The Facts of Murder

Un maledetto imbroglio (1959) is a very good movie, it tells us about a country -Italy- still far from the wealth of the sixties, where low class people struggled to make a decent living, and illiteracy was still spread ... Higher class people could threaten poor peoples lives for trivial reasons and meantime humiliate them with their unjustified wealth ... Of course the Germi's task was simplified by the great book it started with, still the Director has his merits: the irony to start with. I basically agree with other opinions. if a catch can be found, I'd say acting is a little bit much too heavy. A kind of "Venus's strabismus"... Some of the actors (Eleonora Rossi Drago, Nino Castelnuovo and at times also Germi himself)overdo - overindulge in - their roles ... They fall into unnecessary theatrical poses. to my opinion the drama is in the facts being narrated and need not much emphasizing by the actors.

very good by all means, but just a bit overacted, to my modest opinion.

pion

One of my regrets as a movie lover is that I have only recently discovered Pietro Germi as director, writer and actor - and he is phenomenal at every level!

MALEDETTO IMBROGLIO stands as one of the very best films noir cum whodunnit I have had the privilege to watch and, to add to my bewilderment, hardly any of my fellow cinephiles knows about it.

With masterful B&W cinematography by Leonida Barboni and editing by Roberto Cinquini, it boasts highly inspired direction by Pietro Germi, who also delivers superbly as the dark spectacle-wearing, quiet, demanding, astute, attentive to detail, persevering police commissioner Ingravallo.

Stunningly beautiful Claudia Cardinale would always stay in my mind, but the impressive support performances come from Saro Urzi as mareschialo, a senior subordinate to Ingravallo, and Franco Fabrizi as an opportunistic medical doctor who beds any woman he can, steals money from the dead, lies to police and amounts to what a member of the very noble medical profession should never be.

Nino Castelnuovo, as Cardinale's love interest, also makes the most of his small but crucial role.

I am not Italian but, trusting my Latin language background, I watched the film on Youtube in Italian, so I must have missed some important details along the way. Even so, I found MALEDETTO IMBROGLIO thoroughly engrossing from beginning to end.

Recommended viewing. 9/10.

Well worth seeing for many reasons: for the complex plot with many connections among those involved in a theft and a seemingly unrelated murder; for a look at Italy in 1959; for the good acting and fast cutting; and for the humor in the script.

I've always felt that the post-war period of Italian and Japanese films contains the highest concentration of quality films, and I continue to discover new gems. Having finally recently seen Germi's 'Seduced and Abandoned', I've begun digging deeper into his filmography, and was not disappointed with 'Un Maledetto Imbroglio' ('The Facts of Murder').

At its heart 'The Facts of Murder' is a pretty straightforward police procedural, albeit a fairly complex and convoluted one for 1959. A break-in investigation soon becomes much more complicated and Inspector Ciccio Ingravallo, played perfectly by Germi himself, must dig through a series of shady, duplicitous characters to uncover the truth.

While it may not have the suspense or surprises of a Hitchcock or a giallo, what this film has is pure watchability, thanks to the attention to detail of a master director at the top of his game.

The casting is superb, with a slew of credible characters, including the great Saro Urzì as the cheeky Marshal Saro and Claudio Gora as the slimy, sweaty Remo Banducci. The acting is superb, particularly Germi, who is easily one of the best actors I've seen, just super-interesting and an absolute joy to watch. The camera work effortlessly carries us through the story, never bringing attention to itself. The script is utterly believable, real-life quirky dialogue peppered with lovely comic moments.

I mean, the level of craft in this film is astounding, and even though it wasn't the most original plot, I just loved every moment of this film. I'll be watching it again at some point, just to catch some of the brilliant quips and perfectly acted moments.

Gadda's masterpiece is a blend of philosophical novel with mystery and murder, a baroque, caustic and ultimately poignant work exploring the myriad of interactive lives' endless and kaleidoscopic complexities - in other words, causes often interrelated that converge to the production of each individual effect. The book was rather flatenned here, but still it's Germi's most lasting and currently estimable movie, even better than The Road to Hope and Seduced and Abandoned.