Ermanno Roveri

Italian actor Ermanno Roveri (1903-1968) became famous in 1913/1914 as Frugolino, one of the comic child stars of Cines. Later he starred for the Turninese company Gloria in silent melodramas such as Il piccolo patriota padovano / The Little Patriot from Padua (1915) and Naufragio / Shipwreck (1916).


Italian postcard, no. 3371. Photo: Film Artistica Gloria, Torino. Ermanno Roveri in Il piccolo patriota padovano / The Little Patriot from Padua (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Caption: Take back your money, the boy disdainfully said, for I won't take any alms from those who insult my Country.


Italian postcard by Film Artistica Floria, Torino (Turin), no. 3404. Printed by Uff. Rev. St. Terni, 16-5-17. Ermanno Roveri in Naufragio / Shipwreck (Umberto Paradisi, 1916). Caption: He had the look of a boy who had just come out of a big family misfortune.


Italian postcard by Alterocca, Terni. Photo: Film Artistica Gloria, Torino (Turin). Ermanno Roveri in Valor civile / Civic Value (Umberto Paradisi, 1916), based on the short stories in 'Cuore' by Edmondo De Amicis. Caption: he furiously fought with the wave that wanted to tear him down. He remained obstinate, invincible in his holy plight.


Italian postcard. Ermanno Roveri in Dagli Appennini alle Ande / From the Apennines to the Andes (Umberto Paradisi, 1916), an adaptation of one of the stories of Edmondo De Amicis' novel 'Cuore' (Heart). Translation caption: 'Dear son, Marco mine', his father said to him, 'you now leave on a holy mission, and God will help you'. The background may be the harbour of Genoa.

Child star Frugolino

Ermanno Roveri was born in 1903 in Milan, Italy. As a child, he became famous as Frugolino, one of the comic child actors of the Cines company in Rome.

Among his early films were Il Trabocchetto punitore / Fatal Trap Door (1912) with Emilio Ghione and Amleto Novelli, and Il Portafoglio rosso / The Lost Pocket-Book (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1914) with Lea Giunchi. Ermanno appeared opposite diva Leda Gys in Il Piccolo cerinaio / The Small Cerinaio (Augusto Genina, 1914).

After 1914, he became one of the stars of Gloria, the film company in Turin that also produced the first films of diva Lyda Borelli. Gloria produced a series of films based on the stories in the children's book 'Cuore' (Heart, 1886) by Italian author Edmondo De Amicis (1846-1908). 'Cuore' is his best-known work to this day, having been inspired by his own children, Furio and Ugo, who had been schoolboys at the time. It is set during the Italian unification and includes several patriotic themes. The book's strong evocation of Italian nationalism and patriotism also made it very welcome in Fascist Italy. Cuore was adapted for the screen several times.

In 1915-1916, the Italian company Gloria Film made a series of seven silent films, based on the stories. These films included Il piccolo scrivano fiorentino / The Little Scribe from Florence (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915) and Il piccolo patriota padovano / The Little Patriot from Padua (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). In Il piccolo scrivano fiorentino / The Little Scribe from Florence (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915), Giulio (Roveri), a 12-year-old boy from Florence, lacks sleep as he secretly helps his father (Antonio Monti) copy volumes at night. His parents reproach him, as he loses weight and lacks attention in school. One night, however, the father discovers the secret.

In Il piccolo patriota padovano / The Little Patriot from Padua, Ermanno Roveri played a young boy from Padua, dressed in rags, who is discovered on a boat to Genoa. His poor parents have sold him to acrobats, who maltreat him. During a stop in Barcelona, he flees to the Italian consul, who helps him return. Aboard the ship to Italy, he is nurtured, dressed, and foreign visitors give him money. When he overhears them talking badly about Italy and the Italians, he throws the money back at them. He does not accept alimony from those who insult his country!


