La moglie di Claudio (1918)

Fascinating and enigmatic Pina Menichelli (1890-1984) was the most bizarre Italian diva of the silent era. She impersonated a striking femme fatale in La moglie di Claudio / Claude's Wife (1918), based on 'La femme de Claude' by Alexandre Dumas fils.


Italian postcard by Ed. G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 36. Pina Menichelli in La moglie di Claudio / Claude's Wife (Gero Zambuto, 1918).


Italian postcard. Pina Menichelli and Alberto Nepoti in La moglie di Claudio / Claude's Wife (Gero Zambuto, 1918).


Italian postcard by Vettori Bologna, no. 426. Pina Menichelli in her dress from La moglie di Claudio / Claude's Wife (Gero Zambuto, 1918).

A whirlwind of passion and death

In La moglie di Claudio / Claude's Wife (1918), Pina Menichelli stars as Cesarina, the charming but unfaithful wife of inventor Claudio Ruper (Vittorio Rossi-Pianelli). The two do not divorce because of Claudio's religious beliefs, but they live like strangers.

Her cold reaction to the death of her illegitimate son, who until then had been kept hidden by a couple of peasants, reveals her true nature to her husband. It convinces him to break off all contact with her except for the cohabitation imposed by bourgeois decorum.

From that moment on, Claudio, an inventor of war machinery, devotes himself completely to his work. While his wife lives her free life, he plans the construction of a powerful new weapon to put at the service of his homeland, France.

Antonino (Alberto Nepoti), a young man of no means whom he had brought up as his son, assists him in the undertaking. The new invention, a cannon of exceptional power, attracts the attention of a powerful secret society, which commissions a spy, Moncabrè, to seduce Cesarina into handing over her husband's documents. The spy blackmails Cesarina, threatening to reveal her affair with Antonino, Claudio's young pupil, if she does not help him steal her husband's invention.

However, the conspirators have not reckoned with the perverse allure of the woman. Claudio is warned by a loyal servant. In a whirlwind of passion and death, events precipitate towards a tragic finale.


Italian postcard by Vettori, no. 3033. Photo: Itala. Pina Menichelli and Vittorio Rossi-Pianelli in La moglie di Claudio / Claude's Wife (Gero Zambuto, 1918).


Italian postcard by Vettori, no. 3035. Photo: Itala. Pina Menichelli and Vittorio Rossi-Pianelli in La moglie di Claudio / Claude's Wife (Gero Zambuto, 1918).


Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 461. Photo: Itala. Pina Menichelli and Alberto Nepoti in La moglie di Claudio / Claude's Wife (Gero Zambuto, 1918).

The evil female who undermines society

Fascinating and enigmatic Pina Menichelli (1890-1984) was the most bizarre Italian diva of the silent era. Some of the most significant titles in the diva film genre derive from Menichelli's encounter with film pioneer  Giovanni Pastrone, the studio head of Itala Film. After the actress became successful, she tried to distance herself from the role of the femme fatale, but she revisited it in La moglie di Claudio, her final collaboration with Pastrone.

La moglie di Claudio / Claude's Wife (Gero Zambuto, 1918) was based on 'La femme de Claude' by Alexandre Dumas fils. The film begins with a quote from Dumas's preface: "The characters in La moglie di Claudio / Claude's Wife are symbols. Claudio Ruper is not only a great mechanic, an inventor, a man, but he is 'Man' in the grand sense of the word. He is the Frenchman who has suffered in his soul and in that of others, who has risen above, who has a tenacious will and goes straight to his goal: the reconstitution of his dismembered homeland."

35 years later, a clip with Pina Menichelli from the film was shown in Luigi Comencini's La valigia dei sogni / The Suitcase of Dreams (1953), but in the following decades, the film seemed lost.

In 2011, La moglie di Claudio / Claude's Wife was found and restored by Museo nazionale del cinema in Turin and Cineteca di Bologna. The restoration was carried out using a positive nitrate copy, tinted and toned, with French captions, from the Lobster Films Collection in Paris. The copy, currently the only known existing copy from that period, is a French re-release distributed by the Vitagraph branch in Paris. A digital restoration of this tinted film followed in 2017.

