Mario Bonnard

The leader of a gang of Spanish mercenaries falls for a beautiful princess. Thing get dicey, however, when an imprisoned leader is freed and comes calling. Paget, as usual, is absolutely stunning.

5.8/10

Based on the Edward Bulwer-Lytton novel. Set in the shadows of Mt. Vesuvius just before its famous eruption, the film begins with Glaucus, a Roman legionnaire, returning to his home from far-off wars. Upon arriving, however, he discovers that his father has been murdered by a gang of black-hooded looting bandits. Glaucus vows revenge against the killers, but just how high up are those involved?

5.7/10

The movie presents a moment in the ancient Rome history when Nero was the emperor and christians persecuted. Story revolves around Antigonus's plan, archon of Corinth, to build a magnificent temple dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite, for which the people are oppressed by new and very high taxes. The sculptor Demetrius, asked to make the face of the goddess Diana, falls in love with a slave, the Christian Lerna, and wants to marry her, but another jealous slave has other plans. In the meantime there are plots and intrigues for power and a plan to capture and execute all christians; but things turn out different than expected.

6.1/10

Released in The Netherlands on VHS under the title "The Thief" on Empire.

5.4/10

Brigitte Bardot stars in this romantic thriller about love and high treason in WWI-era Italy. Matinee idol-turned-filmmaker Mario Bonnard directs this opus.

5.9/10

A gangster comes back to Rome after many years and meets his old flame and their daughter.

A scientist combines two brains during an operation to create one perfect mind.

Piero is the leader of a group of university students who lead a carefree life. Finding himself in trouble and in need of money, he turns to criminal means—receiving aid from Daniela, the daughter of a rigid magistrate.

During the absence of her husband, who left for a fishing cruise in the seas of China, Carmela falls under the spell of Vito, a young fisherman.

5.5/10

The city of Pola is being evacuated after the peace conference of 1947 decided to assign the sovereignty to Tito's Jugoslavia. However the main character decides to stay, thinking that communism might bring him a better future. Life turns to be hard for him and his family until he changes his mind, but he is killed before he can leave the country.

6.8/10

Ernesto is the teacher of the village, he is married and he is dominated by his wife. He has the passion of the theatre and he has written a drama in verse named "Il ratto delle Sabine". Unfortunately he has only an admirer and she is their servant Rosina. When the touring company of Prof. Tromboni arrives in the village, Ernesto decides to let them perform his play, though anonymously. So the day arrives and the theatre is sadly empty. But when the news that the author is the teacher spreads far and wide...

6/10

A witty tram driver helps out a jobless girl in wartime Rome.

6.7/10

The famous composer's life and his career. His love story with Isabella Colbran, the soprano who was to become his wife and the singer in all his operas up to the unfortunate day she lost her voice.

5.9/10

Based on a Victor Hugo play, and scored with music from the later opera by Giuseppe Verdi, the film tells about a hunchbacked clown whose beautiful daughter falls in love with the lecherous king.

7/10

During the Spanish occupation of Naples, the people led by Tommaso Aniello - known as "Masaniello" - plot against the Viceroy. The Viceroy's son, under another name, has a son from Masaniello's sister, but his father has already planned a marriage for him with a Spanish patrician against his wishes.

After an argument with her husband, an unsatisfied wife suffers from selective amnesia. She doesn't recognize the man she married and calls her doctor husband instead.

5.9/10

Marcello, a shy tenor, is afraid of singing in public. Two friends of his think of having an elegant youth on the stage pretending to be singing while Marcello dubs him behind the scenes. The scam is successful but after a while Marcello summons the courage to go on stage himself.

Sports comedy film inspired by a 5–0 victory by A.S. Roma against their rivals Juventus in 1931.

Italian-language version of the Germany-made DER TEUFELSBRUDER (FRA DIAVOLO), with different supporting cast and some scenes. Based on the Auber opera, but with generally original music by Dr. Giuseppe Becce.

A Tyrolean mountain guide comes under suspicion of killing a tourist.

6.2/10

German silent film directed by Mario Bonnard and starring Marcella Albani, Ralph Arthur Roberts and Curt Bois.

