Giuditta e Oloferne (1929)

Giuditta e Oloferne/Judith and Holofernes (Baldassarre Negroni, 1929) is an Italian silent historical film starring Bartolomeo Pagano, Jia Ruskaja and Franz Sala. It was the final film of Pagano, who had been famous during the silent era for his portrayals of Maciste. For the Russian dancer Jia Ruskaja, it was her only screen appearance. The film is based on the Biblical story of Judith beheading Holofernes and mixes this with a modern story about an engineer who tries to save a mountain village from the shady affairs of speculating entrepreneurs lead by a beautiful woman. There were several film adaptations of Judith and Holofernes, including a Louis Feuillade version in 1909 and D.W. Griffith' famous 1914 version Judith of Bethulia.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano (Milan), no. 1. Photo: Production Pittaluga Film, Torino (Turin). Publicity still for Giuditta e Oloferne/Judith and Holofernes (Baldassarre Negroni, 1929).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano (Milan), no. 3. Photo: Production Pittaluga Film, Torino (Turin). Publicity still for Giuditta e Oloferne/Judith and Holofernes (Baldassarre Negroni, 1929) with Bartolomeo Pagano.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano (Milan), no. 5. Photo: Production Pittaluga Film, Torino (Turin). Publicity still for Giuditta e Oloferne/Judith and Holofernes (Baldassarre Negroni, 1929).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano (Milan), no. 6. Photo: Production Pittaluga Film, Torino (Turin). Publicity still for Giuditta e Oloferne/Judith and Holofernes (Baldassarre Negroni, 1929).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano (Milan), no. 7. Photo: Production Pittaluga Film, Torino (Turin). Publicity still for Giuditta e Oloferne/Judith and Holofernes (Baldassarre Negroni, 1929) with Bartolomeo Pagano and Jia Ruskaja.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano (Milan), no. 10. Photo: Production Pittaluga Film, Torino (Turin). Publicity still for Giuditta e Oloferne/Judith and Holofernes (Baldassarre Negroni, 1929).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano (Milan), no. 12. Photo: Production Pittaluga Film, Torino (Turin). Publicity still for Giuditta e Oloferne/Judith and Holofernes (Baldassarre Negroni, 1929).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano (Milan), no. 13. Photo: Production Pittaluga Film, Torino (Turin). Publicity still for Giuditta e Oloferne/Judith and Holofernes (Baldassarre Negroni, 1929) with Jia Ruskaja.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano (Milan), no. 14. Photo: Production Pittaluga Film, Torino (Turin). Publicity still for Giuditta e Oloferne/Judith and Holofernes (Baldassarre Negroni, 1929).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano (Milan), no. 17. Photo: Production Pittaluga Film, Torino (Turin). Publicity still for Giuditta e Oloferne/Judith and Holofernes (Baldassarre Negroni, 1929) with Jia Ruskaja.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano (Milan), no. 19. Photo: Production Pittaluga Film, Torino (Turin). Publicity still for Giuditta e Oloferne/Judith and Holofernes (Baldassarre Negroni, 1929) with Carlo Tedeschi.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano (Milan), no. 20. Photo: Production Pittaluga Film, Torino (Turin). Publicity still for Giuditta e Oloferne/Judith and Holofernes (Baldassarre Negroni, 1929) with Jia Ruskaja.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano (Milan), no. 23. Photo: Production Pittaluga Film, Torino (Turin). Publicity still for Giuditta e Oloferne/Judith and Holofernes (Baldassarre Negroni, 1929).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano (Milan), no. 24. Photo: Production Pittaluga Film, Torino (Turin). Publicity still for Giuditta e Oloferne/Judith and Holofernes (Baldassarre Negroni, 1929).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano (Milan), no. 25. Photo: Production Pittaluga Film, Torino (Turin). Publicity still for Giuditta e Oloferne/Judith and Holofernes (Baldassarre Negroni, 1929) with Bartolomeo Pagano.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano (Milan), no. 26. Photo: Production Pittaluga Film, Torino (Turin). Publicity still for Giuditta e Oloferne/Judith and Holofernes (Baldassarre Negroni, 1929) with Jia Ruskaja.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano (Milan), no. 27. Photo: Production Pittaluga Film, Torino (Turin). Publicity still for Giuditta e Oloferne/Judith and Holofernes (Baldassarre Negroni, 1929).