When the film was shown in 2018 at Il Cinema Ritrovato, Claudia Gianetto wrote in the festival catalogue: "After attempting to reconquer her husband, seducing his favourite student and stealing secret documents, Cesarina is betrayed and unmasked by the light of a ‘damned moon’; then Claudio stops her with a gunshot. Menichelli rewards us with a textbook ending: mortally wounded, she grasps the curtains sensuously before falling to the floor enveloped in their folds, as if wrapped in a funeral shroud ." Dumas: "...the evil female who undermines society, dissolves the family, dismembers the country, weakens the man, dishonours the woman whose appearance she assumes and destroys those who do not crush her".


Italian postcard by Vettori, no. 3037. Photo: Itala. Pina Menichelli and Vittorio Rossi-Pianelli in La moglie di Claudio / Claude's Wife (Gero Zambuto, 1918).


Italian postcard by Vettori, no. 3039. Photo: Itala. Pina Menichelli and Vittorio Rossi-Pianelli in La moglie di Claudio / Claude's Wife (Gero Zambuto, 1918).


Italian postcard, no. 357. Photo: Itala. Pina Menichelli and Alberto Nepoti in La moglie di Claudio / Claude's Wife (Gero Zambuto, 1918). Cesarina seduces Antonino in opening her husband's safe to her...

Sources: Claudia Gianetto (Il Cinema Ritrovato), Museo Nazionale del Cinema, Torino (Italian), Portale cinema muto italiano (Italian), Film Affinity, Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.

You can watch the film on the website of Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin.

Let your hair hang down!

On 20-21 April 2023, Elisa Uffreduzzi (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow Université Libre de Bruxelles) organises the workshop 'Dance, Acting, Movement and Gestural Patterns in Silent Cinema' at Eye Collection Center, Amsterdam.

EFSP co-editor Ivo Blom will give the presentation 'Her/Hair Affairs', on conventions, personal vocabularies, and gestures in silent cinema related to hair. It involves such films as Malombra (1917) with Lyda Borelli, La storia di una donna (1920) with Pina Menichelli, Shoes (1916) by Lois Weber, and Grezy/Daydreams (1915) by Yevgeni Bauer. Other speakers will be e.g. Rachel Morley, Laurent Guido, Kristina Köhler, Marketa Uhrilova, Asli Özgen, Dominique Nasta, Vito Adriaensens, and Uffreduzzi herself.

Here at EFSP, Ivo gives you a preview of his presentation.


German postcard by GG, no. 2428/11. Henny Porten: ethereal girl, long hair and horse.

Sturdy and blond Henny Porten (1890-1960) was one of Germany's most essential and famous film actresses of silent cinema. She became the quintessence of German womanhood, ladylike yet kindhearted and a not a little petit bourgeois. She was also the producer of many of her own films.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 64/3. Photo: Messter-Film, no. 37. Henny Porten with hair pinned up.


Italian postcard, no. 471. Photo: Attilio Badodi. Lyda Borelli: what a profile, what an exquisite dress (Paul Poiret?), what long hair!

Lyda Borelli (1887-1959) was already an acclaimed stage actress before she became the first diva of Italian silent cinema. The fascinating film star caused a craze among female fans called 'Borellismo'.


Italian postcard by Photo Ed. Soc. Anon. It. Bettini, Roma, no. 118. Photo: Riccardo Bettini. Again, Lyda Borelli and long hair.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 331. Photo: Fontana. Vera Vergani, long hair.

Vera Vergani (1894–1989) was an Italian stage and film actress. She not only performed in the first stagings of Luigi Pirandello’s plays but in 1916-1921 she also knew a career as an actress in Italian silent cinema.


Italian postcard by Photo Ed. Soc. Anon. It. Bettini, Roma, no. 117. Photo: Riccardo Bettini. Soava Gallone, long hair (Was it one of Bettini's fixations?)

Polish actress Soava Gallone (1880-1957) was one of the divas of Italian silent cinema.


