Umberto Sclanizza

Who was Umberto Sclanizza?

Umberto Sclanizza was an Italian theatre and cinema actor, born in Venice, of noble stock. His film work straddles a period in Italian cinema, 1939–1943, when the industry was significantly turned over to the production of wartime propaganda pieces, such as 'Il Re d'Inghilterra non paga'. This spate of old-fashioned classical dramas, infused with gentle Axis sympathies, was to indirectly pave the way for the Italian Neorealism movement, by being consigned to the industry's Fascist past.