The elegant brunette Vanna Vanni (1915-1998) or Vanna Pegna was an Italian film actress who peaked in the late 1930s and early 1940s. She mostly played in comedies, many directed by Gennaro Righelli, plus several with the De Filippo family.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1937. Photo: Venturini.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1941. Photo: Venturini.
Vanna Vanni was born in 1915 in Rome, Lazio, Italy as Maria Angelica Giovanna Pegna. (IMDb indicates her borthyear as 1920).
In the early 1930s, she debuted in cinema at the Paramount studios in Joinville near Paris, where many multi-language version films were made for the European cinema, using the same crew and partly the same cast too.
Jack Salvatori was very active in directing these multi-language versions at Paramount. He thus directed Vanni, then called Vanna Pegna, in her first film l segreto del dottore (Jack Salvatori, 1930), starring former silent star Soava Gallone. It was the Italian version of The Doctor's Secret (William C. DeMille, 1929).
Vanni would continue to act many supporting parts in the first half of the 1930s, but still, for a long time, Vanni was called Vanna Pegna in the credits of her films.
Gradually her parts become bigger as in the comedies Re di danari/King of Diamonds (Enrico Guazzoni, 1936) with Angelo Musco, Ho perduto mio marito/I've Lost My Husband! (Enrico Guazzoni, 1937) with Paola Borboni, and Nina, non far la stupida/Nina, don't be stupid (Nunzio Malasomma, 1938).
Frank Nugent, the critic of the New York Times wrote in a review of Ho perduto mio marito/I've Lost My Husband! that she was "one of the prettiest girls in the Italian film industry."
Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 3717. Photo: E.N.I.C.
Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 4381. Photo: Vaselli / E.N.I.C.
In 1938 Vanna Vanni started to work for the company Juventus Film, where she stayed for many years and many films. Its producer Renato Cogliati Dezza also launched her as a film star.
Her first female lead, Vanni had in the comedy Il destino in tasca/Destiny in your pocket (Gennaro Righelli, 1938), in which a wife of an industrial (Vanni) unknowingly passes a night in bed with an unknown man (Enrico Viarisio), an acquaintance of her husband (Romolo Costa), who left his house to the other man.
More leads followed in the comedy Fuochi d'artificio/Fireworks (Gennaro Righelli, 1938), La voce senza volto/The Faceless Voice (1939), and Le educande di Saint-Cyr/The boarding schools of Saint-Cyr (Gennaro Righelli, shot in 1939 but released in 1940). She also acted in three other Righelli comedies in supporting parts opposite actors such as Raffaele Viviani, Dria Paola, and Laura Nucci.
From 1940, Vanni continued to act mostly in comedy, but occasionally also acted in dramas such as Amiamoci così/Let's love each other like this (Giorgio Simonelli, 1940) with Andrea Checchi, while she acted in a tragicomedy with three monstres sacrés of the Italian stage: Ruggeri Ruggeri, Armando Falconi, and Antonio Gandusio, in Se non son matti non li vogliamo/If I'm not crazy, we don't want them (Esodo Pratelli, 1943).
Together with Gino Cervi and Mariella Lotti, she acted in the mountain drama Acque di primavera/Torrents of Spring (Nunzio Malasomma, 1942). She was the love interest of Peppino De Filippo in the De Filippo family comedy Non ti pagò/He didn't pay you (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, 1942). Vanni would be reunited with the De Filippo clan - Eduardo, Peppino, and Titina - in Non mi muovo!/I Do Not Move (Giorgio Simonelli, 1943), while she had a supporting part in their film Ti conosco, mascherina!/I know you, little masked one! (Eduardo De Filippo, 1943).
In 4 ragazze sognano/4 girls dream (Guglielmo Giannini, 1943), Vanni had the lead in a comedy about an evil notary (Enrico Glori), who refuses poor Ada (Vanni) her inheritance, but her friend Al (Paolo Stoppa), a good-hearted, poor gangster, helps her unmask the notary, so the couple can marry and start an honest life.
Vanni's last film was Grattacieli/Skyscrapers (Guglielmo Giannini, 1943), a thriller about an American gangster who falls off a skyscraper during a party. She had the female lead in this film, opposite Renato Calente and Luigi Pavese.
After that, Vanna Vanni's career stopped. She died in Rome in 1998 at the age of 83.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1942. Photo: Vaselli.