Spanish cromo (collectors card) by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 6 of 6. Photo: Sabaudo Film / distr. J. Verdaguer. Diana Karenne in Lea (Diana Karenne, Salvatore Aversano, 1916). Diana Karenne, long hair.

Polish actress Diana Karenne (1888-1940) was one of the divas of Italian silent cinema. Between 1916 and 1920, Karenne fascinated European audiences with her eccentric dresses and make-up, and with her primadonna behaviour.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 86/4. Photo: National Film. Biblical long hair: Jacqueline Logan in The King of Kings (Cecil B. DeMille, 1927). Caption: Mary Magdalene dries Jesus' feet.

Jacqueline Logan (1901-1983) was an American actress on the silent screen. Her most famous part is that of Mary Magdalene in The King of Kings (1927) by Cecil B. DeMille.


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 327. Mary Pickford's long hair.

Mary Pickford (1892-1972) was a legendary silent film actress and was known as 'America’s sweetheart.' She was a founder of United Artists and helped establish the Academy.


British postcard in the 'Pictures' Portrait Gallery, London. The girly look, Goldilocks: Mary Miles Minter.

Mary Miles Minter (1902-1984) was an American silent screen actress who grew into a rival of Mary Pickford. In 1919 she made her most famous film, Anne of Green Gables (presumably a lost film), with director William Desmond Taylor. The film became a huge success, as a result of which Taylor started to promote the actress.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1531. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin. Backfisch and braids: Rita Clermont.

Rita Clermont (1894-1969) was a German film actress of the silent era. She received her first contract from Messter Film. Franz Hofer directed her in a series of similar cheerful stories, in which she mimed flappers, 'backfisches' and cheerful, rebellious girls. Until 1924, she appeared in 60 silent films.


German postcard by Verlag Hans Dursthoff, Berlin, no. 997. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin / Oliver Film. Backfisch and locks: Dorrit Weixler.

German silent film actress Dorrit Weixler (1892-1916) anticipated such better-known comedy stars of the German cinema as Ossi Oswalda and Anny Ondra. Her popular roles were the temperamental teenager or the tomboy in a sailor suit who is tamed by the 'right man'. The career of the bright and light comedienne was like a candle burning on both sides.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 614. Olive Borden, from long black curly hair to a bob cut.

Stunning Olive Borden (1906-1947) was considered one of the most beautiful actresses of the silent era. At 15, she started as a Mack Sennett bathing beauty and reached the peak of her career in 1926 when she made 11 films for Fox Studios and was earning $1,500 a week. She was nicknamed "the Joy Girl", after playing the lead in the 1927 film of that same title, but soon her career waned.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1665/3, 1927-1928. Photo: FaNaMet (or ParUfaMet). Pola Negri bob cut.

Polish film actress Pola Negri (1897-1987) achieved notoriety as a femme fatale in German and American silent films between the 1910s and 1930s. In the late 1910s and the 1920s, she achieved notoriety as a femme fatale in silent films in Poland, Berlin, and Hollywood. Negri was an overnight sensation in Ernst Lubitsch's Madame du Barry/Passion (1919). Her vamp roles were so popular that she was a direct rival of Theda Bara, and lived in a Hollywood palace, modelled after the White House.


Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 566/2. Photo: First-National-Film. Publicity still for The Desert Flower (Irving Cummings, 1925). Flapper & bob cut: Colleen Moore.

American actress Colleen Moore (1899-1988) was a star of the silent screen who appeared in about 100 films beginning in 1917. During the 1920s, she put her stamp on American social history, creating in dozens of films the image of the wide-eyed, insouciant flapper with her bobbed hair and short skirts.


Italian postcard for Malombra (Carmine Gallone 1917), adapted from the novel by Antonio Fogazzaro, and starring Lyda Borelli and Amleto Novelli. IPA CT Duplex. Film Cines. Caption: ...at that moment she felt her waist held by the powerful hands of Silla, who lifted her back up the stairs. Hairs signals. Letting her hair down: Lyda Borelli in Malombra.


Spanish minicard (collectors card) by Reclam Films, Mallorca, no. 5 of 6 cards. Photo: Cines. Lyda Borelli in La donna nuda (Carmine Gallone, 1914). Letting her hair down: Borelli in La donna nuda.


