The Last Four Days
Director: Carlo Lizzani
Year: 1974
Rating: 6.0
Country: Italy
This Italian production is surprisingly tense considering
that I think most of us know how Mussolini's last days end. I wasn't aware
though of just how complicated the political situation was. As far as I can
tell this is fairly historically accurate with many of the scenes being shot
where they actually took place. The film is in Italian but has two big American
stars in it - Henry Fonda as Cardinal Schuster and Rod Steiger as Mussolini.
Both are dubbed into Italian. Steiger plays Mussolini fairly low-key throughout
with only an occasional whiff of his bravado on display. And though we know
what a monster Mussolini was, Steiger makes his situation and him somewhat
sympathetic so that when the end comes you feel a little regret.
But a monster he was. Mussolini later came to be considered a puppet to Hitler
but Mussolini was the first in Europe to take on the fascist mantle and become
a dictator. Hitler and Franco were to follow. Both Hitler and Mussolini interestingly
got there initially through democracy - a lesson to us all - as Mussolini
was elected Prime Minister in 1922 and in 1925 took over total power. At
first he was quite admired in America and a hero to Italian-Americans but
his foolish and costly war in Ethiopia in which hundreds of thousands of
natives were killed, his assistance to Franco in the Spanish Civil War and
his alliance with Germany turned him into a villain. He had visions of conquering
the world with Germany but in truth his Italian army was a disaster, never
able to contribute very much and needing the German army to take over for
all purposes when the Americans invaded and who had to rescue him from prison
in 1943.
By April 1945 it was nearly all over. The Americans had taken over most of
Italy other than Milan and areas to the north, the Germans were surrendering,
Mussolini's black shirts were vanishing like rats on a sinking ship, the
partisans were everywhere and the Italian army was no more. Mussolini's thinking
is all over the place - one moment thinking he could put up a resistance
in the mountains; at another time trying to contact Churchill to make a deal
with him - that they join up and fight the Communists; or perhaps surrendering
to the Americans where he will be safe and then finally attempting to flee
to Switzerland with his mistress Claretta Petacci.
He and his band of fascists that remain by his side begin to conspire to
leave Milan - by having to ditch the Germans "protecting" him but in truth
making sure that he doesn't skip out. The Americans are trying to get to
him as well and have an agreement with the new Italian government to have
him handed over to them, the Partisans are looking for him but they are divided
as well between those who want to hand him to the Americans and those who
want to execute him. This is where Franco Nero finally shows up as the one
who accepts the order to kill him before the Americans find him. On April
28th he and his mistress are taken out of a car by the side of the road and
shot. Hitler was to die two days later.
