The Last 4 Days

Mussolini portrayed more as a man than a political figure. Forgotten by his own supporters, the "brave" (lol) "camice nere", he faced all the hardship to be left alone. He acted as a coward (trying to save his life in a nazi truck). Anyway, I liked the most the scene in which he was questioned by a partisan about his real nationalism (all italian people wanted to get into WWII?!?) and his relationship with Hitler (mostly about Russian war).

This film depicts the capture and execution of Benito Mussolini, just two days before Adolf Hitler's own suicide. It's a pitiful, pathetic end for the once strutting fascist dictator. You almost - *almost* - feel sorry for him.

Il Duce is fought over, passed around, abandoned, and captured as multiple factions pursue conflicting agendas. The Nazis want to get him out of Italy. The regular German army wants to be rid of him. A few loyal fascists want to continue fighting, but most of them abandon him. Some partisans want to put him on trial while others want to execute him immediately. And the Americans want him handed over to them "for prestige". As cinema goes, this is not exactly Oscar-winning material but the story itself is fascinating, and the historical value helps make this obscure film worth viewing.

It is interesting that Rod Steiger has attempted two ambitious epic-roles in his career - Napoleon in Waterloo, and now Mussolini in Ultimo Atto - both European co-productions outside the normal auspices of Hollywood. Although it may be decidedly the minor of the two, the subject matter of the film still captivates the viewer as it chronicles the last few days of the Italian Leader.

Mussolini: Ultimo Atto portrays the demise of Italy's one-time Dictator from a leader of emperor-like proportions to that of a desperate fugitive. Mussolini is hunted by four separate groups each with different ideas of his fate. Hitler wants him to fight until his final breath, the Allies and the new Italian government want him to stand trial for war crimes, and the Italian partisans want to shoot him on site.

Rod Steiger plays Mussolini credibly (from what I know of him) and Henry Fonda is also notable in his role as a Cardinal.

Rod Steiger once again showed his ability to play roles of political and historical men. In the past he was Al Capone, Napoleon, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Pontius Pilate, and Mussolini twice (also in "Lion of the Desert" ,1980). At his last minutes he was a kind of Mussolini humble, lost, not knowing what to do once he was arrested. Very good acting also from Henry Fonda playing the role of Milanese Cardinal Schuster, he worries more about Mussolini's fate than of those innocents who may have died during those days. The film showed well how Germans wanted to keep Mussolini and the efforts of the Americans to capture him. The director Lizzani did an excellent work trying to show these last hours of the dictator and his lover, Claretta Petacci (Lisa Gastoni). Very interesting dialogues were shown between the guerrilla fighters and Mussolini. He claimed that only Germans guilty of the war, and that he had very little responsibility on what happened, but the fighters refused all his coward arguments with real facts. Mussolini destroyed Italian democracy, eliminated political parties and unions, and also killed many innocent people. He supported well Hitler although he was a puppet in the hands of the Germans. I do not know whether Mussolini was killed together with his lover in a way it is shown in the film. What is known is that he tried to cross the border disguised as a German soldier in a convoy of trucks retreating toward Innsbruck, Austria. He was recognized and together with Claretta shot in an area closed to Como. Until here the plot must be accepted, but I wonder why Lizzani did not want to show further this history, i.e. that the bodies were hung, head downward, in the Milanese Piazza Loreto in Milan.

This is a great movie showing what a histrionic character and opportunist Mussolini was, double crossing until the end between the Italians, the Germans and the British, worried only about himself and not caring about the devastation he brought in his country and trying to escape to Switzerland where to live a comfortable life. Well depicted also his emotional life with her lover Petacci - which probably he exploited to the end for her devotion and total love. I was sorry that the story of the documents he was carrying with him, with all the letters exchanged with Churchill - and that would compromise Churchill if brought to the public - was totally ignored - probably too delicate a topic to be dealt with in this kind of commercial movies.