Sources: Wikipedia (Italian and English), and IMDb.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1937. Photo: Venturini.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1941. Photo: Venturini.
Multi-language versions at Paramount
Vanna Vanni was born in 1915 in Rome, Lazio, Italy as Maria Angelica Giovanna Pegna. (IMDb indicates her borthyear as 1920).
In the early 1930s, she debuted in cinema at the Paramount studios in Joinville near Paris, where many multi-language version films were made for the European cinema, using the same crew and partly the same cast too.
Jack Salvatori was very active in directing these multi-language versions at Paramount. He thus directed Vanni, then called Vanna Pegna, in her first film l segreto del dottore (Jack Salvatori, 1930), starring former silent star Soava Gallone. It was the Italian version of The Doctor's Secret (William C. DeMille, 1929).
Vanni would continue to act many supporting parts in the first half of the 1930s, but still, for a long time, Vanni was called Vanna Pegna in the credits of her films.
Gradually her parts become bigger as in the comedies Re di danari/King of Diamonds (Enrico Guazzoni, 1936) with Angelo Musco, Ho perduto mio marito/I've Lost My Husband! (Enrico Guazzoni, 1937) with Paola Borboni, and Nina, non far la stupida/Nina, don't be stupid (Nunzio Malasomma, 1938).
Frank Nugent, the critic of the New York Times wrote in a review of Ho perduto mio marito/I've Lost My Husband! that she was "one of the prettiest girls in the Italian film industry."
Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 3717. Photo: E.N.I.C.
Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 4381. Photo: Vaselli / E.N.I.C.
A Film Star for Juventus
In 1938 Vanna Vanni started to work for the company Juventus Film, where she stayed for many years and many films. Its producer Renato Cogliati Dezza also launched her as a film star.
Her first female lead, Vanni had in the comedy Il destino in tasca/Destiny in your pocket (Gennaro Righelli, 1938), in which a wife of an industrial (Vanni) unknowingly passes a night in bed with an unknown man (Enrico Viarisio), an acquaintance of her husband (Romolo Costa), who left his house to the other man.
More leads followed in the comedy Fuochi d'artificio/Fireworks (Gennaro Righelli, 1938), La voce senza volto/The Faceless Voice (1939), and Le educande di Saint-Cyr/The boarding schools of Saint-Cyr (Gennaro Righelli, shot in 1939 but released in 1940). She also acted in three other Righelli comedies in supporting parts opposite actors such as Raffaele Viviani, Dria Paola, and Laura Nucci.
From 1940, Vanni continued to act mostly in comedy, but occasionally also acted in dramas such as Amiamoci così/Let's love each other like this (Giorgio Simonelli, 1940) with Andrea Checchi, while she acted in a tragicomedy with three monstres sacrés of the Italian stage: Ruggeri Ruggeri, Armando Falconi, and Antonio Gandusio, in Se non son matti non li vogliamo/If I'm not crazy, we don't want them (Esodo Pratelli, 1943).
Together with Gino Cervi and Mariella Lotti, she acted in the mountain drama Acque di primavera/Torrents of Spring (Nunzio Malasomma, 1942). She was the love interest of Peppino De Filippo in the De Filippo family comedy Non ti pagò/He didn't pay you (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, 1942). Vanni would be reunited with the De Filippo clan - Eduardo, Peppino, and Titina - in Non mi muovo!/I Do Not Move (Giorgio Simonelli, 1943), while she had a supporting part in their film Ti conosco, mascherina!/I know you, little masked one! (Eduardo De Filippo, 1943).
In 4 ragazze sognano/4 girls dream (Guglielmo Giannini, 1943), Vanni had the lead in a comedy about an evil notary (Enrico Glori), who refuses poor Ada (Vanni) her inheritance, but her friend Al (Paolo Stoppa), a good-hearted, poor gangster, helps her unmask the notary, so the couple can marry and start an honest life.
Vanni's last film was Grattacieli/Skyscrapers (Guglielmo Giannini, 1943), a thriller about an American gangster who falls off a skyscraper during a party. She had the female lead in this film, opposite Renato Calente and Luigi Pavese.
After that, Vanna Vanni's career stopped. She died in Rome in 1998 at the age of 83.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1942. Photo: Vaselli.
Sources: Wikipedia (Italian and English), and IMDb.
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