Valentina CorteseFilmography

Buster's Bedroom

Actors: Donald Sutherland, Geraldine Chaplin, Valentina Cortese, Amanda Ooms

Synopsis: At one time, even the great Buster Keaton was a regular visitor of the mental health, alcoholic rehabilitation-center system. Since main-character Micha is obsessed with Keaton and everything that has to do with him, it is appropriate that after trying to pull a stunt on the public highways in Read More

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Actors: John Neville, Sarah Polley, Eric Idle, Jonathan Pryce, Uma Thurman, Oliver Reed, Charles McKeown, Sting, Robin Williams, Valentina Cortese

Synopsis: Director Terry Gilliam adroitly applies his Monty Python sensibilities upon the "career" of famed German prevaricator Baron von Munchausen. Played herein by John Neville, the baron is seen quelling a war that he himself started, flying into the stratosphere on the back of a cannonball, ballooning Read More

Tango Blu

Monte Napoleone

Actors: Renee Simonsen, Carol Alt, Luca Barbareschi, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Corinne Clery

Synopsis: Margherita (Carol Alt) is a wife and mother who decides to take a job as a fashion-show coordinator in this romantic drama. She discovers the tawdry truth of the inner workings of the Milan fashion industry and falls for the Italian heel Roberto (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), a move that nearly destroys Read More

La Ferdinanda

Actors: Valentina Cortese, Gisella Hahn

Synopsis: A Medeci villa is home to a crackpot doctor who does experiments on peacock eggs, a nurse who greets people by doing a handstand in her skirt, an aspiring ballerina, and a few other odd characters. The villa also hosts a broad range of visitors, including a musician and a gay couple -- the younger Read More

When Time Ran Out

Actors: Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bisset, William Holden, Edward Albert, Red Buttons

Synopsis: After producer Irwin Allen highlighted the dangers of fire in the Towering Inferno and the dangers of water in the Poseidon Adventure, he is back to fire again but this time it is within the earth, at least for awhile. This fairly routine disaster film is set on a resort island with a volcano that Read More

Tanto Va la Gatta Al Lardo...

Widows' Nest

Actors: Patricia Neal, Valentina Cortese, Susan Oliver, Yvonne Mitchell, Jadwiga Baranska

Synopsis: In this film, the arrival of some unwanted visitors interrupts the peaceful Cuban home life of sisters Dolores (Valentine Cortese), Carmen (Jadwiga Branska), and Elvira (Yvonne Mitchell) when their presence stirs up unwelcome memories. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Jesus of Nazareth

Actors: Robert Powell, Olivia Hussey, Peter Ustinov, Christopher Plummer, Anne Bancroft, James Mason, Ian McShane, Laurence Olivier, Rod Steiger

Synopsis: Because director Franco Zeffirelli noted publicly that he intended to depict Jesus Christ as a human being rather than a religious icon, his expensive made-for-TV miniseries Jesus of Nazareth fell victim to protestors long before its April 3, 1977, debut. Despite the pullout of several sponsors Read More

Le Grand Escogriffe

Actors: Yves Montand, Claude Brasseur, Agostina Belli, Valentina Cortese

Synopsis: When he is not working as a stage performer, Emile (Yves Montand) works as a small-time con-man. He has a brand-new plan for a big job and needs the services of one of his former assistants. He also persuades a young actress to help out with part of the plan: kidnapping the child of a very shady Read More

La Città Sconvolata

Synopsis: After his son is kidnapped, a millionaire industrialist (James Mason) seeks revenge, in spite of the potential danger that his rash actions will bring about for his child and another kidnapped boy, the son of a poor mechanic (Luc Merenda). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Appassionata

Synopsis: In this Italian effort (spoken English is obviously dubbed) a dentist is seduced by his daughter and her girl friend. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Day for Night

Actors: Jacqueline Bisset, Valentina Cortese, François Truffaut, Alexandra Stewart, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Dani

Synopsis: Known to English-speaking audiences as Day for Night, La nuit américaine was director François Truffaut's loving and humorous tribute to the communal insanity of making a movie. The film details the making of a family drama called "Meet Pamela" about the tragedy that follows when a young French Read More