Italian postcard, no. 3386. Photo: Film Artistica Gloria, Torino. Ermanno Roveri in Il piccolo scrivano fiorentino / The Little Scribe from Florence (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Caption: He didn't love him anymore. There was no doubt now. He was dead in the heart of his father...


Italian postcard, no. 3386. Photo: Film Artistica Gloria, Torino. Ermanno Roveri in Il piccolo scrivano fiorentino / The Little Scribe from Florence (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Caption: One night, for the first time in his life, he fell asleep over his notebook. Wake up! Wake up! His father shouted to him, Get to work!


Italian postcard, no. 3386. Photo: Film Artistica Gloria, Torino. Ermanno Roveri in Il piccolo scrivano fiorentino / The Little Scribe from Florence (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Caption: 'Oh, Daddy! Daddy, forgive me, forgive me!' he cried, recognising his father.


Italian postcard, no. 3371. Photo: Film Artistica Gloria, Torino. Ermanno Roveri in Il piccolo patriota padovano / The Little Patriot from Padua (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Caption: ...No longer able to stand the beatings and the hunger, he escapes his tormentor.


Italian postcard, no. 3371. Photo: Film Artistica Gloria, Torino. Ermanno Roveri in Il piccolo patriota padovano / The Little Patriot from Padua (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Caption: His bad parents continuously beat and abused him.


Italian postcard, no. 3371. Photo: Film Artistica Gloria, Torino. Ermanno Roveri in Il piccolo patriota padovano / The Little Patriot from Padua (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Caption: He ran to ask for protection from the Italian consul.

A Sicilian orphan

For Gloria, Ermanno Roveri appeared in such films as Dagli Appennini alle Ande / From the Apennines to the Andes (Umberto Paradisi, 1916) and La Felicità / Happiness (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1917). He also played in the Gloria production Naufragio / Shipwreck (Umberto Paradisi, 1916) as a Sicilian orphan, Mario, who is repatriated from Liverpool to Sicily. On the boat, he meets Giulietta (played by Ermanno’s sister, Lavinia Roveri), who has to return to her parents in Naples. During a tempest, the boat sinks and Mario offers his seat in the lifeboat to Giulietta. Mario drowns on the sinking ship.

In Dagli Appennini alle Ande / From the Apennines to the Andes (Umberto Paradisi, 1916), young Marco (Roveri) from Genoa sails to Buenos Aires to visit his seriously ill mother, who emigrated for work. While his mother refuses any cure, Marco wanders around endlessly in search of his mother. Marco follows the traces of the family for whom his mother worked, all over Argentina until the foot of the Andes Mountains. He first joins a caravan, but when they abandon him, he continues on his own until he finds his mother, who then agrees to be operated on and cured.

During the early 1920s, Ermanno Roveri appeared as a young adult in silent productions by Lombardo Films such as Il re della forza / The King of Strength (Ubaldo Maria Del Colle, 1920) opposite the famous wrestler Giovanni Raicevich, I figli di nessuno / Nobody's Children (Ubaldo Maria Del Colle, 1921) starring Leda Gys, and Il disco d'oro / The Gold Record (Francesco Bertolini, 1921).

In the 1930s and 1940s, Ermanno Roveri played in a dozen Italian films, including Tempo massimo / Full Speed (Mario Mattoli, 1934) and L'Uomo che sorride / The Man Who Smiles (Mario Mattoli, 1936), both starring Vittorio De Sica.

His last film appearance was in I Due sergenti / The Two Sergeants (Carlo Alberto Chiesa, 1951) with Antonella Lualdi. Till his death, Ermanno Roveri worked in theatre and incidentally in cinema or television. In 1968, he died in Milan, Italy. He was 65.


Italian postcard by Stabilimenti Alterocca, Terni. Photo: Gloria. Ermanno Roveri in Dagli Appennini alle Ande / From the Apennines to the Andes (Umberto Paradisi, 1916). Caption: The head [the head conductor of the convoy of wagons] surveyed him with a keen glance, and replied drily, “I have no place”.