Spanish postcard by Amattler Marca Luna chocolate, series 7, no. 19. Lyda Borelli as Queen Maria Teresa in Carnevalesca (Amleto Palermi, 1918). Queen Maria Teresa, flees the castle after having unjustly killed her husband. Letting her hair down: Lyda Borelli in Carnevalesca (1918).


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 6 of 6. Photo: Rinascimento Film. Pina Menichelli in Il giardino incantato/The Stronger Sex (Eugenio Perego, 1918). The film was originally entitled 'Il giardino della voluttà', a title which the Spanish cards on the film kept, but which became forbidden by the Italian censor. Pina Menichelli & touching hair.

Fascinating and enigmatic Pina Menichelli (1890-1984) was the most bizarre Italian diva of the silent era. With her contorted postures and disdainful expression, she impersonated the striking femme fatale.


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 5 of 6. Photo: Rinascimento Film. Pina Menichelli and Luigi Serventi in Il giardino incantato/The Stronger Sex (Eugenio Perego, 1918). Pina Menichelli & touching hair.


Italian postcard. Pina Menichelli with her hair unbound (danger ahead!).


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Amattler, Marca Luna, series 4, no. 17. Photo: Caesar Film. Francesca Bertini in Malìa (Alfredo De Antoni, 1917). The Spanish title for this film was Liliana. The portrait photos in this series were by Pinto, Rome. Francesca Bertini, unwinded long hair, after being raped and tattooed against her will, in Malía (a ripoff of The Cheat).


British postcard by Cinema Chat. Photo: Transatlantic (Universal's European distribution branch). Pinning up her hair: Mary MacLaren in Shoes (1918). The card is not from Shoes, sadly.

Mary MacLaren (1896–1985) was an American film actress. Mary was launched in 1916 in the lead of Shoes which tells about the desperate measures of a girl, selling her body for shoes. A successful film career, including a role as Anne of Austria, Queen of France, in Fred Niblo's The Three Musketeers (1921), starring Douglas Fairbanks.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 663. Elena Sangro as the Empress Poppea in the epic film Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924/1925), a production of UCI (Unione Cinematografica Italiana). Wigs: Elena Sangro in Quo vadis? (1924).

Elena Sangro (1896-1969) was one of the main actresses of the Italian cinema of the 1920s. In spite of the general film crisis then, she made one film after another. She was also one of the first female directors and she had a famous affair with the 64-year-old poet Gabriele D'Annunzio.

Notes

For Grezy/Daydreams (1915) see Silents Please and this gif.

For La moglie di Claudio with Menichelli, see Silents Please and this gif.

For the scene in Malombra with the metamorphosis, see YouTube, from 19:17 to 21:22.

See Shoes on the Eye Player. From 37:10: Mary binds her hair when she is going to prostitute herself. Her look in the mirror tells all: she knows what's coming. Till 37:55.

Five Pina Menichelli films: La trilogia di Dorina (1918), La passeggera (1918), Gemma di Sant'Eremo (1918), Una sventatella (1918) and Il giardino incantato (1918)

Pina Menichelli (1890-1984) was the most bizarre Italian diva of the silent era. With her contorted postures and disdainful expression, she impersonated the striking femme fatale. Today, EFSP presents five films with the fascinating and enigmatic diva: La trilogia di Dorina/The Dorina Trilogy, La passeggera/The Passenger, Gemma di Sant'Eremo/The Gem of St. Hermitage, Una sventatella/A guttersnipe and Il giardino incantato/The Stronger Sex. All five were presented in 1918.


Italian postcard by La Rotofotografia, no. 33. Photo: Rinoscimento Film.


Italian postcard by Fotocelere, Torino, no. 44.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 459.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 719.


French postcard in the Les Vedettes du Cinéma series by Editions Filma, no. 7. Photo: Super-Film.

La trilogia di Dorina (1918)

Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 1 of 9. Photo: Itala Film / Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Pina Menichelli in La trilogia di Dorina Gero Zambuto, 1918), based on the eponymous play by Gerolamo Rovetta.