The Assassination of Trotsky

Actors: Richard Burton, Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Valentina Cortese, Luigi Vannucchi

Synopsis: This film is Joseph Losey's mood piece that delves into the psychological makeup of Frank Jackson (Alain Delon), the assassin of exiled Russian Communist leader Leon Trotsky (Richard Burton). The tale chronicles the final few months of Trotsky's life, from the May 1940 raid upon Trotsky's Mexican Read More

Brother Sun, Sister Moon

Actors: Graham Faulkner, Judi Bowker, Alec Guinness, Leigh Lawson, Kenneth Cranham

Synopsis: St. Francis of Assisi was an extraordinarily complex and difficult figure whose effect on his contemporary society was electrifying. Even today, many people are moved by his visionary message of universal toleration. Twelfth-century Italy had an exceptionally grim and regimented society, but the Read More

Madly

Actors: Alain Delon, Mireille Darc, Jane Davenport, Pascale de Boysson, Valentina Cortese

Synopsis: This uneven sex comedy finds the antique dealer Julian (Alain Delon) living with his lover Agatha (Mireille Darc). The two allow each other to have romantic encounters that include Jane Davenport, Valentina Cortese, and Pascale De Boisson. Julian pushes Agatha into thrill seeking eroticism in fast Read More

Le Bateau Sur L'herbe

Actors: Valentina Cortese, Claude Jade, John McEnery

Synopsis: In this gentle, tragic drama, Olivier (John McEnery) is a wealthy young man with a lively and attractive mother (Valentina Cortese), which is a pity, really, as he can't bear her, or the men she gets involved with. When he gets too upset with her escapades, he begins to break things, or runs off. Read More

Les Caprices de Marie

Actors: Marthe Keller, Valentina Cortese, Bert Convy, Fernand Gravey, Philippe Noiret, François Perier

Synopsis: Marie (Marthe Keller) is the most beautiful girl in her small village. She enters a beauty contest in a nearby town and wins the top prize. Broderick (Bert Convey) is the young American businessman who falls in love with the newly crowned beauty queen. She agrees to marry him but states she cannot Read More

Erste Liebe

Actors: John Moulder-Brown, Dominique Sanda, Maximilian Schell, Valentina Cortese, Marius Goring

Synopsis: Producer/director Maximillian Schell adapted the screenplay of First Love from a story by Ivan Turgenev. John Moulder Brown plays Alexander, a 16-year-old boy who falls in love with 21-year-old Sinaida (Dominique Sanda). Despite a great deal of emotional turmoil, exacerbated by the fact Read More

The Secret of Santa Vittoria

Actors: Anthony Quinn, Anna Magnani, Virna Lisi, Hardy Kruger, Sergio Franchi

Synopsis: Italo Bombolini (Anthony Quinn) is the mayor of the hillside village of Santa Vittorio. The wine-loving town leader erases a pro-Mussolini slogan when he hears of the fascist being killed and hanged from a meathook. His wife Rosa (Anna Magnani) throws him out of their wine shop when he and his Read More

Scusi, Facciamo L'Amore?

Actors: Pierre Clémenti, Beba Loncar, Edwige Feuillère, Juliette Mayniel, Tanya Lopert

Synopsis: In this drama, a Neapolitan lad travels to Milan to attend his father's funeral. His father was a gigolo, and the young man decides to continue the family profession and begins looking for rich women to prey upon. He is successful, but then he finds himself caught in a bidding war between a Read More

The Legend of Lylah Clare

Actors: Kim Novak, Peter Finch, Ernest Borgnine, Milton Selzer, Rossella Falk

Synopsis: Film star Lylah Clare is dead, but her legend lives on. Movie-producer Barney Sheean (Ernest Borgnine) hires Elsa Brinkmann (Kim Novak), the living image of the late Lylah, to star in a film based on Ms. Clare's life. Barney hires director Lewis Zarkan (Peter Finch), Lylah's former husband, to Read More

