Industrie Cinematografiche Italiane (ICI)

Gino, a drifter, begins an affair with inn-owner Giovanna as they plan to get rid of her older husband.

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.

Rogelia, the orphan of an Asturian miner who died in a work-related accident, marries Máximo, a man as robust as jealous, drunk and violent. But when her husband is jailed, the woman will take advantage to escape with the doctor of the village so as to see the world and perhaps to form a family.

Franco, a young man of noble descent, marries Luisa, daughter of a humble clerk, against his grandmother's will.

In a curious-looking old hospital, an elderly couple, Carlo and Clara, is waiting for their turn tenderly holding hands. There is a choice to be made, and the woman begins to hesitate. Only the words of the loving Carlo will be able to transform fear into courage. At one point the setting makes way for animation, suggested and overlapped by the words of Clara. It leads the listener to a deep reflection on life. The brief evocation of the magic of existence is imprinted in the deeply moved smile of the woman, certain that life on Earth is nothing but a stage of eternity.

La Contessa di Parma was the sole directorial contribution by Allesandro Blasetti in 1937. The first of several expensive costume dramas upon which the director established his international reputation, the film stars Elisa Cegani as Marcella, a model in the dress shop owned by enterprising Umberto Melnati. To improve his business, the owner instructs his models to dress up as society ladies and attend all the best parties. And that's how humble little Marcella comes to be mistaken for the popular Duchess of Parma -- and by extension, how our heroine wins the love of football hero Gino Vanni (Antonio Centa). A little wanting in the way of plot or logic, La Constessa di Parma is at least consistently good to look at.

In the absence of the biological mother, too busy pursuing her theatrical career, we see the glorification of the maternal surrogate, a woman who is a paragon of sacrifice and self-abnegation. La Fuggitiva is also a film in which a child actress takes a prominent role. In this sentimental drama, the little girl suffers for and rebels against the loneliness and neglect stemming from the lack of a mother and a loving family setting.