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 2 of 9. Photo: Itala Film / Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Alberto Nepoti and Pina Menichelli in La trilogia di Dorina Gero Zambuto, 1918), based on the eponymous play by Gerolamo Rovetta.


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 3 of 9. Photo: Itala Film / Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Scene from La trilogia di Dorina Gero Zambuto, 1918), based on the eponymous play by Gerolamo Rovetta. Probably this card depicts Dorina's parents, a once bourgeois couple that hit poverty. Unknown is who the actors are. It could also represent the moment Dorina is kicked out of the house of the marchioness. The woman depicted is not Mary-Cléo Tarlarini, who plays the marchioness.


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 4 of 9. Photo: Itala Film / Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Pina Menichelli in La trilogia di Dorina (Gero Zambuto, 1918). The man could be the musician/choir leader (Gabriel Moreau) who helps her and discovers she is a talented singer.

Because of the sad economical conditions of her parents, the well-bred Dorina (Pina Menichelli) is forced to work as a private teacher with an austere marchioness (Mary-Cléo Tarlarini). She falls in love with the marchioness' son Niccolò (Alberto Nepoti), but the mother, afraid of marriage below her status, chases the girl. Welcomed by a musician (Gabriel Moreau) who discovers she has a beautiful voice, she receives an offer from an impresario (Antonio Monti), on condition she becomes his mistress. Offended, she refuses.

Accompanied by an older friend, don Luigi D'Albano (Vittorio Rossi-Pianelli), Niccolò, who has become rich, offers her money if she comes and lives with him. Even if still in love with him, she refuses the offer. D'Albano, profiting from the young man's loss, offers her his protection, becomes her friend, and launches her as an artist. Once she has become famous, Dorina enjoys the applause of the theatre audiences and the homages of all her admirers. Among them is Niccolò, now really in love with her. And Dorina, for whom success has not gone to her head, is now happy to accept the true love that Niccolò offers.

La trilogia di Dorina/The Dorina Trilogy (Gero Zambuto, 1918) was scripted by Giovanni Pastrone, who previously had launched Menichelli as the star in Il fuoco/The Fire (Giovanni Pastrone, 1915) and Tigre reale/The Royal Tigress (Giovanni Pastrone, 1916). In the latter film, Alberto Nepoti had already been her co-actor. Giovanni Tomatis and Segundo De Chomon were hired to care of the cinematography. The film had its premiere in Rome on 13 April 1918.

While Il fuoco had been a milestone, the press was disappointed about La trilogia di Dorina, hoping for more, but also expecting something closer to the original play. The role of Dorina, one critic wrote, was unfit for Menichelli, whose exuberance was so different from the part. While the male actors expressed elegance, their performance was considered rather on the heavy side.

Also, the mise-en-scene looked as if the film was made in too great haste, hoping for a fast reprise of the success of the previous two films with Menichelli. Perhaps the hand of Pastrone as director was missed. Still, this was what the press wrote at the time. Once this now-lost film will show up again, we may judge with our own eyes. Until then, we only have these images.


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 5 of 9. Photo: Itala Film / Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Pina Menichelli in La trilogia di Dorina (Gero Zambuto, 1918). The man may be Antonio Monti, who plays the impresario.


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 8 of 9. Photo: Itala Film / Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Pina Menichelli in La trilogia di Dorina Gero Zambuto, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 9 of 9. Photo: Itala Film / Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Pina Menichelli, Alberto Nepoti and Vittorio Rossi-Pianelli in La trilogia di Dorina (Gero Zambuto, 1918).

La passeggera (1918)

Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 2 of 9. Photo: Itala Film / Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Pina Menichelli in La passeggera/The Passenger (Gero Zambuto, 1918), released in Spain as La pasajera, and based on a story 'La passagère' by Mme Guy de Chantepleure.


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Pi, no. 3 of 9. Photo: Itala Film / Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Pina Menichelli in La passeggera/The Passenger (Gero Zambuto, 1918), released in Spain as La pasajera, and based on a story 'La passagère' by Mme Guy de Chantepleure.


