''His Last Twelve Hours'' (French: ''Pour l'amour du ciel'', Italian: ''È più facile che un cammello...'') is a 1951 French-Italian

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-g ...

directed by Luigi Zampa and starring Jean Gabin, Mariella Lotti and

Elli Parvo Elli Parvo (17 October 1915 – 19 February 2010) was an Italian film actress, born in Milan as Elvira Gobbo. She appeared in more than 50 films between 1934 and 1960. Selected filmography * ''Loyalty of Love'' (1934) as La nobildonna al b ...

. 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 the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia near

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 ...

.Chiti & Poppi p.139

Plot

Died in a car accident, the wealthy footwear industrialist Carlo Bacchi finds himself in the afterlife, where he is condemned to hell for having committed evil when he was alive. Defending himself from the accusation in a passionate harangue, however, he manages to get back to earth for a few hours, in order to repair the evil committed and above all the bad deed that caused Amedeo Santini's attempted suicide.

Cast

* Jean Gabin as Carlo Bacchi * Mariella Lotti as Margot, Bacchi's wife *

Julien Carette Julien Henri Carette (23 December 1897 – 20 July 1966) was a French film actor. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1931 and 1964. Selected filmography * '' American Love'' (1931) * ''George and Georgette'' (1934) * ''My Heart Is ...

as Amedeo Santini *

as Lidia Guidi, Bacchi's friend * Antonella Lualdi as Maria *

Antonietta Pietrosi Antonietta may refer to: *Antonietta (given name), a female given name *Antonietta (gastropod), a genus belonging to the taxonomic family ''Glaucidae'' of colorful sea slugs *Antonietta (novel), a 1991 novel by John Hersey See also *''Antonieta'' ...

as Anna, Carlo Bacchi's daughter * Paola Borboni as Luisa *

Carlo Sposito Carlo Sposito (1 May 1924 – 9 September 1984) was an Italian character actor, sometimes credited as Carletto Sposito. Born in Palermo, he was among the most active actors in the post-war Italian genre cinema. He was also pretty active on stag ...

as The Duke Sorino *

Marga Cella Marga may refer to: People *Marga (Batak), a family name in Batak society *Marga Barbu (1929–2009), Romanian actress *Marga Boodts (1895–1976), woman claimed to be Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia *Marga Gomez (born 1960), Puerto Rican ...

as Mrs. Gigliosi * Fausto Guerzoni as A worker *

Piero Pastore Pietro Mario Pastore, also known as Piero Pastore (3 April 1908, in Padua – 8 January 1968, in Rome) was an Italian professional footballer who played as a striker; he later became an actor. Football career Pastore was the youngest ever playe ...

as A working trade unionist *

Dante Maggio Dante Maggio (2 March 1909 – 3 March 1992) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 115 films between 1940 and 1975. Born in Naples into a family of actors, Maggio had a turbulent adolescence that led his father to send him in an institu ...

as The cobbler *

Enrico Luzi Enrico Luzi (27 September 1919 – 18 October 2011) was an Italian actor. He appeared in more than sixty films from 1941 to 1980. Selected filmography References External links * 1919 births 2011 deaths Italian male film actors ...

as Witness of the accident *

Dino Raffaelli Dino may refer to: Prefix * dino-, a common prefix in taxonomy, meaning "terrible", "formidable" **Dinosaur People * Dino (given name), a masculine given name and a nickname * Dino (surname), a surname found in Albania and Turkey * Diño, a surn ...

as Giuseppe *

Bella Starace Sainati Bella Starace Sainati (June 2, 1878 – August 4, 1958) was an Italian stage and film actress.Goble p.190 Selected filmography * '' The Two Mothers'' (1938) * ''Naples Will Never Die'' (1939) * '' Goodbye Youth'' (1940) * ''Inspector Vargas'' ...

as Luisa, Bacchi's aunt * Bice Valori as Witness of the accident

References

Bibliography

* Chiti, Roberto & Poppi, Roberto. ''Dizionario del cinema italiano: Dal 1945 al 1959''. Gremese Editore, 1991.

External links

* 1951 films 1951 drama films French drama films Films scored by Nino Rota 1950s Italian-language films Italian black-and-white films Films directed by Luigi Zampa Films with screenplays by Suso Cecchi d'Amico Films with screenplays by Cesare Zavattini Italian drama films Pathé films 1950s Italian films 1950s French films {{1950s-drama-film-stub