Condottieri (Film 1937-ENG SUB)

Condottieri (English: leaders, warloards, captains) is a 1937 Italian historical drama film directed by Luis Trenker and starring Trenker, Loris Gizzi and Laura Nucci. Audio in Italian with English subtitles.

It portrays the life of Giovanni de' Medici, a celebrated condottiere of the 16th century. The film is the first Italian-German production, co-directed by Giacomo Gentilomo and Anton Giulio Majano. A separate German-language version was also made. The German version was co-directed by Werner Klingler. The film's elaborate sets were designed by Virgilio Marchi and Erich Grave, while Herbert Ploberger produced the costumes.

Shot in black and white, with the aesthetic photography of Carlo Montuori, accompanied by music with a martial flavour, the film is in fact a collage of historical episodes featuring the leader Giovanni dalle Bande Nere. There are several spectacular action sequences, with the use of masses of stage sets and soldiers on horseback in quantity, particularly at the opening and closing of the film. To follow a stylistic and historical coherence that was not only formal, the production availed itself of the military expertise of Lieutenant Colonel Enrico Pezzi, who for the organization of the war scenes was able to count on units of the State Armed Forces.

The film had several locations: the interiors were shot in the Cines studios in Rome and in those of Tobis Cinema-Film A.G. in Berlin, Germany, while for the exteriors different settings were chosen: at the Torrechiara castle, in Torrechiara, a hamlet of Langhirano (province of Parma), and at the Gradara castle (province of Pesaro and Urbino), in Sassolungo, Sella Group and Marmolada (Dolomites), Colle Santa Lucia (province of Belluno), Arco and Riva del Garda (Lake Garda, province of Trento), Verona, San Gimignano, Florence, Venice, Padua.

Cast & Characters:
Luis Trenker as Giovanni de' Medici
Loris Gizzi as Malatesta
Laura Nucci as Tullia delle Grazie
Carla Sveva [fr; it] as Maria Salviati
Ethel Maggi [it] as Caterina Sforza
Mario Ferrari as Cesare Borgia
Angelo Ferrari
Giulio Cirino as Rüschli
Sandro Dani as D'Argentière
Tito Gobbi as Nino
Augusto Marcacci as Daniello
Nino Marchetti as Corrado
Lando Muzio as Pedro
Ernesto Nannicini
Umberto Sacripante as Sanzio
Carlo Tamberlani as Duke of Urbino
Gino Viotti as Pope
Giuseppe Addobbati as Duke of Imola
Friedl Trenker as Giovanni