Soleil Noir

Actors: Michele Mercier, Daniel Gélin, Valentina Cortese, Jean Topart

Synopsis: Michele Mercier, leading lady of many a quasi-erotic Angelique film, stars in the French Black Sun. This time Mercier plays a young Gallic heiress. She's in Algeria, looking for her long-lost brother. She's not looking for danger, but that's what comes her way from every nook and cranny. Valentina Cortese Read More

Juliet of the Spirits

Actors: Giulietta Masina, Mario Pisu, Sandra Milo, Valentina Cortese, Sylva Koscina

Synopsis: Juliet of the Spirits is a fantastical showcase for Federico Fellini's vibrant imagery, starring his wife, Giulietta Masina, as the titular leading character. Juliet is a wealthy housewife who constantly fears her husband, Giorgio (Mario Pisu), is cheating on her. While she yearns for a peaceful Read More

La Donna Del Lago

Actors: Peter Baldwin, Salvo Randone, Philippe Leroy, Valentina Cortese

Synopsis: A young writer goes to a summer resort in wintertime to be alone and contemplate his moral dilemma in this thrilling and suspenseful psychological drama. He goes to visit Tilde (Virna Lisi), a young woman with whom he had a brief sexual relationship. To his horror, the writer learns that she has Read More

The Visit

Actors: Ingrid Bergman, Anthony Quinn, Irina Demick, Claude Dauphin, Paolo Stoppa

Synopsis: Friedrich Durrenmatt's misanthropic theatrical piece The Visit has never been totally successful in any production, not even in the original Broadway presentation starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. The film version keeps this failure record consistent. Ingrid Bergman plays a fabulously Read More

The Girl Who Knew Too Much

Synopsis: Generally considered the first real giallo film, Mario Bava's stylish thriller stars Leticia Roman as Nora, who travels to Rome to visit her sick aunt. The aunt dies that night, and Nora ends up witnessing a murder. The police and kindly Dr. Bassi (John Saxon) don't believe her, since there Read More

Axel Munthe - Der Arzt Von San Michele

Actors: O.W. Fischer, Rosanna Schiaffino, Sonja Ziemann, Valentina Cortese

Synopsis: This routine, slow-paced biographical drama is based on the 1929 autobiography of Swedish doctor Axel Martin Fredrik, The Story of San Michele. The drama follows the physician, psychiatrist, and adventurer as he travels the distances from Lapland to his Villa San Michele on Capri, with special Read More

Barabbas

Actors: Anthony Quinn, Silvana Mangano, Arthur Kennedy, Jack Palance, Katy Jurado, Vittorio Gassman, Harry Andrews, Ernest Borgnine

Synopsis: This 1962 Biblical epic was adapted by Christopher Fry from the novel by Pär Lagerkvist. Anthony Quinn stars as Barabbas, the thief who was pardoned in place of Jesus. For the rest of his life, the guilt-ridden criminal tries to justify his existence and to determine his place in the scheme of Read More

Square of Violence

Actors: Broderick Crawford, Valentina Cortese, Branko Plesa, Anita Björk, Bibi Andersson

Synopsis: Even into the 1960s, Yugoslavian films played up the contributions of their partisan underground during World War II. Square of Violence is a loose, unacknowledged reworking of the 1943 film Hostages. When partisans kill 30 Nazi officers in a bombing, the Germans respond by taking 300 Yugoslav Read More

Nasilje Na Trgu

Actors: Broderick Crawford, Branko Plesa, Valentina Cortese, Bibi Andersson

Synopsis: This engaging World War II drama is a joint American-Yugoslav effort and although set in a Yugoslav town, the actual incident on which the story is based happened in Rome. Broderick Crawford plays the married Doctor Bernardi, a member of the resistance movement. As a part of the movement's Read More

Calabuch

Actors: Edmund Gwenn

Synopsis: The Spanish/Italian Rocket From Calabuch is significant only as the last film of beloved character actor Edmund Gwenn. The 78-year-old star plays a retired atomic scientist who settles in a peaceful Spanish village. But he can't remain sedentary for long, and soon he's off and about developing a Read More

