Rome Eleven O’Clock [Roma, Ore 11] ***** (1952, Raf Vallone, Lucia Bosé, Romolo Bartolomeo, Lea Padovani, Massimo Girotti) – Classic Movie Review 12,113

The 1952 Italian film Rome Eleven O’Clock [Roma, Ore 11] is perhaps Giuseppe De Santis’s finest picture, a Neorealist look at postwar unemployment in an urban setting, entirely free from the banal melodrama and sex sensationalism that afflicted many of his projects. It is based on an actual tragic accident on 15 January 1951 on Via Savoia in Rome when a staircase collapsed because of the weight of 200 women waiting for a job interview, as one woman was killed and 76 were injured.

It stars Raf Vallone, Lucia Bosé, Romolo Bartolomeo, Lea Padovani, Massimo Girotti, Delia Scala, Paola Stoppa, Elena Varzi, Carla Del Poggia, Maria Grazia Francia and Irène Galter.

This Italian heart-wrencher features a classy set of actors in a well-written, multi-story, true-life Roman tale about a job advertisement for a low-paid secretarial typist post that far too many people are after. When 200 women turn up for interview, the staircase collapses killing one and injuring many of the girls queuing for the job – and many others are trapped in the debris. The injured are taken to a hospital, but many of them are unable to pay and have to go home.

The film then flashes back to some of the women’s stories as De Santis effectively explores the lives of five of the girls and how they came to be there in a script by De Santis and Basilio Franchina that avoids the inherent pitfalls of stereotypes, soap opera or boring repetition. Part acting showcase, part director triumph, this is superb, though now little-known stuff from De Santis. However, among the conoscenti and the disappointingly few lovers of Golden Age Italian cinema, the film is celebrated as one of the best examples of Neorealist film-making.

Carla Del Poggio plays the key role of poor workman’s wife Luciana Renzoni, who tries to get ahead in the queue, preciptating the scuffle among the women that causes the staircase to collapse.

Giuseppe De Santis is most famous as the director of Bitter Rice (1949).

Elio Petri’s interviews with people involved in the tragedy were a basis for the film. He published a collection of his interviews as Roma ore 11 in 1956.

A still shot from Rome 11:00.

Films directed by Giuseppe De Santis: Caccia Tragica [Tragic Hunt] (1947), Bitter Rice (1949), No Peace Under the Olives (1950), Rome 11:00 (1952), A Husband for Anna (1953), Days of Love (1954), The Wolves (1956), The Road a Year Long (1958), La garçonnière (1960), Attack and Retreat (1965), and Un apprezzato professionista di sicuro avvenire (1972)

Rome Eleven O’Clock [Roma, Ore 11] is directed by Giuseppe De Santis, runs 107 minutes, is made by Titanus and Transcontinental Films, is released by Titanus (1952) (Italy) and Times Film Corporation (1953) (US) (subtitled), is written by Cesare Zavattini, Basilio Franchina, Giuseppe De Santis, Rodolfo Sonego and Gianni Puccini, is shot by Otello Martelli, is produced by Paul Graetz and scored by Mario Nascimbene.

The main cast are Lucia Bosé as Simona, Carla Del Poggio as Luciana Renzoni, Maria Grazia Francia as Cornelia Riva, Lea Padovani as Caterina, Delia Scala as Angelina, Elena Varzi as Adriana, Raf Vallone as Carlo, Massimo Girotti as Nando, Paolo Stoppa as father of Clara, Armando Francioli as Romoletto, Paola Borboni as Matilde, Irène Galter as Clara, Eva Vanicek as Gianna, Checco Durante as father of Adriana, and Alberto Farnese as Augusto.

Raf Vallone played the short-lived Pope in The Godfather: Part III.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,113

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