''Two Nights with Cleopatra'' ( it, Due notti con Cleopatra) is a 1954 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
Mario Mattoli and starring
Sophia Loren.
[ ]
Plot
Cesare, a Roman soldier, comes to Alexandria to serve in the army staff of the Egyptian queen
Cleopatra. Cleopatra is a beautiful woman, able to charm anyone, and is the wife of Emperor Mark Antony, but when he is not in the city, she prefers to spend the night with one or another of his soldiers, whom she will then have killed the next day with poison.
When Mark Antony comes back to Alexandria to fight a war, Cleopatra visits him secretly while her place at the palace is taken by Nisca, a girl who is so like her she can pass as her double, except for being blonde. It turns out that on one of the evenings on which Cleopatra has been swapped for her double, Cesare fails to notice this. Unaware of the exchange, Cesare spends the night with the girl who proves to be very fragile and sad.
The next night Cesare is arrested for trying to hurt Cleopatra (the real one) but in reality the man just wanted to say hello. Intrigued by the fact that Cesare wears a ring identical to hers, Cleopatra makes him free and offers to spend the night with him, warning him that the next day he will die. Cesare, however, manages to get drunk and to free the "queen" Nisca, locked up in prison. The film ends with the two fleeing from Alexandria.
Cast
*
Sophia Loren as Cleopatra / Nisca
*
Alberto Sordi
Alberto Sordi (15 June 1920 – 24 February 2003) was an Italian actor, voice actor, singer, comedian, director and screenwriter.
Early life
Born in Rome to a schoolteacher and a musician and the last of five children, Sordi was named in hon ...
as Cesarino
*
Ettore Manni
Ettore Manni (6 May 1927 – 27 July 1979) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1952 and 1979.
Life and career
Born in Rome, Manni debuted as an actor in 1952, when in spite of his acting inexperience he wa ...
as Marcantonio
*
Paul Muller as Tortul
* Rolf Tasna as Meros
*
Nando Bruno
Nando Bruno (6 October 1895 – 10 April 1963) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 84 films between 1938 and 1961. He was born in Rome, Italy and he died there.
Selected filmography
* ''A Lady Did It'' (1938) - Un collego di Pasquale ...
as Legionary
*
Alberto Talegalli as Enobarbo
* Gianni Cavalieri as Taverniere
* Carlo Dale as Cocis
*
Riccardo Garrone as Venus
*
Ughetto Bertucci
Ughetto Bertucci (18 October 1907 – 25 June 1966) was an Italian film and stage actor. He appeared in more than 40 films between 1945 and 1960.
Life and career
He was born and died in Rome, Italy. A fruit vendor in a Roman market square ...
as Merchant
*
Giacomo Furia as Merchant
*
Enzo Garinei
Enzo Garinei (4 May 1926 – 25 August 2022) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in nearly 80 films since 1949. He was also a professional voice artist, best remembered as the Italian voice of Sherman Hemsley in the American sitcom ''The Je ...
as Merchant
*
Andrea Bosic as Caio Malpurnio
References
External links
*
1954 films
1954 comedy films
Italian comedy films
1950s Italian-language films
Films directed by Mario Mattoli
Films scored by Armando Trovajoli
Cultural depictions of Mark Antony
Depictions of Cleopatra on film
1950s Italian films
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