Italian postcard by Stabilimenti Alterocca, Terni. Photo: Gloria. Ermanno Roveri in Dagli Appennini alle Ande / From the Apennines to the Andes (Umberto Paradisi, 1916). Caption: For three days he remained in the wagon, fighting a fever, and seeing no one except the head, who came to give him to drink.


Italian postcard by Uff. Rev. St. Terni, 16-5-17, no. 3404. Photo: Film Artistica Gloria, Torino (Turin). Ermanno Roveri in Naufragio / Shipwreck (Umberto Paradisi, 1916). Caption: They saw all around them persons frozen like statues, with eyes wide open and with blank stares, with the faces of corpses and madmen.


Italian postcard by Uff. Rev. St. Terni, 16-5-17, no. 3404. Photo: Film Artistica Gloria, Torino (Turin). Ermanno Roveri in Naufragio / Shipwreck (Umberto Paradisi, 1916). Caption: In the interior of the vessel, confusion started as well as fright, and an uproar of weeping and prayers.


Italian postcard by Alterocca, Terni. Photo: Film Artistica Gloria, Torino (Turin). Ermanno Roveri in Valor civile / Civic Value (Umberto Paradisi, 1916), based on one of the short stories in 'Cuore' by Edmondo de Amicis. Caption: When he saw from the riverbank that his friend was fighting in the river, already taken by the terror of death...


Italian postcard by Alterocca, Terni. Photo: Film Artistica Gloria, Torino (Turin). Ermanno Roveri in Valor civile / Civic Value (Umberto Paradisi, 1916). Caption: The young swimmer saved the victim from the giant river and brought him to the river's edge. In the town hall, there is a solemn ceremony for the medal for civic value. The winner is a Piedmont boy (Ermanno Roveri) who has risked his life to save that of a fellow (Antonio Monti) who was drowning in the river Po.


Italian postcard by Alterocca, Terni. Photo: Film Artistica Gloria, Torino (Turin). Ermanno Roveri in Valor civile / Civic Value (Umberto Paradisi, 1916), based on the short stories in 'Cuore' by Edmondo de Amicis. Caption: ... and a boy of eight or nine years old, pushed forward by a woman, threw himself on the decorated one.

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Il Cinema Italiano 1916) and IMDb.

Valor civile (1916)

In 1915-1916, the Italian company Gloria Film made a series of nine short silent films based on the stories in the book 'Cuore' (Heart) by Edmondo De Amicis. Last Friday, we did a post on the seventh film, Il piccolo patriota padovano/The little patriot from Padua (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Today follows the eighth film of the series, Valor civile/Civic Value (Umberto Paradisi, 1916), again with child actor Ermanno Roveri in the lead role. Stabilimenti Alterocca in Terni published another series of postcards to promote the film. Next Friday follows a post on the ninth and final part of this film series.


Italian postcard. Alterocca, Terni. Gloria Film. Card for Valor civile/Civic Value (Umberto Paradisi, 1916). Caption: When he saw from the river bank that his friend was fighting in the river, already taken by the terror of death...


Italian postcard by Alterocca, Terni. Photo: Gloria Film. Card for Valor civile/Civic Value (Umberto Paradisi, 1916). Caption: he furiously fought with the wave that wanted to tear him down, he remained obstinate, invincible in his holy plight.

Risking his life to save that of a fellow

In the silent short Valor civile/Civic Value (Umberto Paradisi, 1916), Ermanno Roveri plays a Piedmont boy who risks his life to save that of a fellow (Antonio Monti) who is drowning in the river Po.

Later in the town hall, there is a solemn ceremony of handing over the medal for civil valour. And the winner is ...