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Il Cinema Muto Italiano - 1923-1931 - Italian) and Wikipedia.

Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni (1926)

Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni/Maciste in the Lion's Cage is a 1926 Italian silent adventure film directed by Guido Brignone for the Cinès-Pittaluga studio. It was part of the popular Maciste series of films starring Bartolomeo Pagano as the strongman Maciste. His co-stars were Elena Sangro, Luigi Serventi, Mimi Dovia and Alberto Collo. In the script, written by Brignone, Maciste is sent to Africa by a circus showman to capture some lions. Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni was the penultimate film of the silent series, followed by Il gigante delle Dolomiti/The Giant of the Dolomites (Guido Brignone, 1927).


Bartolomeo Pagano. Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Pittaluga Films, Torino. Publicity still for Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni/Maciste in the Lions' Cage (Guido Brignone, 1926).


Mimi Dovia and Bartolomeo Pagano. Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Pittaluga Films, Torino. Publicity still for Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni/Maciste in the Lions' Cage (Guido Brignone, 1926).


Bartolomeo Pagano. Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Pittaluga Films, Torino. Publicity still for Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni/Maciste in the Lions' Cage (Guido Brignone, 1926).


Bartolomeo Pagano. Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori, Bologna, no. 3620. Photo: Pittaluga Films, Torino. Publicity still for Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni/Maciste in the Lions' Cage (Guido Brignone, 1926).


Alberto Collo. Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Pittaluga Films, Torino. Publicity still for Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni/Maciste in the Lions' Cage (Guido Brignone, 1926).


Bartolomeo Pagano (right). Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Pittaluga Films, Torino. Publicity still for Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni/Maciste in the Lions' Cage (Guido Brignone, 1926).


Mimi Dovia. Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Pittaluga Films, Torino. Publicity still for Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni/Maciste in the Lions' Cage (Guido Brignone, 1926).


Mimi Dovia and Bartolomeo Pagano. Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Pittaluga Films, Torino. Publicity still for Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni/Maciste in the Lions' Cage (Guido Brignone, 1926).


Mimi Dovia. Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Pittaluga Films, Torino. Publicity still for Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni/Maciste in the Lions' Cage (Guido Brignone, 1926).


Bartolomeo Pagano. Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Pittaluga Films, Torino. Publicity still for Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni/Maciste in the Lions' Cage (Guido Brignone, 1926).


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Pittaluga Films, Torino. Publicity still for Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni/Maciste in the Lions' Cage (Guido Brignone, 1926).


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 818. Photo: Pittaluga Films, Torino. Publicity still for Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni/Maciste in the Lions' Cage (Guido Brignone, 1926).


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Pittaluga Films, Torino. Publicity still for Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni/Maciste in the Lions' Cage (Guido Brignone, 1926).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Bartolomeo Pagano

Today starts the 34th edition of Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone. We are in Italy to attend this wonderful festival of the silent film and will post about the stars of the highlights of the festival. Opening film is Maciste alpino/The Warrior (Giovanni Pastrone, 1916) in which Italian actor Bartolomeo Pagano (1878-1947) stars as Maciste. His name is forever attached to the character of the strong man, which he played in 25 films.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 478/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Riess.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 478/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Riess.


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 368. Bartolomeo Pagano aka Maciste in Maciste all'inferno/Maciste in Hell (Guido Brignone, 1926).

In blackface

Bartolomeo Pagano was born in the Sant’Ilario quarter of Genua in 1878. He was the son of Neapolitan father. As an adult he worked as a dock-hand in the port of Genua, in the nearby quarter of Nervi.

Different versions circulate about his discovery for the cinema. In 1913 film director and producer Giovanni Pastrone, manager of the Itala company of Turin, released a call for the interpreter of the character of the Nubic slave Maciste (a character created together with author Gabriele D’Annunzio) for Pastrone’s super-production Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone, 1914) starring diva Italia Almirante-Manzini. Out of 50 candidates from all over Italy, Pastrone selected Pagano.

According to another version, it was actor Domenico Gambino who noticed Pagano and signalled him to Pastrone, who, impressed by his muscular physique, hired him for his epic film. Overnight the film made Pagano an international success because of his muscles and his image as a courageous, humorous and no-nonsensical defender of the weak. In Cabiria he uses his power to rescue a Roman girl out of the hands of the Carthaginian priests who want to offer her to Moloch.

