July 25 - Mussolini and I

Today’s movie is a biographical drama with a scene that happens on July 25. Watch this film tonight and enjoy.

MUSSOLINI AND I                      

Count Galeazzo Ciano marries Edda, Mussolini’s daughter and rises to become Italy’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. Ciano correctly predicts that Germany’s invasion of Poland would start the Second World War. Mussolini fights with his mistress, Claretta Petacci, while his wife gets a report that Ciano is betraying Mussolini. In spite of allied bombers flying overheard Ciano tries to pretend all is well. However there is tension between him and his wife over her gambling debts and her suspected infidelities. After the Allies land in North Africa, Ciano tries to tell Mussolini the war is lost. He is removed as foreign minister. The army starts planning a coup d’etat. The Allies land in Sicily. The Allies bomb Rome and Mussolini is blamed. A meeting of the fascist Grand Council is summoned and its members attack Mussolini’s handling of the war.  The next day on July 25, 1943 [Part 2 - 7:26 to 24:09] the King of Italy Victor Emmanuel bamboozles Mussolini into resigning. When Mussolini leaves the meeting he is arrested. Although his mistress and her parents try to flee they are arrested also. Edda tells the Germans where her father is being held. The Germans rescue Mussolini.  The Germans, instead of keeping their word to her, fly Edda and Ciano to Germany instead of Spain. Mussolini sets up a Fascist Republic in northern Italy.  The Germans rescue Claretta Petacci and pressure her to pressure Mussolini to arrange for Ciano to be tried, convicted and executed in Italy. Mussolini refuses to forgive Ciano. Edda and Mussolini return to Italy,  leaving Ciano all alone in Germany. He is returned to Italy and arrested. He stupidly begins an affair with a German agent, Felicitas Beetz, while Edda works to try and help him. Rachele Mussolini confronts Claretta Petacci. Ciano is offered a deal of his diaries for his life. Edda begs her father to save Ciano, but he refuses. A plan to save Ciano fails. Ciano is put on trial, convicted and sentenced to be shot by a firing squad. Edda escapes with the diaries to Switzerland. Ciano is shot. As the end of the war approaches, Mussolini tries to flee with  Claretta. They are caught by partisans and shot. 

                       

The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy 1943-1944 by Rick Atkinson (Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2007) at page 140 gives the date of his dismissal

Screenplay - Alberto Negrin and Nicola Badalucco

Producer - Mario Gallo and Enzo Guilioli       

Director - Alberto Negrin         

Runtime – 4 hours          

Released - September 1985                                                                                                                                   

Starring –

Susan Sarandon as Edda Ciano

Bob Hoskins as Benito Mussolini   

Anthony Hopkins as Galeazzo Ciano

Annie Girardot as Rachele Mussolini

Barbara De Rossi as Claretta Petacci

Massimo Dapporto as Vittorio Mussolini

Kurt Raab as Adolf Hitler

Carlheinz Heitmann as Karl Wolff

Harald Dietl as Otto Skorzeny

Dietlinde Turban as Frau Beetz

Vittorio Mezzogiorno as Alessandro Pavolini

Hans-Dieter Asner as Joachim von Ribbentrop                  

Marne Maitland as King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2014.