Roveri and Monti had also appeared together in another short film of the Cuore series, Il piccolo scrivano fiorentino/The little scribe from Florence (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Monti would also play in the diva film La Moglie di Claudio/The Wife of Claudius (Gero Zambuto, Giovanni Pastrone, 1918) starring Pina Menichelli, and a dozen other films till 1924.

In the Cuore films, the heroes are young Italian school boys who sacrifice themselves for their country and fight against the enemies at all time, even in distant wars. The Piedmont boy however survives his courageous action.

Valor civile/Civic Value (Umberto Paradisi, 1916) was again produced by Film Artistica Gloria and the cinematography was done by Giacomo Farò.


Italian postcard by Alterocca, Terni. Photo: Gloria Film. Card for Valor civile/Civic Value (Umberto Paradisi 1916). Caption: The young swimmer liberated the victim from the giant river and brought him to the river's edge.


Italian postcard by Alterocca, Terni. Photo: Gloria Film. Card for Valor civile/Civic Value (Umberto Paradisi 1916). Caption: ... and a boy of eight or nine years old, pushed forward by a woman, threw himself on the decorated one.

Inspired by his own children

Edmondo de Amicis. Italian postcard by Intermail, Bergamo. Photo: Bompiani, Sonzogno. Italian author Edmondo de Amicis (1846-1908) was the author of the 1886 children's novel Cuore (Heart). De Amicis was a novelist, journalist, short story writer, and poet. Cuore is his best known work to this day, having been inspired by his own children Furio and Ugo who had been schoolboys at the time. It is set during the Italian unification, and includes several patriotic themes. It was issued by Treves on 18 October 1886, the first day of school in Italy, and rose to immediate success.

Edmondo de Amicis wrote Cuore in a diary form as told by Enrico Bottini, an 11-year-old primary school student in Turin with an upper class background who is surrounded by classmates of working class origin. The entire chronological setting corresponds to the third-grade season of 1881-1882. Enrico says it has been four years since death of Victor Emmanuel II, king of Italy, and the succession by Umberto I, and also tells about the death of Giuseppe Garibaldi, which happened in 1882. Enrico's parents and older sister Silvia interact with him as written in his diary. As well as his teacher who assigns him with homework that deals with several different stories of children throughout the Italian states who should be seen as role models – these stories are then given in the book as Enrico comes upon reading them. Every story revolves around a different moral value, the most prominent of which are helping those in need, having great love and respect for family and friends, and patriotism. These are called 'The Monthly Stories' and appear at the end of every school month.

Sources: Film Affinity and IMDb. For the full film, see Europeana.eu.

Il piccolo patriota padovano (1915)

In 1915-1916, the Italian company Gloria Film made a series of nine short silent films based on the stories in the book 'Cuore' (Heart) by Edmondo De Amicis. Earlier we did posts on six of the films: Il piccolo scrivano fiorentino (1915), La piccola vedetta lombarda (1915), Il tamburino sardo (1915), Dagli Appennini alle Ande (1916), Naufragio (1916) and Sangue Romagnolo (1916). In the seventh, Il piccolo patriota padovano/The little patriot from Padua (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915), child actor Ermanno Roveri plays the lead role once more. Stabilimenti Alterocca in Terni published again a series of postcards to promote the film.


Italian postcard by Stabilimenti Alterocca, Terni, no. 3371. Photo: Film Artistica Gloria, Torino. Publicity still for Il piccolo patriota padovano (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Caption: His bad parents continuously beated and abused him.


Italian postcard by Stabilimenti Alterocca, Terni, no. 3371. Photo: Film Artistica Gloria, Torino. Publicity still for Il piccolo patriota padovano (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Caption: Until, one day, they sold him to a group of acrobats.


Italian postcard by Stabilimenti Alterocca, Terni, no. 3371. Photo: Film Artistica Gloria, Torino. Ermanno Roveri in Il piccolo patriota padovano (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Caption: No longer able to stand the beatings and the hunger, he escapes his tormentor.