Pastrone immediately saw opportunities with his new star and launched a series of vehicles for his character, starting with a film simply called Maciste (Luigi Romano Borgnetto, Vincenzo Denizot, 1915). Deliberately, Maciste’s part in Cabiria, the splendour of the Itala studio, and Maciste’s work there, were shown to impress audiences and tie them to the previous box office hit. Of course the plot deals with a damsel in distress, whom Maciste saves with his muscles and his wit.

During the First World War, Pastrone used Maciste for war propaganda in Maciste alpino/The Warrior (Giovanni Pastrone, 1916), in which Maciste fiercely opposes the Austrian soldiers when he and his colleagues are captured during a film shoot on location. The success of the film made Pastrone exploit Maciste in all kinds of situations and genres, but mostly in the adventure and crime genre: Maciste medium (Vincenzo Denizot, 1918), Maciste atleta/Maciste Athlete (Vincenzo Denizot, Giovanni Pastrone, 1918), Maciste poliziotto (Roberto Roberti, 1918), Maciste innamorato/Maciste in Love (Luigi Romano Borgnetto, 1919), La trilogia di Maciste/The Maciste Trilogy (Carlo Campogalliani, 1920), Maciste salvato dalle acque/Maciste saved from the waters (Luigi Romano Borgnetto, 1921), and Maciste in vacanza/Maciste on holiday (Luigi Romano Borgnetto, 1921).

In all these films he performed Maciste in 'blackface', which he continued to do in all 25 films in which he played Maciste. By now Pastrone did not direct the films anymore but left this task to skilled directors like Luigi Romano Borgnetto. While not all of these were good productions, La Trilogia di Maciste (1920) by Carlo Campogalliani was one of the better Maciste films.


Publicity still of the Italian silent film classic Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone 1914), with Alex Bernard, Edoardo Davesnes, Italia Almirante-Manzini and Lydia Quaranta.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Publicity still of Bartolomeo Pagano as Maciste in Maciste all'inferno/Maciste in Hell (Guido Brignone, 1926).


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Pittaluga Films, Torino. Publicity still for the Italian silent film Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone, 1926), starring Bartolomeo Pagano as Maciste and Pauline Polaire as Graziella.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Pittaluga Films, Torino. Publicity still for Maciste all'inferno/Maciste in Hell (Guido Brignone 1926). Caption: Maciste (Bartolomeo Pagano) called before king Pluto (Umberto Guarracino). On the right on the back Pluto's daughter Luciferina (Lucia Zanussi) is standing. The bold guy on the left must be Gerione (Mario Saio).

Strong Men of Forzuti

While Bartolomeo Pagano’s precursor Bruto Castellani, the strong man Ursus in Quo vadis (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913), had no followers, Pagano’s Maciste did.

In Italy a strong men or forzuti genre in film sprang up, creating space for characters such as Ausonia, Galaor, Ajax, and Sansone, and attracting competing strong men and physical culture champions such as Giovanni Raicevich.

But Pagano’s Maciste was also simply pirated abroad, such as by the French actor Michel Bonnet with his character Magiste, and there was another rip-off in Mexico.

French critic Louis Delluc called him the 'Guitry of biceps', while newcomers Ultus (Aurele Sydney) and Douglas Fairbanks were launched as the British and the American Maciste.

In the late 1910s and early 1920s Maciste’s popularity was the biggest in Austria and Germany, despite the preceding anti-Austrian Maciste alpino/The Warrior (1916). At home in Italy, Maciste’s image of superman coincided with the new fascist ideology. In the 1920s Pagano was one of the best paid actors of his times, sometimes gaining 600.000 lire a year.


Italian postcard. Photo: Pittaluga Films, Torino (Turin). Publicity still for the Italian silent film Maciste contro lo sceicco/Maciste Against the Sheik (Mario Camerini, 1926). Maciste (Bartolomeo Pagano) hoists the sails, while the evil captain (Alex Bernard) looks on.


Italian postcard. Maciste (Bartolomeo Pagano) in Maciste contro lo sceicco/Maciste against the Sheik (Mario Camerini, 1926), produced by Pittaluga Film, Turin.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 76. Photo: Pittaluga Films, Torino. Publicity still for Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni/Maciste in the Lion's cage (Guido Brignone, 1926), starring Bartolomeo Pagano as Maciste.


Italian postcard. Photo: Maciste (Bartolomeo Pagano) in Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni/Maciste in the Lion's cage (Guido Brignone, 1926), produced by Pittaluga Film, Turin.

