveals to Maria's friend he is not a poor bum but a wealthy aristocrat.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 243. Italia Almirante and Lido Manetti in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). Poor Maria is deeply in love with Paolo, at first unknowing he is a count who pretends to be a poor artist. She will die of tuberculosis, at the hands of Paolo.

The four main stars

Italia Almirante (1890-1941) was one of the divas of the Italian silent cinema. She starred in the classic epic Cabiria (1914).

Lido Manetti a.k.a. Arnold Kent (1899-1928) was an Italian actor who first had a prolific career in Italian silent cinema. Brought to America as a young leading man, he died before living up to his promise.

Bianca Renieri (?-1985) had a short but fruitful career in Italian silent cinema in the early 1920s. She worked as a supporting actress and antagonist opposite Francesca Bertini in La ferita (1920), Maddalena Ferat (1920), and Ultimo sogno (1924). Opposite Italia Almirante, she also appeared in I tre amanti (1921), Marthù che visto il diavolo (1921) and La maschera del male (1922). She also acted in films with Linda Pini and Diomira Jacobini, in the propaganda film Il grido dell'aquila (Mario Volpe 1923) and the Za-la-mort crime film Quale dei due? (Emilio Ghione, 1922). Her last part was the female lead in Contessina (Arturo Gallea, 1925).

Oreste Bilancia (1881-1945) was an Italian stage and film actor, who was highly active in Italian silent and sound cinema and German late silent film. He mostly worked as a supporting actor, but occasionally he played the lead.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 94. Photo: La Fotominio. Italia Almirante and Lido Manetti in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). Count Paolo's first night back in society after Maria's death provides him with a shock. He meets an elegant masked lady, Noemi Keller, the toast of the town. She agrees to cheer him up. In a room in the theatre, she takes off her mask and proves to be the spitting image of Maria.


 Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 250. Italia Almirante in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). Rich, mundane, and femme fatale Noemi Keller considers the offer done to her by count Paolo: to live in a splendid villa and in recompense sit in front of him one hour every day.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 52. Photo: Fotominio. Italia Almirante in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). Noemi Keller notices the painted portrait of her lookalike Maria, who has died and whom the painter, count Paolo, is still loving, through Noemi.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 47. Photo: Fotominio. Italia Almirante and Alberto Collo in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). Noemi Keller's old flame begs her to give up her charade for Paolo, sitting each day like a statue in front of him, as she is the spitting image of his lost love Maria. But Naomi cannot give up, as she is developing a crush for Paolo.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Italia Almirante in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). Noemi considers whether she should stop the charade for Paolo.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 99. Italia Almirante and Alberto Collo in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante 1921). Noemi Keller's old flame tries to let her give up her golden cage and get back to social life, but she refuses.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 49. Photo: Fotominio. Italia Almirante, Lido Manetti and Oreste Bilancia in the closing scene of La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). Paolo has fought a duel with Noemi's former lover. Noemi goes berserk when seeing the duel and throws herself in Paolo's arms. He then finally recognizes her as herself and not anymore as the lookalike, and opens his heart to her too. Diplomatically, Paolo's friend takes the doctor away, leaving the couple to themselves.

Sources: Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 10 June 2021.