Italian postcard by Stabilimenti Alterocca, Terni, no. 3371. Photo: Film Artistica Gloria, Torino. Ermanno Roveri in Il piccolo patriota padovano (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Caption: Sad, tired, and hungry inside, the poor boy walked on.

Young Italians sacrificing themselves for their country

In 1886, Edmondo De Amicis' published his popular children's book 'Cuore' (Heart), a volume with nine stories. In Cuore, De Amicis tells about the life of nine boys in a school class in the city of Turin. Cuore is written in a diary form as told by Enrico Bottini, an 11-year-old primary school boy in Turin with an upper class background who is surrounded by working class school mates. The stories are set during the Italian unification, and include several patriotic themes. The other boys are from various parts of Italy, giving a strong hint to the unity between the various regions of the Kingdom, both culturally as well as politically. The book was issued on 18 October 1886, the first day of school in Italy, and rose to an immediate success.

Through the years there were many film adaptations of the book. In 1915-1916, the company Film Artistica Gloria in Turin turned the stories of Cuore into a series of nine short silent films to support the war effort during World War I. In these shorts, the heroes are again nine young Italian boys who sacrifice themselves for their country and fight against the enemies at all time, even in distant wars.

Earlier we did posts on six other films of the series: Il piccolo scrivano fiorentino//The little scribe from Florence (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915), La piccola vedetta lombarda/The little lookout from Lombardy (Vittorio Rossi-Pianelli, 1915), Il tamburino sardo/The Little Drummer Boy (Vittorio Rossi Pianelli, 1915), Dagli Appennini alle Ande/From the Apennines to the Andes (Umberto Paradisi, 1916), Naufragio/Shipwreck (Umberto Paradisi, 1916) and Sangue Romagnolo/Blood from the Romagna (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1916). Today follows the seventh of the nine films, Il piccolo patriota padovano/The little patriot from Padua (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915), starring the cute Ermanno Roveri.

Ermanno Roveri (1903-1968) started his career as a child star. In 1913-1914, he had become famous as Frugolino, one of the comic child actors of the Cines company in Rome. In the 1930s and 1940s Ermanno played in a dozen Italian films. He would continue to work in the theatre and incidentally in cinema or on television till his death in 1968. For Gloria Film, he appeared also in the Cuore films Il piccolo scrivano fiorentino//The little scribe from Florence (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915), Dagli Appennini alle Ande/From the Apennines to the Andes (Umberto Paradisi, 1916), and Naufragio/Shipwreck (Umberto Paradisi, 1916).

In Il piccolo patriota padovano/The little patriot from Padua (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915), Roveri plays a young boy from Padua, dressed in rags, who is discovered on a boat to Genua. His poor parents have sold him to acrobats, who maltreat him. During a stop in Barcelona, he flees to the Italian consul who helps him return. Aboard the ship to Italy he is nurtured, dressed and foreign visitors give him money, but when he overhears them talking badly about Italy and the Italians, he throws hem back the money, not supporting alimony from those who insult his country.

Posts on the other two films in the Cuore series will follow in the next weeks at EFSP.


Italian postcard by Stabilimenti Alterocca, Terni, no. 3371. Photo: Film Artistica Gloria, Torino. Publicity still for Il piccolo patriota padovano (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Caption: He ran to ask for protection to the Italian consul.


Italian postcard by Stabilimenti Alterocca, Terni, no. 3371. Photo: Film Artistica Gloria, Torino. Publicity still for Il piccolo patriota padovano (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Caption: Those travelers were not Italians, but they understood him and gave him money, jesting with him and urging him on to tell them other things.


Italian postcard by Stabilimenti Alterocca, Terni, no. 3371. Photo: Film Artistica Gloria, Torino. Publicity still for Il piccolo patriota padovano (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Caption: They drank and discoursed their travels, and from one story to another they started to say evils things about Italy.