Inspiring Federico Fellini

Bartolomeo Pagano continued to star in the Maciste-films until the early-1920s, when, not so much because of the collapse of the Italian film production but rather because of a fabulous contract, Pagano went to Berlin, the mecca of the European film industry.

Here he stayed between 1921 and 1923, but according to the film press he wasn’t as successful there, playing in Maciste und die Japanerin/Maciste and the Japanese Woman (Uwe Jenss Kraft, 1921) with Carola Toelle, Maciste und die Tochter des Silberkönig/Maciste and the Daughter of the Silver King (Luigi Romano Borgnetto, 1921) opposite Helena Makowska, Maciste und der Sträfling Nr. 51/Maciste and the convict No. 51 (Luigi Romano Borgnetto, 1921), and Maciste und die Chinesische Truhe/Maciste and the Chinese chest (Carl Boese, 1923e).

Dissatisfied Pagano returned to Italy, where producer Stefano Pittaluga immediately put him on a transatlantic for the film Maciste e il nipote d’America/Maciste and the grandson of America (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1924), which included scenes shot in New York. Among the less convincing titles is Maciste imperatore/Maciste Emperor (Guido Brignone, 1924).

The same year Brignone directed Pagano in Maciste all’Inferno/Maciste in Hell (1926), a witty and artful pastiche on Dante, Gustave Doré, Georges Méliès, Expressionism and medieval illustrations. It also contains ingenious special effects by ‘magician’ Segundo de Chomon. When entering Hades, Maciste is being seduced by Proserpina, played by Italian diva Elena Sagro, and he turns into a hairy devil himself. The film was dear to Federico Fellini, because of its weird, fairy-tale-like atmosphere; the film supposedly inspired him to become film director.

Bored with his Maciste films, Pagano asked and got different roles: Il vetturale del Moncenisio/The coachman of the Mont Cenis (Baldassarre Negroni, 1927) with Rina De Liguoro, Giuditta e Oloferne/Judith and Holofernes (Baldassarre Negroni, 1928) starring Jia Ruskaja, and his last part (a secondary one by now) in L’ultimo Zar/The last Tsar (Baldassarre Negroni, 1928).

The actor retired from films in 1926 to marry Camilla Balduzzi and he raised a family in his Villa Maciste in Sant’Ilario Ligure near Genua. Diabetes destroyed his forces, and typhoid reduced his weight in drastic ways, while arthritis even obliged him to spend his last years in a wheelchair. The outside world didn’t know.

Bartolomeo Pagano died of a heart attack in San Ilario Ligure in 1947. According to Italian film historian Vittorio Martinelli, Pagano never was a real actor, but rather the lively personification of a character from popular literature. His character’s name remains as synonym for power and courage. After Pagano's death, the character of Maciste was played by several other actors. In 1960-1965 Maciste was revived in the sword and sandal films with Mark Forrest, Gordon Scott, Ed Fury and other bodybuilders, while in the early 1970s cult director Jesus Franco made two low-budget Maciste-films for French producers.


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 368. Photo: Bartolomeo Pagano aka Maciste in Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone, 1926).


Trailer for Maciste all’Inferno/Maciste in Hell (1926). Source: Comfort Film (YouTube).


Monumento Quarto dei Mille (1915) by Eugenio Baroni. Near the site of this statue Giuseppe Garibaldi took off to liberate Sicily from the Bourbon regime in 1860, together with his Thousand volunteers. In 1915 the monument was inaugurated with a speech by Gabriele D'Annunzio. Apparently the former Genovese dock worker Bartolomeo Pagano, who had become a major film star as Maciste in Giovanni Pastrone's Cabiria (1914), had modelled for the statue of Garibaldi. So when the statue was revealed audiences whispered that Garibaldi looked a lot like Maciste, their local hero who had become an international star. Quarto or Quarto del mare used to be a separate community but later on became part of the city of Genoa.

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Maciste & Co. I giganti buoni del cinema italiano), Jim Beaver (IMDb), Wikipedia (Italian and English) and IMDb.

Maciste all’Inferno (1926)

Maciste all’Inferno/Maciste in Hell (Guido Brignone, 1926) once inspired the young Federico Fellini to become a film director. He loved the silent film because of its weird, fairy-tale-like atmosphere. Italian actor Bartolomeo Pagano played the strong man Maciste for the first time in Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone, 1914). The enormous success of that film classic launched a series of Maciste films, produced in Italy and Germany.