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 4 of 9. Photo: Itala Film / Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Pina Menichelli in La passeggiera aka La passagera (Gero Zambuto, 1918), released in Spain as La pasajera, and based on a story 'La passagère' by Mme Guy de Chantepleure.

The beautiful, sheltered, and somewhat naïve Lucía/Lucie Boijoli/Boisjoli (Pina Menichelli) has been adopted by the millionaire Davrancai, a woman (a man, according to other sources) who spares no expense on her behalf and treats her like a princess. But Davrancai is attacked and dies. It was her stated desire to make Lucía her heir, and she was preparing to legalise this, but the paperwork was not yet in place.

Her fortune, therefore, passes to a distant cousin, Laura Arguin — a bitter but devout woman — who is unwilling to take Lucía in. Primary among Lucía’s court of admirers is the cynical fortune-hunter Fabricio de Mauve (Luciano Molinari), who drops her in order to marry the daughter of a millionaire industrialist. Desperate, Lucía eventually turns to Guillermo Kerjean (Alberto Nepoti), a friend who is a mechanical engineer in charge of the Petain aviation company. As he is only thirty years old, she cannot live with him without arousing suspicion and gossip, but she hits upon a solution: they will enter a marriage of convenience.

Kerjean has spoken of how he does not wish to marry because it will interrupt his life of engineering productivity, Lucía will never love another man after the disappointment of Fabricio de Mauve: they can kill two birds with one stone and live together as affectionate companions. At first unconvinced, Kerjean comes around to the idea, and soon the strange marriage is formalised. Humour ensues as they have to prove their fake marriage, but eventually, real love grows between the pair.

Kerjean’s engineering work has gone very well, and proud of his accomplishments, he decides that he will fly the machine himself, accompanied by a passenger, “to demonstrate the stability and capacity of the device for long voyages”. When the launch is imminent, the mechanic who was to be the passenger does not come to the airfield because of a sudden illness, and so Lucía, even knowing the risk, decides to accompany her husband and become … la passeggiera. She will “participate in his Victory or die with him”. Their love acknowledged, Lucía and Kerjean will soar together on the wings of the powerful biplane.

While the story of La passagera/The Passenger (Gero Zambuto, 1918) was not very original, audiences and the press loved the performance of the two main actors. Only a short fragment of the film survives, alas, preserved by the Filmoteca de Catalunya.


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Pi, no. 5 of 9. Photo: Itala Film / Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Pina Menichelli in La passeggera/The Passenger (Gero Zambuto, 1918), released in Spain as La pasajera.


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Pi, no. 6 of 9. Photo: Itala Film / Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Pina Menichelli and possibly Luciano Molinari in La passeggera/The Passenger (Gero Zambuto, 1918), released in Spain as La pasajera.


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Pi, no. 9 of 9. Photo: Itala Film / Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Pina Menichelli in La passeggera/The Passenger (Gero Zambuto, 1918), released in Spain as La pasajera.

Gemma di Sant'Eremo (1918)

Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Salas-Sabadell, Barcelona, no. 1 of 6. Photo: Itala Film. Pina Menichelli in Gemma di Sant'Eremo (Alfredo Robert, 1918), released in Spain as La culpa (The Guilt).


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Salas-Sabadell, Barcelona, no. 3 of 6. Photo: Itala Film. Pina Menichelli in Gemma di Sant'Eremo (Alfredo Robert, 1918), released in Spain as La culpa (The Guilt).

Countess Gemma di Sant'Eremo (Pina Menichelli) is married to a frivolous and womanizing husband (Gabriel Moreau) and sees her marriage crumbling on the day she understands the cheating and lies of her man. A truly honest woman, Gemma does not want to avenge herself with the same arms, but destiny surprises her in a compromising conversation with marquis De Renzis (Alberto Nepoti).

To avoid a scandal, marquis De Renzis lets himself be accused of an attempt at robbery. Gemma is locked up by her husband in a castle but manages to escape. A tragic end to the husband makes an end to Gemma's suffering and opens up a reunion with her lover.

