I Vinti [The Vanquished] **** (1953, Jean-Pierre Mocky, Etchika Choureau, Franco Interlenghi, Anna Maria Ferrero, Patrick Barr, Fay Compton, Eduardo Ciannelli) – Classic Movie Review 8742

Director Michelangelo Antonioni’s thematically linked 1953 anthology drama I Vinti [The Vanquished] stars Jean-Pierre Mocky, Etchika Choureau, Franco Interlenghi, Anna Maria Ferrero, Patrick Barr, Fay Compton and Eduardo Ciannelli.

It tells three stories about well-off young people who commit murders. In the Paris story, high school students kill one of their group for his money. It stars Jean-Pierre Mocky as Georges and Etchika Choureau as Simone, with Henri Poirier and Albert Michel as the father of Georges.

In the Rome story, murder takes place when university student Claudio (Franco Interlenghi) smuggles cigarettes. Also in this segment are Anna Maria Ferrero as Marina, Eduardo Ciannelli as Claudio’s father and Evi Maltagliati as Claudio’s mother.

In the London story, lazy poet Ken Wharton (Patrick Barr) kills a woman on the downs, Mrs Pinkerton (Fay Compton), and tries to sell his story to the press, saying he had found the body of a strangled woman. (This is loosely based on the 1951 murder of 48-year-old Mrs Mabel Tattershaw by Herbert Leonard Mills, aged 19.) Also in this segment are Peter Reynolds as Aubrey, David Farrar and Eileen Moore.

I Vinti [The Vanquished] is involving, revealing and fascinating, if perhaps not quite one of Antonioni’s finest films, and certainly one of his least known, but that is because of censorship.

The Italian episode was modified for censorship reasons. In the UK, the film was refused a certificate by the British Board of Film Censors in 1954. The film was not released in France until 1963 as the French episode had trouble with the French censors.

Though the Paris episode is spoken in French and the London episode in English, it was dubbed into Italian. The Medusa Film Italian DVD is the restored uncut version in the three languages.

The film was a project of esteemed writer Suso Cecchi d’Amico, who proposed the idea to the Italian production company Film Costellazione Produzione, and suggested Antonioni as director. The story and screenplay are credited to the two of them. It was screened out of competition at the 1953 Venice Film Festival.

I Vinti [The Vanquished] runs 110 minutes, is shot by Enzo Serafin, is produced by Mario Gabrielli, and scored by Giovanni Fusco.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8742

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