Amedeo Nazzari: The Once and Future Idol

He’s been called the “mustachioed matinee idol,” but a newfound interest in 1950s melodramas has made him an international arthouse legend.

Amedeo Nazzari was born Salvatore Amedeo Buffa on Dec. 10, 1907, in Sardinia. Assuming his maternal grandfather’s last name and moving to Rome during the 1930s to pursue a career in acting, he found an immediate place in theater but struggled to break into film because of his towering height and slim build.

Nazzari landed small film parts during the mid-’30s before scoring the title role in Goffredo Alessandrini’s 1938 “Luciano Serra, pilota” (Luciano Serra, Pilot), about an American pilot attacked by Ethiopian soldiers. The film won the Mussolini Cup for Best Italian Film at the 6th Venice International Film Festival and launched Nazzari’s silver-screen career.

Although he rose to fame during tumultuous times and was personally invited by Mussolini to join the Fascist Party, Nazzari remained politically neutral and worked prolifically in postwar Italy. In 1946, he won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Ernesto in Alberto Lattuada’s “Il bandito” (The Bandit), the story of World War II prisoners of war sent home from Germany.

Raffaello Matarazzo’s 1949 “Catene” (Chains) was the first in a string of dramatic films appreciated by Italians while neorealism had its grip on the international audience. Nazzari plays Gugliemo, an honest, everyday man working as a mechanic. When a thief pulls into his garage after the getaway vehicle breaks down, Gugliemo’s life spirals out of control. The episode leads to a reunion between Gugliemo’s wife (Yvonne Sanson) and her aggressive ex-fiancé. Although she begs him to leave her in peace, he doesn’t let up and eventually presents her with a deadly ultimatum. The film is featured in a wonderful scene in Giuseppe Tornatore’s 1988 “Cinema Paradiso” in which the entire audience is in tears.

Anna and Carlo just can’t catch a break in Matarazzo’s 1950 follow-up, “Tormento.” Nazzari and Sanson play lovers facing impossible odds. When Anna’s evil stepmother berates her in front of Carlo, he takes her away to live with him. Anna writes to her father for help, but her stepmother does not give him the letters. When Carlo asks his shady employer for an advance, a fight breaks out, and Carlo is wrongfully accused of murder. Just as he is sentenced to prison for 20 years, Anna learns that she is pregnant. Despite Carlo’s incarceration, the two decide to marry. Anna gets by working odd jobs while caring for their daughter, Angela, but the demands of motherhood become overwhelming when Angela falls ill. Carlo’s lawyer reaches out to Anna’s father, who is so devastated to learn that his wife hid his daughter’s letters, he suffers a fatal heart attack. Anna feels her only option to save Angela’s life is to ask for help from her stepmother. She agrees on the condition that Anna give up Angela altogether and check into an institution for wayward women. The tears flow as she leaves, but there is some redemption in the end.

That same year, Nazzari costarred in Giorgio Pastina’s drama, “Alina,” with Gina Lollobrigida in the title role as a desperate woman trying to make ends meet. When Alina’s father died, Paolo, a family friend, took her in. With intentions of curbing the town gossip, he married her. A much older man, Paolo, falls ill, and Alina is burdened with becoming the breadwinner. Having no skills, she resorts to smuggling drugs over the France-Italy border. During one of her jobs, she meets Giovanni (Nazzari), a card dealer at a high-society French supper club. After their initial meeting in which Giovanni mistakes Alina for a burglar and knocks her out, the two develop a kinship. When Giovanni helps Alina and her cohorts run from the police, he realizes his love for her and pledges to stay in Italy if they reach the border alive. Nazarri had the opportunity to offer some comedy relief in “Alina,” and he embraced it.

A small but memorable part in Federico Fellini’s 1957 “Nights of Cabiria,” a decade later along with supporting roles in Henri Verneuil’s 1969 “Le clan des siciliens” (The Sicilian Clan) and Terence Young’s 1972 “The Vallachi Papers” brought Nazzari some international exposure before his death in 1979.

Six of Matarazzo’s dramas featuring Nazzari are available to stream on Criterion Channel. The others are available to stream on Amazon. Click on the titles for direct links.

-Written by Jeannine Guilyard for the December, 2021 issue of Fra Noi Magazine. Click here to subscribe.

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