Italian postcard by Stabilimenti Alterocca, Terni, no. 3371. Photo: Film Artistica Gloria, Torino. Ermanno Roveri in Il piccolo patriota padovano (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Caption: Take back your money, the boy disdainfully said, for I won't take any alms from those who insult my Country.

Sources: Wikipedia (Italian and English), IMDb, and the postcards.

Il piccolo scrivano fiorentino (1915)

Last week we did a post on the Italian silent film Naufragio/Shipwreck (Umberto Paradisi, 1915). Like Naufragio, Il piccolo scrivano fiorentino/The little scribe from Florence (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915) is based on one of the stories from Edmondo De Amicis' book Cuore (Heart, 1886). Child actor Ermanno Roveri is also the star of this film and again the film was produced by Film Artistica Gloria.


Italian postcard by Film Artistica Gloria, Torino, no. 3386. Photo: publicity still for Il piccolo scrivano fiorentino (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Caption: One night, for the first time in his life, he fell asleep over his notebook. Wake up! Wake up! his father shouted to him, Get to work!


Italian postcard by Film Artistica Gloria, Torino, no. 3386. Photo: publicity still for Il piccolo scrivano fiorentino (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Caption: 'Giulio is ill. Look how pale he is.' His father said: 'It is his bad conscience which gives him bad health.'


Italian postcard by Film Artistica Gloria, Torino, no. 3386. Photo: publicity still for Il piccolo scrivano fiorentino (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Caption: He didn't love him anymore, there was no doubt now, he was dead in the heart of his father...

The secret of a son

Italian actor Ermanno Roveri started his career as child star, a.o. in the adaptations of the stories from Edmondo De Amicis' novel Cuore, including Il piccolo patriota padovano/The little patriot from Padua (1915), Dagli Appennini alle Ande/From the Apennines to the Andes (Umberto Paradisi, 1916), and Naufragio/Shipwreck (Umberto Paradisi, 1916).

In Il piccolo scrivano fiorentino, Ermanno Roveri plays Giulio, a 12-year old boy from Florence. The boy lacks sleep as he secretly helps his father (Antonio Monti) copying volumes at night.

His parents reproach him, as Giulio loses weight and lacks attention in school. One night, however, the father discovers the secret of his son...

All the Cuore-adaptations were filmed in 1915-1916 for the company Gloria Film in Turin. The stories were set during the Italian unification, and include several patriotic themes.

In the films, the heroes were young Italians who sacrificed themselves for their country and fought against the enemies at all time, even in distant wars. Gloria understood how to support through cinema the war effort during World War I.


Italian postcard by Film Artistica Gloria, Torino, no. 3386. Photo: publicity still of Ermanno Roveri and Antonio Monti in Il piccolo scrivano fiorentino (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Caption: 'Oh, Daddy! Daddy, forgive me, forgive me!', he cried, recognising his father.


Italian postcard by Film Artistica Gloria, Torino, no. 3386. Photo: publicity still for Il piccolo scrivano fiorentino (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Caption: 'Kiss this dear angel of a son of mine, who for three months hasn't slept and has worked in my place.'


Italian postcard by Film Artistica Gloria, Torino, no. 3386. Photo: publicity still for Il piccolo scrivano fiorentino (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Caption: 'Now go straight to bed, my child, go to sleep and rest.'

Source: Europeana, Wikipedia (Italian and English) and IMDb.

Naufragio (1916)

Italian child star Ermanno Roveri (1903-1968) played the lead in the silent melodrama Naufragio/Shipwreck (Umberto Paradisi, 1916). Naufragio was part of a series of films based on the stories in Cuore (1886) by Edmondo De Amicis.


Italian postcard by Film Artistica Gloria, Torino (Turin), no. 3404. Printed by Uff. Rev. St. Terni, 16-5-17. Caption: He had the look of a boy who just came out of a big family misfortune.