Gemma di Sant'Eremo/The Gem of St. Hermitage (Alfredo Robert, 1918) was praised in the Italian press and drew bourgeois crowds to the cinema, while also abroad, in Spain, France and Latin America. The film premiered in Rome on 4 February 1918. Only a fragment of the film has resurfaced and has been preserved by the Museo Nazionale del Cinema.


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Salas-Sabadell, Barcelona, no. 4 of 6. Photo: Itala Film. Pina Menichelli in Gemma di Sant'Eremo (Alfredo Robert, 1918), released in Spain as La culpa (The Guilt). The man may be Gabriel Moreau, who plays Pina's husband, according to Vittorio Martinelli. Other sources say the husband is played by Edouard Davesnes.


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Salas-Sabadell, Barcelona, no. 6 of 6. Photo: Itala Film. Pina Menichelli and Alberto Nepoti in Gemma di Sant'Eremo (Alfredo Robert, 1918), released in Spain as La culpa (The Guilt).

Una sventatella (1918)

Italian postcard by Officina C. Ricordi, Milano"/ Uff. Rev. Stampa, Milano, 27-6-[19]17, no. 1325. Photo: Itala Film, Torino. Caption: "Da lunedi'7 Gennaio al Salone Ghersi, Pina Menichelli interprete di Una Sventatella." (From Monday, January 7th at the cinema Ghersi Pina Menicheli in Una Sventatella/A guttersnipe).


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 3 of 6. Photo: Itala Film / Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Pina Menichelli in Una sventatella (Gero Zambuto, 1918). The Spanish title was La pequeña atolondrada.

The cinema Ghersi was a cinema in Turin, Via Roma 40, inaugurated on 7 December 1915. The architect was Carlo Angelo Ceresa. The cinema could hold 2000 people. In 1935 the cinema was torn down to make room for the 'straightening' of the street.

Una sventatella/A guttersnipe (Gero Zambuto, 1918) was one of Pina Menichelli's last films for Itala Film in Turin, after which she started to act at Rinascimento Film in Rome, her own company.


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 4 of 6. Photo: Itala Film / Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Pina Menichelli in Una sventatella (Gero Zambuto, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 5 of 6. Photo: Itala Film / Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Pina Menichelli in Una sventatella (Gero Zambuto, 1918).

Il giardino incantato (1918)

Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 1 of 6. Phot: Rinascimento Film / Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Pina Menichelli and Luigi Serventi in Il giardino incantato (Eugenio Perego, 1918). The film was originally entitled Il giardino della voluttà, a title which the Spanish cards on the film kept, but which became forbidden by the Italian censor.


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 4 of 6. Phot: Rinascimento Film / Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Pina Menichelli in Il giardino incantato (Eugenio Perego, 1918).

Despite the opposition of her rich aunt Malvina (Elvira Pasquali), young Lilian Deruta (Pina Menichelli) marries the writer Giuliano Morris (Luigi Serventi), a detached and rather superficial man. Their life seems apparently happy, but fractures start to appear, as the aunt has cut her niece's allowance.

Used to a life of luxury, Giuliano commits a misstep by forgery. Liana by all means tries to help him. She goes to one of her former lovers, Lorenzo (Enrico Scatizzi), who promises to help provided she'll come to him. The sacrifice of the poor woman proves to have been in vain, as Giuliano, out of remorse, already has taken his own life.

The press praised Menichelli's restrained acting, after her exaggerated performances in previous films. Probably this was her first film at her own company Rinascimento Film, after her films at Itala Film. Critics only complained about the overload of the presence of the star.

Il giardino incantato//The Stronger Sex (Eugenio Perego, 1918) had its Roman premiere on 1 October 1918. The sets were by Charles Doudelet, and the cinematography was by Antonio Cufaro. A fragment of the film was saved by the Cineteca di Milano.


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 5 of 6. Phot: Rinascimento Film / Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Pina Menichelli and Luigi Serventi in Il giardino incantato/The Stronger Sex (Eugenio Perego, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 6 of 6. Phot: Rinascimento Film / Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Pina Menichelli in Il giardino incantato/The Stronger Sex (Eugenio Perego, 1918).

Source: Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano, Vol. 1918), and Sempre in penombra.