Carmine Gallone's attempt to give his bio of Puccini (1953) a Citizen Kane flavor largely misfires because the film lacks a central focus. That focus should have been Puccini himself, but often it's Elvira Puccini who takes center stage. The movie's odd construction, with scenes flashing back and forth in time, confused most audiences, but it was actually forced on Gallone because Marta Toren was pregnant when she was signed for the role and all her scenes had to be photographed first. Hastily written, but beautifully and most dramatically lit in a superbly noirish style by Claude Renoir, Toren's scenes were so good, none could be jettisoned. The rest of the movie had to be forced into accommodating them. To add to this disunity, Gallone did not supervise the location scenes. These were directed by co-scriptwriter Glauco Pellegrini in a totally different style. I was not altogether happy with the selection of arias either. Most of Puccini's most famous were missing (although some served as background music). Unfortunately, Gallone's super-stylish noir masterpiece, Faust (1948), is not yet available on DVD. However, Puccini has been transferred from an excellent 35mm Technicolor print of the dubbed English version, Two Loves Had I, on an Image DVD.
Review of Puccini