Italian postcard by Film Artistica Floria, Torino (Turin), no. 3404. Printed by Uff. Rev. St. Terni, 16-5-17. Caption: Be cheerful, the Italian sailor cried to them, now a ballet starts!


Italian postcard by Film Artistica Floria, Torino (Turin), no. 3404. Printed by Uff. Rev. St. Terni, 16-5-17. Caption: Curled up against the vessel's mast, Mario and Giulietta stared at the sea with fixed eyes, as if senseless.

An Orphan on a Sinking Ship

Ermanno Roveri played the Sicilian orphan Mario, who is repatriated from Liverpool to Sicily. On the boat he meets Giulietta (played by Ermanno’s sister, Lavinia Roveri), who has to return to her parents in Naples.

During a tempest the boat sinks and Mario offers his seat in the lifeboat to Giulietta. Mario drowns on the sinking ship.

Naufragio was a production of Gloria, the film company in Turin that also produced the first films of diva Lyda Borelli. Gloria produced a series of films based on the stories in Cuore (1886) by Edmondo De Amicis.

Roveri acted in many of these films, including Dagli Appennini alle Ande, Naufragio, Il piccolo patriota padovano and Il piccolo scrivano fiorentino. These were all produced during the First World War.

Ermanno Roveri thus was one of the stars of Gloria. In 1913-1914 he had become famous as Frugolino, one of the comic child actors of the Cines company in Rome.

In the 1930s and 1940s Ermanno played in a dozen Italian films. He would continue to work in the theatre and incidentally in cinema or on television till his death in 1968.


Italian postcard by Film Artistica Floria, Torino (Turin), no. 3404. Printed by Uff. Rev. St. Terni, 16-5-17. Caption: In the interior of the vessel a confusion started as well as fright, and an uproar of weeping and prayers.


Italian postcard by Film Artistica Floria, Torino (Turin), no. 3404. Printed by Uff. Rev. St. Terni, 16-5-17. Caption: They saw all around them persons frozen like statues, with eyes wide open and with blank stares, with the faces of corpses and madmen.


Italian postcard by Film Artistica Floria, Torino (Turin), no. 3404. Printed by Uff. Rev. St. Terni, 16-5-17. Caption: Goodbye, Mario!, she cried among her sobs with her arms extended towards him.

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Il Cinema Italiano 1916) and IMDb.

Dagli Appennini alle Ande (1916)

We start a new, weekly series of film specials at EFSP. Today, a post about a quite unknown Italian film from the silent era, Dagli Appennini alle Ande/From the Apennines to the Andes (1916), based on a story by Edmondo De Amicis from the volume Cuore (Heart). The film was directed by Umberto Paradisi and starred Ermanno Roveri as little Marco. A series of 8 sepia postcards was published for the film.


Italian postcard by Stabilimenti Alterocca, Terni. Photo: Gloria Film. Publicity still for Dagli Appennini alle Ande (Umberto Paradisi, 1916). Caption: He filled a sack with clothes for him, and gave him the address of the cousin.


Italian postcard by Stabilimenti Alterocca, Terni. Photo: Gloria Film. Publicity still for Dagli Appennini alle Ande (Umberto Paradisi, 1916). Caption: My son, my Marco, the father said to him, you have set out on a holy undertaking, and God will aid you.

A sheer endless trip

The story of Dagli Appennini alle Ande/From the Apennines to the Andes narrates about a poor boy from Genoa, Marco (played by the then twelve years old Ermanno Roveri), whose mother is working in Argentine and has not responded to the mail from Italy anymore.

His father and oldest brother cannot leave work, so young Marco leaves to make the big journey, helped and waved goodbye by his father. He sails from Genoa to Buenos Aires.

In Buenos Aires he discovers that his parent's cousin Francesco Merelli, who had helped as an intermediate has died, and that his mother has moved to Cordova, together with the family she works for.

This is the start from a sheer endless trip through the country, with Marco always discovering that the family has moved to yet another city.

