''Children of Chance'' is a 1949 British
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
directed by
Luigi Zampa
Luigi Zampa (2 January 1905 – 16 August 1991) was an Italian film director.
Biography
Son of a worker, Zampa studied filmmaking from 1932 to 1937 at the Italian film school Centro sperimentale di cinematografia in Rome.
He directed several ...
and starring
Patricia Medina
Patricia Paz Maria Medina (19 July 1919 – 28 April 2012) was a British actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the films ''Phantom of the Rue Morgue'' (1954) and ''Mr. Arkadin'' (1955).
Early life
Medina was the daughter of Laure ...
,
Yvonne Mitchell
Yvonne Mitchell (born Yvonne Frances Joseph; 7 July 1915 – 24 March 1979) was an English actress and author. After beginning her acting career in theatre, Mitchell progressed to films in the late 1940s. Her roles include Julia in the 1954 BBC ...
and
Manning Whiley
Manning Hedges Whiley (23 January 191529 January 1975) was a British actor.
Partial filmography
* ''Trunk Crime'' (1939) - Bentley
* '' The Four Just Men'' (1939) - (uncredited)
* '' Pack Up Your Troubles'' (1940) - Muller
* '' Contraband'' (19 ...
.
It was shot
on location in
Ischia
Ischia ( , , ) is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about from Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Roughly trapezoidal in shape, it measures approximately east to west ...
at the same time as an Italian version ''
Alarm Bells'', also directed by Zampa but with a different cast.
Michael Medwin
Michael Hugh Medwin, OBE (18 July 1923 – 26 February 2020) was an English actor and film producer.
Life and career
Medwin was born in London. He was educated at Canford School, Dorset, and the Institute Fischer, Montreux, Switzerland. He ...
adapted the original Italian screenplay for the English version.
Synopsis
Agostina has made some money in the
black market of
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 ...
during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
and sent it back to her hometown priest for safekeeping. However, returning to the island intending to recover the money, she finds that the priest has died and his successor has used it to build an
orphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or ab ...
.
Cast
*
Patricia Medina
Patricia Paz Maria Medina (19 July 1919 – 28 April 2012) was a British actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the films ''Phantom of the Rue Morgue'' (1954) and ''Mr. Arkadin'' (1955).
Early life
Medina was the daughter of Laure ...
as Agostina
*
Manning Whiley
Manning Hedges Whiley (23 January 191529 January 1975) was a British actor.
Partial filmography
* ''Trunk Crime'' (1939) - Bentley
* '' The Four Just Men'' (1939) - (uncredited)
* '' Pack Up Your Troubles'' (1940) - Muller
* '' Contraband'' (19 ...
as Don Andrea
*
Yvonne Mitchell
Yvonne Mitchell (born Yvonne Frances Joseph; 7 July 1915 – 24 March 1979) was an English actress and author. After beginning her acting career in theatre, Mitchell progressed to films in the late 1940s. Her roles include Julia in the 1954 BBC ...
as Australia
*
Barbara Everest
Barbara Everest (19 June 1890 – 9 February 1968) was a British stage and film actress. She was born in Southfields, Surrey, and made her screen debut in the 1916 film ''The Man Without a Soul''. On stage she played Queen Anne in the 1935 his ...
as Francesca
*
Eliot Makeham
Harold Elliott Makeham (22 December 1882 – 8 February 1956) was an English film and television actor.
Career
Makeham was born in London, England. Between 1931 and 1956, Makeham appeared, primarily in character roles, in 115 films and in 1 ...
as Vicar
*
George Woodbridge as Butcher
* Frank Tickle as Mayor
*
Eric Pohlmann
Eric Pohlmann (german: Erich Pohlmann; born Erich Pollak; 18 July 1913 – 25 July 1979) was an Austrian theatre, film and television character actor who worked mostly in the United Kingdom. He is known for voicing Ernst Stavro Blofeld, th ...
as Sergeant
*
Edward Lexy
Edward Lexy (18 February 1897, in London – 31 January 1970, in Dublin) was a British actor. He was born Edward Little.
Career
He made his London stage début in 1936, and his first film the following year. His film roles were a mixture of s ...
as Doctor
*
Carlo Giustini
Carlo Giustini (born 4 May 1923), sometimes credited as Carlo Justini, is an Italian retired actor.
Life and career
Born in Viterbo, the son of a railway employee, Giustini debuted at twenty years old in ''The Materassi Sisters'', after having ...
as Marco
See also
* ''
Alarm Bells'' (1949)
References
External links
*
1949 films
1949 drama films
1940s multilingual films
British drama films
British black-and-white films
British multilingual films
1940s English-language films
Films directed by Luigi Zampa
Lux Film films
British Lion Films films
1940s British films
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