''Backstage'' (Italian: ''Retroscena'') is a 1939 Italian

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Alessandro Blasetti Alessandro Blasetti (3 July 1900 – 1 February 1987) was an Italian film director and screenwriter who influenced Italian neorealism with the film ''Quattro passi fra le nuvole''. Blasetti was one of the leading figures in Italian cinema during ...

and starring Filippo Romito,

Elisa Cegani Elisa Cegani (11 June 1911 – 23 February 1996) was an Italian actress. She appeared in 60 films between 1935 and 1983. Partial filmography * ''Aldebaran'' (1935) - Nora Bandi * ''Cavalry'' (1936) - Speranza di Frassineto * ''The Countess ...

and

Camillo Pilotto Camillo Pilotto (6 February 1888 Birth name: Camillo Raul Vittorio Pilotto. – 27 May 1963) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 101 films between 1916 and 1963. He was born and died in Rome, Italy. Selected filmography * ''The Song ...

.Gundle p.224 It is part of the tradition of White Telephone films, popular in Italy during the era. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

Gastone Medin Gastone Medin (1905–1973) was an Italian art director.Anile p.132 He worked on more than a hundred and fifty films during his career. Selected filmography * ''Figaro and His Great Day'' (1931) * '' Lowered Sails'' (1931) * ''The Table of the P ...

. It was shot at

Cinecittà Cinecittà Studios (; Italian for Cinema City Studios), is a large film studio in Rome, Italy. With an area of 400,000 square metres (99 acres), it is the largest film studio in Europe, and is considered the hub of Italian cinema. The studios we ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and on location in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

and

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...

Cast

* Filippo Romito as Il baritone Alberto De Sanni *

as Diana Martelli - la pianista *

as Parsifal Bernocchio * Lia Orlandini as Mirna Martelli - la zia di Diana *

Enzo Biliotti Enzo Biliotti (28 June 1887 – 19 November 1976) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 80 films between 1916 and 1958. He was born in Livorno, Italy and died in Bologna, Italy. Selected filmography * '' The Betrothed'' (1923) * '' Villafr ...

as Silvio Dentice *

Ugo Ceseri Ugo Ceseri (30 June 1893 – 3 December 1940) was an Italian stage and film actor. He appeared in forty two films between 1931 and his death in 1940. In 1934 he appeared in the play '' 18 BL'', an attempt to create a mass theatre by the Fascist ...

as Terenzio *

Giovanni Grasso Giovanni Grasso (11 November 1888 – 30 April 1963) was an Italian stage and film actor. He appeared in more than 80 films between 1910 and 1955. He was born and died in Catania, Sicily, Italy. Born into a family of marionettists, he was ...

as Il commissario *

Fausto Guerzoni Fausto Guerzoni (1904–1967) was an Italian film actor.Freire-Medeiros p.193 A character actor, he appeared in Italian films in supporting roles from the mid-1930s. Selected filmography * ''Cavalry'' (1936) * '' The Former Mattia Pascal'' (1937) ...

as Il vice commissario *

Ermanno Roveri Ermanno Roveri (5 October 1903 – 28 December 1968) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 39 films between 1912 and 1965. Selected filmography * ''The Private Secretary'' (1931) * '' La segretaria per tutti'' (1933) * '' Full Speed'' ( ...

as Un giornalista *

Romolo Costa Romolo Costa (26 February 1897 - 1 January 1965) was an Italian actor and voice actor. Biography Costa appeared in more than seventy films and television series between 1934 and 1964 and he was a character actor who generally appeared in support ...

as Sablonscky *

Mario Pucci is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his cre ...

as Il portiere dell'albergo *

Oretta Fiume Oretta Fiume (6 June 1919 – 22 April 1994) was an Italian actress who became a film star, star during the Fascist era after winning a competition.Gundle p.111 One of her final screen roles was in ''La Dolce Vita'' (1960). She was born in Fium ...

as La fioraia a bordo * Cesare Zoppetti as Il portiere dell'uscita degli artisti * Federico Collino as Il portiere dell'entrata al palcoscenico *

Achille Majeroni Achille Majeroni (24 August 1881 – 12 October 1964) was an Italian film actor. Born in Syracuse, Sicily, son of Achille Majeroni and his second wife Graziosa Bignetti, he made his stage debut at age twelve with the Marazzi-Diligenti c ...

as Un signore a bordo * Sandro Dani as Il funzionario della stazione *

Nino Eller Nino Eller was an Italian stage and film actor.Waldman p.162 Selected filmography * ''Television'' (1931) * ''The Phantom Gondola ''The Phantom Gondola'' (Italian: ''La gondola delle chimere'') is a 1936 French-Italian drama film directed by A ...

as Il controllore alla stazione *

Nino Crisman Nino Crisman (1911–1983) was an Italian actor and film producer. Crisman was born in the port city of Trieste when it was still a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Crisman made his film debut in 1939 during the Fascist era. He appeared as ...

as Un cameriere a bordo

References

Bibliography

*Gundle, Stephen. ''Mussolini's Dream Factory: Film Stardom in Fascist Italy''. Berghahn Books, 2013.

External links

* 1939 films Italian comedy films 1939 comedy films 1930s Italian-language films Films directed by Alessandro Blasetti Films shot at Cinecittà Studios Italian black-and-white films Films scored by Alessandro Cicognini 1930s Italian films {{1930s-Italy-film-stub it:Retroscena (film 1939)