Re-meeting an old Italian he met before on the ocean liner, the man pities Marco and raises money in a bar to help him.

Marco pleas to a man with a cart (the head of a convoy of wagons) to take him along, which the guy first refuses but then accepts, in trade of Marco doing hard work for him. When the boy falls ill, the man pities him and takes care of him.

After more hardship, including a walk for miles and miles, Marco finally finds his mother, who had fallen ill and had refused to be operated. Now she will and she will be saved as well.

Marco's mother was played by Fernanda Roveri, Ermanno's real mother.


Italian postcard by Stabilimenti Alterocca, Terni. Photo: Gloria Film. Publicity still for Dagli Appennini alle Ande (Umberto Paradisi, 1916). Caption: “Well, then,” said the labourer, “keep straight on through there, reading the names of all the streets on the corners; you will end by finding the one you want.”


Italian postcard by Stabilimenti Alterocca, Terni. Photo: Gloria Film. Publicity still for Dagli Appennini alle Ande (Umberto Paradisi, 1916). Caption: "Is not this,” said the boy, “the shop of Francesco Merelli?”

A more refined idea

In 1994, Dagli Appennini alle Ande (1916) was restored and presented at the Cinema Ritrovato festival in Bologna.

Vittorio Martinelli wrote in the catalogue: "Film Artistica Gloria was the first film company to understand that to support, through cinema, the war effort during World War I, you could not, as most of the production houses were doing, rely on a ridiculous strongmen as Maciste or on a comedian as Cretinetti who succeeded to bring down a whole regiment of Krauts with his jokes and to win the war.

Gloria had a more refined idea and adapted for the screen the stories from the book Cuore (Heart), where the heroes were young Italians who sacrificed themselves for their country and fought against the enemies at all time, even in distant wars."

Dagli Appennini alle Ande had a good reception in Italy. During World War II, a new sound version was produced, Dagli Appennini alle Ande (Flavio Calzavara, 1943), starring Cesare Barbetti as Marco and Leda Gloria as his mother.

In 1959 followed again new version, Dagli Appennini alle Ande (Folco Quilici, 1959). The lead roles were played by Marco Paoletti as Marco, Eleonora Rossi Drago as his mother, and Fausto Tozzi as his father.

Finally, there was also a TV mini-series, Dagli Appennini alle Ande (Pino Passalacqua, 1990), with Umberto Caglini as Marco, and Giuliano Gemma.


Italian postcard by Stabilimenti Alterocca, Terni. Photo: Gloria Film. Publicity still for Dagli Appennini alle Ande (Umberto Paradisi, 1916). Caption: “To the health of your mother!” And Marco repeated, sobbing, “To the health of my mother.”


Italian postcard by Stabilimenti Alterocca, Terni. Photo: Gloria Film. Publicity still for Dagli Appennini alle Ande (Umberto Paradisi, 1916). Caption: The head [the head conductor of the convoy of wagons] surveyed him with a keen glance, and replied drily, “I have no place.”


Italian postcard by Stabilimenti Alterocca, Terni. Photo: Gloria Film. Publicity still for Dagli Appennini alle Ande (Umberto Paradisi, 1916). Caption: For three days he remained in the wagon, fighting a fever, and seeing no one except the head, who came to give him to drink.


Italian postcard by Stabilimenti Alterocca, Terni. Photo: Gloria Film. Publicity still for Dagli Appennini alle Ande (Umberto Paradisi, 1916). Caption: She stretched out to him her fleshless arms, and she burst into a violent laugh.


Italian postcard by Stabilimenti Alterocca, Terni. Photo: Gloria Film. This is the cover of the complete series of 8 postcards for Dagli Appennini alle Ande (1916).

Some of the postcards depict situations differently from the film. For the full film of 37 minutes, see Cinestore of Cineteca di Bologna. See also: De amicis Letteratura opera omnia.

In the right column you will find the film specials that we have posted in the past.

Source: Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.