Bartolomeo Pagano alias Maciste. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 478/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Riess.


Bartolomeo Pagano alias Maciste. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 478/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Riess.

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Publicity still for Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone 1926). Caption: "The Inhabitants of the Underworld."


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Publicity still for Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone 1926). Caption: "Maciste (Bartolomeo Pagano) called before king Pluto (Umberto Guarracino)". At the right, seen on the back, Pluto's daughter Luciferina (Lucia Zanussi) is standing. The bold guy on the left must be Gerione (Mario Saio).


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Publicity still for Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone 1926), starring Bartolomeo Pagano as Maciste. Caption: "The Tomb of the Heresiarchs [heretics]."

A call for Maciste

In 1913, film director and producer Giovanni Pastrone, manager of the Itala company of Turin, released a call for the interpreter of the character of the Nubic slave Maciste (a character created together with Gabriele D’Annunzio) for Pastrone’s super-production Cabiria (1914).

Out of 50 candidates from all over Italy, Pastrone selected Bartolomeo Pagano. According to another version, it was actor Domenico Gambino who noticed Pagano and signalled him to Pastrone, who, impressed by his physique, hired him for his epic film.

Overnight Pagano became an international success because of his physique and his image of courageous, humorous and no-nonsensical defender of the weak. In Cabiria he uses his power to rescue a Roman girl out of the hands of the Carthaginian priests who want to offer her to Moloch.

Pastrone immediately saw opportunities and launched a series of films just around his character, starting with a film just called Maciste (1915). Deliberately, Maciste’s part in Cabiria, the splendour of the Itala studio, and Maciste’s work there, were shown to impress audiences and tie them to the previous box office hit.

Of course the plot deals with a damsel in distress, whom Maciste saves with his muscles and his wit. During the First World War Pastrone used Maciste for war propaganda in Maciste alpino (1916), in which Maciste fiercely opposes the Austrian soldiers when he and his colleagues are captured during a film shoot on location.

The success of the film made Pastrone exploit Maciste in all kinds of situations and genres, but mostly in the adventure and crime genre: Maciste medium, Maciste atleta, Maciste poliziotto (all 1918), Maciste innamorato (1919), La trilogia di Maciste (1920), Maciste salvato dalle acque, Maciste in vacanza (both 1921).

By now Pastrone did not direct the films anymore but left this task to skilled directors like Luigi Romano Borgnetto. While not all of these were good productions, a better example was La Trilogia di Maciste by Carlo Campogalliani.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Bartolomeo Pagano as Maciste in Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone, 1926).


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Franz Sala as the devil Barbariccia in Maciste all’inferno (Guido Brigone, 1926). Franz Sala aka Francesco Sala (1886-1952) was a prolific actor of the Italian silent cinema, mostly playing the evil antagonist. In the 1930s he was active as makeup artist.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 714. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Elena Sangro as Proserpina, wife of Pluto, king of the underworld, in Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone, 1926).


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Domenico Serra as Giorgio in Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone 1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 715. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Pauline Polaire in Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone, 1926).


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Publicity still for Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone, 1926), starring Bartolomeo Pagano as Maciste and Pauline Polaire as Graziella.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Publicity still for Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone, 1926), starring Bartolomeo Pagano as Maciste and Umberto Guarracino as King Pluto.

The outside world didn’t know

In Italy a strong man or forzuti genre in film sprang up, creating space for characters such as Ausonia, Galaor, Ajax, and Sansone, and attracting competing strong men and physical culture champions such as Giovanni Raicevich.

Pagano’s Maciste was also simply pirated abroad, such as by the French actor Michel Bonnet with his character Magiste, and another rip-off in Mexico. French critic Louis Delluc called him the Guitry of biceps, while newcomers Ultus (Aurele Sydney) and Douglas Fairbanks were launched as the British and the American Maciste.

In the late 1910s and early 1920s Maciste’s popularity was biggest in Austria and Germania, despite the preceding anti-Austrian Maciste alpino. At home in Italy, Maciste’s image of superman coincided with the new fascist ideology. In the 1920s Pagano was one of the best paid actors of his times, sometimes gaining 600.000 lire a year.

The Maciste-films continued until the early-1920s, when, not so much because of the collapse of the Italian film production but rather because of a fabulous contract, Pagano went to Berlin, the mecca of the European film industry. Here he stayed between 1921 and 1923, but according to the film press he wasn’t as successful there as in Italy.