Peter Helling, the only survivor of a polar expedition, returns once more to the eternal ice. Why he calls his fate out again, what has happened? At that time he had set out with his best friend Svensson, to search for the missing friend of the woman they both love and for which they fought. In desperation, the men drag through the deep snow and the icy Arctic storms.

5.1/10

Struggle for the Matterhorn (German: Der Kampf ums Matterhorn) is a 1928 German-Swiss silent drama film co-directed by Mario Bonnard and Nunzio Malasomma and starring Luis Trenker, Marcella Albani, and Alexandra Schmitt. The film is part of the popular cycle of mountain films of the 1920s and 1930s. Art direction was by Heinrich Richter. Based on a novel by Carl Haensel, the film depicts the battle between British and Italian climbers to be the first to climb the Matterhorn. Trenker later remade the film as The Challenge in 1938.

7.1/10

The impressive cast is headed by the great Heinrich George as Boris Stroganoff, an opera composer and conductor who’s also a notorious lothario. Albani is ballet dancer Viola Suroff, who’s put her career aside to look after her partner Maxim Sadi, a baritone with unspecified health issues that have kept him off stage. Stroganoff sets his sights on Viola and offers her a job in the corps de ballet for his new opera The Boyar, which she accepts provided Maxim is also hired. However, dancer Margot (called Myrra in the French version) maintains a seething passion for Stroganoff, as does Countess Geschow (called Countess Ziska on this print), both of whom are resentful when watching his interactions with Viola. Jealousies run high on opening night between all the characters and Stroganoff is shot mid-performance, but who is the killer: Maxim, Margot, or Geschow?I

An eccentric millionaire brings together four men who, under different circumstances, wanted to commit suicide. The proposal made to them is the following: they will travel to an islet that, according to legend, emerged from the sea when Atlantis sank and that houses a fabulous treasure buried by the Incas. But that territory is populated by the worst band of pirates and evildoers the world has ever known.

6.2/10

Based on the famous historical novel by Alessandro Manzoni, and set between 1628 and 1630 in Lombardy "northern Italy" during the Spanish domination, tells of the contrasted marriage between the two young textile workers Renzo and Lucia. The 1922 version is the most ambitious and spectacular film in all Italian silent cinema, with remarkable mass scenes and some images that triggered the censorship.

6.4/10

The film, a swirling drama of love and death, is loosely adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1860 novel The Marble Faun. Princess Maria (Elena Sangro) is married to the Duke of Helgoland (Ugo Bazzini), the leader of an anti-government plot about to be exposed by their house guest Count Giorgio (Carlo Gualandri). Giorgio tries to involve Maria, and in his fatal fight with Helgoland, her husband is killed using the knife that Maria hands to Giorgio. Forced to flee, they meet up again in Rome, where Maria has changed her name to Myriam and Giorgio has become a monk. Giorgio still desires Myriam, who rejects his advances, and she convinces her suitor Donatello (Giorgio Fini) to kill him.

A loose adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Short costume picture on the infamous Roman Emperor.

6/10

Grand Duchy of Wallenstein. Elsa Holbein is the young beautiful daughter of General Julius, the Chief of the General Staff. After a spy named Moise Sthar steals military documents, Julius is accused of betrayal. He kills himself while Elsa is forced to leave. Homeless, she begins wandering the streets until, on the Riviera, she starts her performing career under the pseudonym of Diana Cadouleur and becomes a successful actress and singer. One day, in a small church, she meets an elegant young man and she falls in love with him. But during a tour on the Lucarno Lake she runs into Sthar who, rejected by Elena, spreads rumors about Prince Massimiliano’s behavior.

6.2/10

Young aviatrix Lyda spurns the advances of the Prince of Sèvre and falls in love with journalist Mario, who, although engaged to Cesarina, goes to Lyda's home. Cesarina sees them and manages to persuade Mario to leave Lyda.

Italian short drama directed by Luigi Maggi.

5.1/10

A melodrama about a female lion tamer who has an extramarital relationship with a distinguished gentleman, and then moves in with him. When she later comes to regret her actions, her husband has already died of sorrow.

5.7/10

A fantasy film about the knight Parsifal, who has to protect the Holy Grail from wizards.

5.1/10

Ugo Falena version of William Shakespeare's Othello.

5.2/10

In Naples, a local composer falls in love with an American tourist.