Vittorio De Sica. directed The Gold of Naples, an anthology of six short stories, two of which feature Silvana Mangano and Sophia Loren.
A tribute to Naples, where director De Sica spent his formative years, The Gold of Naples is a collection of six episodes that are mean to reflect the social psyche of the region and its people.
They revolve around: a clown exploited by a hoodlum; an unfaithful pizza seller (Loren) losing her wedding ring; the funeral of a child; the impoverished inveterate gambler Count Prospero B. being reduced to force his doorman’s preteen kid to play cards with him (and losing regularly); the unexpected and unusual wedding of Teresa, a prostitute; the exploits of “professor” Ersilio Miccio, a “wisdom seller” who “solves problems.
Critical Status:
The Gold of Naples was entered into the 1955 Cannes Film Fest.
The New York Times voted it as one of the Ten Best Foreign Language Films of 1957.
In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that “have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978.”
U.S. Release Four Years Later
It wasn’t until February 1957 that the film was finally distributed in the US, shown at the Paris Theater in New York for 18 weeks, earning the distributor, Distributors Corporation of America, $72,000.
The film consists of segments including “The Racketeer”, “Pizza on Credit”, “The Gambler” and “Theresa”
The segment “A Child is Dead” was not initially released.
Cast
Segment Teresa
Silvana Mangano – Teresa
Erno Crisa – Don Nicola
Segment Pizze a credito
Sophia Loren – Sofia
Paolo Stoppa – Don Peppino, the widower
Giacomo Furia – Rosario, Sofia’s husband
Alberto Farnese – Alfredo, Sofia’s lover
Tecla Scarano – Don Peppino’s friend
Segment Il professore
Eduardo De Filippo – Don Ersilio Miccio
Tina Pica – the elderly lady
Segment Il guappo
Totò – Don Saverio Petrillo
Lianella Carell – Carolina, Don Saverio’s wife