Magic Fire

Actors: Yvonne De Carlo, Rita Gam, Carlos Thompson, Valentina Cortese, Alan Badel

Synopsis: Filmed in Germany (where it was released in 1954), Republic's Magic Fire is the life story of controversial 19th century composer Richard Wagner. Alan Badel comes off more as villain than hero as Wagner, which though historically accurate makes it hard for the audience to pull for the central Read More

Le Amiche

Actors: Yvonne Furneaux, Ettore Manni, Valentina Cortese, Gabriele Ferzetti, Franco Fabrizi, Madeleine Fischer

Synopsis: Roman couturier Clelia (Eleonora Rossi-Drago) leaves the big city to work at a boutique in Turin. She moves into a hotel and makes several new friends, but is soon drawn into their extremely unpleasant lives. Clelia enters a doomed relationship with a poor architect's assistant (Ettore Manni) Read More

Adriana Lecouvreur

Count Aquila

The Barefoot Contessa

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Marius Goring, Rossano Brazzi

Synopsis: The Barefoot Contessa begins at the funeral of Ava Gardner, a former Spanish peasant, cabaret dancer and movie star, who at the time of her death was a full-fledged contessa. Her life story unfolds in flashback recollections from her mourners. Film director Humphrey Bogart recalls how his career Read More

Donne Proibite

Synopsis: In this Italian melodrama, three Roman prostitutes suddenly find themselves on the streets when the city informs them that their brothel is to be destroyed. The story chronicles what happens to each of them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Avanzi di galera

Actors: Richard Basehart, Walter Chiari, Eddie Constantine, Valentina Cortese

La Passeggiata

Actors: Renato Rascel, Valentina Cortese, Paolo Stoppa, Peppino Demartino

Secret People

Actors: Valentina Cortese, Serge Reggiani, Charles Goldner, Audrey Hepburn, Megs Jenkins, Angela Fouldes

Synopsis: Set in 1930s London, Secret People stars Valentina Cortesa and Audrey Hepburn as Maria and Nora, two sisters whose father has been murdered for political reasons. Adopted by a kindly Italian restaurateur (Charles Goldner), Maria and Nora gradually overcome the loss of their father and get on with Read More

Crossroads of Passion

Actors: Viviane Romance, Valentina Cortese, Clement Duhour, Fosco Giachetti

Synopsis: The sheer star power of Viviane Romance makes the more absurd passages of Crossroads of Passion tolerable. Set during WW II, the story concentrates on the activities of anti-Nazi saboteurs in Lisbon. Flying in the face of Portugal's wartime neutrality, the saboteurs do their best to knock off as Read More

The House on Telegraph Hill

Actors: Richard Basehart, Valentina Cortese, William Lundigan, Fay Baker, Gordon Geberl, Steven Geray

Synopsis: After surviving the hell of a Nazi death camp, a refugee faces even greater dangers in America in this tale of murder, deceit, and assumed identities. Victoria Kopwelska (Valentina Cortese) is a Polish woman imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp near the end of World War II. Desperate to Read More

Il Passatore

Actors: Valentina Cortese, Rossano Brazzi, Carlo Ninchi, Carlo Campanini, Lillian Laine

Synopsis: Valentina Cortese's star continued to rise with the period melodrama Bullet for Stefano (Il Passatore). Cortese plays Barbara, whose wedding is interrupted when dashing brigand Stefano (Rossano Brazzi) kills the groom and abducts the bride. Eventually, Stefano tires of Barbara, and casts her Read More

Shadow of the Eagle

Actors: Richard Greene, Valentina Cortese, Binnie Barnes, Greta Gynt, Charles Goldner

Synopsis: Shadow of the Eagle is set during the reign of Russia's Catherine the Great. Dashing Count Orlof (Richard Greene) is dispatched to Venice to kidnap Princess Elizabeth (Valentina Cortesa), a pretender to Catherine's throne. Falling in love with the princess, Orloff casts his lot with Elizabeth's Read More

