Velio
Venice Film Festival 1940
Principe Tommaso d'Argiro
Speranza's father
Umberto Solaro loses the love of his life Speranza, a noble but poor girl who has been forced to marry a rich Austrian army officer. Heartbroken Umberto becomes a riding instructor but during a competition his horse dies and he decides to give up equitation and become an aviator.
Hot on the heels of Dinero ed Amore, Loyalty of Love was the second of two Guido Brignone-directed films released within same week. Like the earlier picture, Loyalty is a historical drama. During the period in which Italy was under Austrian rule, Count Federico (Nerio Bernardi) fights tirelessly to free his people from oppression. The Count's wife Teresa (Marta Alba) remains loyally by his side, even when he is unfaithful to her, which is often. Federico doesn't realize how important Teresa is to him, nor how much he loves her, until it's almost too late. At time of the release of Loyalty of Love, star Marta Alba had transferred her base of operations to New York, where she starred in Broadway production of Tovarich.
Presidente del tribunale
During a reception in a villa, wealthy banker Calandri is killed in the park with a gunshot. The gamekeeper Barra is immediately arrested, but he declares himself innocent. During the trial it turns out that the defendant had threatened the victim, guilty of courting his sister-in-law. But the deposition of a journalist present at the party soon leads to discover the existence of a dense network of equivocal relations between the victim, the guests and the servants. This judicial setting drama is allegedly the second Italian sound film after "The Song of Love", made using the RCA Photophone recording technique, and is also considered to be the first Italian detective film, a precursor to the later genre of Giallo films.