He played in Maciste und die Javanerin (Uwe Jenss Kraft, 1921), Maciste und die Tochter des Silberkönig (Luigi Romano Borgnetto, 1921), Maciste und der Sträfling Nr. 51 (Luigi Romano Borgnetto 1921), and Maciste und die Chinesische Truhe (Carl Boese, 1923).

Dissatisfied Pagano returned to Italy, where producer Stefano Pittaluga immediately put him on a transatlantic for the film Maciste e il nipote d’America (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1924), which included scenes shot in New York.

Among less convincing titles such as Maciste imperatore (Guido Brignone), the same Brignone directed Pagano in Maciste all’Inferno (Guido Brignone, 1926), a witty and artful pastiche on Dante, Doré, Méliès, Expressionism and medieval illustrations. It also contains ingenious special effects by ‘magician’ Segundo de Chomon.

The devil takes Maciste down to hell in an attempt to corrupt and ruin his morality.

When entering Hades, Maciste is being seduced by Proserpina, played by Italian diva Elena Sangro, and he turns into a hairy devil himself. The film was dear to Federico Fellini, because of its weird, fairy-tale-like atmosphere; the film supposedly inspired him to become film director.

Bored with his Maciste films, Pagano asked and got different roles: Il vetturale del Moncenisio (Baldassarre Negroni, 1927), Giuditta e Oloferne (1928) starring Jia Ruskaja, and his last part (a secondary one by now) in L’ultimo Zar (Baldassarre Negroni, 1928).

Afflicted by diabetes, though, Pagano withdrew to his Villa Maciste in Sant’Ilario Ligure near Genua. Physical mishap destroyed his forces, typhoid reduced his weight in drastic ways, while arthritis even obliged him to spend his last years in a wheelchair. The outside world didn’t know.

Bartolomeo Pagano died in Genua on 24 June 1947, because of a heart attack. According to Italian film historian Vittorio Martinelli, Pagano never was a real actor, but rather the lively personification of a character from popular literature.

His character’s name though remains as synonym for power and courage. In 1960-1965 Maciste was revived in the sword and sandal films with Mark Forrest, Gordon Scott, Kirk Morris, Ed Fury and other bodybuilders, while in the early 1970s Jesus Franco made two low-budget Maciste-films for French producers.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 9. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Elena Sangro as Cinzia and René [Raoul] Mayllard as prince Otis [Ortis]in the Fert production Maciste imperatore (Guido Brignone, 1924). In the kingdom of Sindagna, the prince regent Stanos tries with all means to dispose of the legitimate heir to the throne, prince Ortis. When Maciste and Saetta happen to be in the chaotic empire, they set things straight for the poor, weak prince. Maciste is proclaimed emperor of Sindagna after getting rid of the regent and his puppet ruler, restores peace, and arranges that the prince can also be united with his beloved one. The plot line comes close Mussolini's take over of Italy, 'helping' the weak king Victor Emmanuel III and 'restoring order'.


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 368. Bartolomeo Pagano aka Maciste in Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone, 1926).


Italian postcard. Photo: Pittaluga Film, Turin. Maciste (Bartolomeo Pagano) in Maciste contro lo sceicco/Maciste against the Sheik (Mario Camerini, 1926).


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 76. Photo: Pittaluga Film, Turin. Maciste (Bartolomeo Pagano) in Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni/Maciste in the Lion's cage (Guido Brignone, 1926).


Italian postcard. Photo: Pittaluga Film, Turin. Maciste (Bartolomeo Pagano) in Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni/Maciste in the Lion's cage (Guido Brignone, 1926).


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 787. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Cecyl Tryan in the Fert production Maciste contro lo sceicco/Maciste against the Sheik (Mario Camerini, 1926). Cecyl Tryan is the young girl whose tutor (Franz Sala) and his spendthrift mistress (Rita d'Harcourt) want to steal her inheritance, and sell her to a sheik. Aboard the ship she is menaced by the crew but a young sailor (Lido Manetti) and Maciste (Bartolomeo Pagano) rescue her. In the harbour the sheik manages to abduct the girl and place her in his harem, but Maciste and the young man use power and wits to liberate her, defeat the sheik and sail back to Italy to set things straight there too.


Spanish version of Italian postcard. Retro announcing Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone, 1926) at the Cine Moderno. Tipografia de Antonio Homar. Pont d'Inca. Thursday 2 September refers to the year 1926.

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Maciste & Co. I giganti buoni del cinema italiano - Italian), Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.