Donne Senza Nome

Actors: Simone Simon, Françoise Rosay, Valentina Cortese, Vivi Giot

Synopsis: Femmes sans Nom is the second film in a proposed trilogy conceived by Hungarian director Geza Radvanyi (the first was Somewhere in Europe). In each of these three films, Radvanyi hoped to dramatically convey the plight of those left homeless and destitute by WW II. Femmes sans Nom is set in a Read More

Black Magic

Actors: Orson Welles, Nancy Guild, Akim Tamiroff, Frank Latimore

Synopsis: Gregory Ratoff is listed as sole director of the 1949 Orson Welles starrer Black Magic, but it is now common knowledge that Welles directed most of this lavish costumer himself. Told in flashback, the film recounts the life and times of notorious 18th-century hypnotist/magician/scam artist Read More

Malaya

Actors: Spencer Tracy, James Stewart, Valentina Cortese, Sydney Greenstreet, John Hodiak

Synopsis: Spencer Tracy and James Stewart team up for this World War II adventure, based on an supposedly true incident from World War II. Stewart plays John Royer, an ex-newspaper reporter with a backhand knowledge of Malaya, and Tracy plays a criminal named Carnaghan, doing time in Alcatraz for smuggling. Read More

The Glass Mountain

Actors: Dulcie Gray, Michael Denison, Valentina Cortese, Tito Gobbi, Sebastian Shaw

Synopsis: A composer discovers that the inspiration for his greatest work may come at the expense of his marriage in this romantic drama with music. Richard Wilder (Michael Dennison) was a pilot with the RAF during World War II and was shot down over the Dolomite Mountains of Italy during a mission. Read More

Thieves' Highway

Actors: Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J. Cobb, Barbara Lawrence, Jack Oakie, Millard Mitchell

Synopsis: Thieves' Highway is set in San Francisco and the surrounding countryside. Richard Conte plays Nick Garcos, an American GI who returns from WWII to find that his father Yanko (Morris Carnovsky), a produce trucker, has lost the use of both legs because of a fight with crooked truck driver Mike Read More

L'Ebreo Errante

Actors: Vittorio Gassman, Valentina Cortese

Synopsis: This Italian drama is a wartime version of the old story. Set during WW II, it follows the journeys of a cursed French Jew who turns against his people and helps the Nazis. Later his guilt overcomes him and he allows himself to be sent to a concentration camp. There he falls in love. The two Read More

I Miserabili

Actors: Valentina Cortese, Gino Cervi, John Hinrich, Aldo Nicodemi, Duccia Giraldi

Synopsis: In 1935, American audiences were treated to two simultaneously released versions of Les Miserables, one made in Hollywood, the other in France. Much the same thing happened in 1952. While 20th Century-Fox's Les Miserables, starring Michael Rennie as beleagured ex-convict Jean Valjean, was making Read More

Carrefour Des Passions

Actors: Viviane Romance, Valentina Cortese, Jean Wall, Clement Duhour

Roma, Città Libera

Synopsis: A cat burglar, a suicidal veteran, and a starving typist-turned-prostitute are brought together by fate and propelled through the streets of Rome in director Marcello Pagliero's lyrical look at life in Italy following liberation by the Allies. As the rain falls in Rome, a prowling cat burglar (Nando Bruno Read More

Un Americano in Vacanza

Actors: Valentina Cortese, Andrea Checchi

Synopsis: Luigi Zampa's A Week's Leave (Un American in Vacanza) stars Italy's Valentina Cortese and America's Leo Dale. Cortese plays Maria, a provincial schoolteacher who comes to Rome on an errand of mercy for her deprived countrymen. Dale is cast as Dick, a GI who offers Maria a ride when her ancient car Read More

Chi L'ha Visto?

Una Signora Dell'Ovest

Synopsis: This film is the first western ever made in Italy. It tells the tale of a young saloon dancer who inadvertently gets romantically involved with the man who killed her husband and framed her recent lover. She accepts his advances until she learns the truth. She then returns to her lover and Read More