Annibale Betrone in L'arzigogolo
Italian postcard for the Italian silent film L'arzigogolo (Mario Almirante 1924), starring Italia Almirante Manzini, Annibale Betrone, Alberto Collo and Oreste Bilancia. G.B. Falci, Milano, No. 209.
The story: Monna Violante (Almirante), wed by her father to the rich merchant Floridoro (Oreste Bilancia), falls in love with Spallatonda (Annibale Betrone), the buffoon of count Giano (Alberto Collo), one her suitors. After Giano has been killed by the hand of Spallatonda, the latter flees with Monna Violante.
Annibale Betrone (1883-1950) was an Italian film, stage and radio actor, and theatre director.
Annibale Betrone, born Turin, December 9, 1883, was an important figure of the Italian theatre of the first half of the 20th century. Unlike many of his colleagues he was no ‘figlio d’arte’, his father was a tailor, but being passionate about the stage, Annibale found way to study acting with Domenico Bassi. His debut came at the age of 17, in 1900, with the title of ‘second actor’ in the company of the brothers Marchetti. Hired by the company of Ermete Novelli, with whom he remained from 1901 to 1908, he passed the whole trajectory going from extra, to lover, to young first actor, and finally first actor. He then moved over to Virgilio Talli’s for a long period (1909-1921), where along with Maria Melato and Alberto Giovannini he established a famous triad.
He then formed his own companies, and famous companies with some of the most reputed actresses between the two wars, such as Melato, Giannina Chiantoni, Tatiana Pavlova, Emma Gramatica, Paola Borboni, Kiki Palmer, Margaret Bagni, Olga Solbelli, and many more. In the late 1930s he had his own company together with Anna Magnani, and directed her and Salvo Randone in several plays at the Roman Teatro Eliseo. In 1940 he worked with Letitia Maria Celli and Angelo Calabrese, but after the outbreak of the war and the immediate post-war period, he reduced his presence on stage and focused on film acting.
Betrone was an actor of a strong dramatic, sometimes explosive, temperament, and moved around within a vast repertory. He achieved great fame. Among his greatest successes we must remember his parts in Il beffardo by Nino Berrini and in Glauco by Ercole Luigi Morselli. He also played in Anfissa by Leonid Andreev and in La sonata di Kreutzer (The Kreutzer Sonata) by François Nozières, after Leo Tolstoy. He was Bruneri-Canella in L’uomo no. 15 by E. Wool, and also recited in plays by Rosso di San Secondo (Il delirio dell’oste Bassà ) and Diego Fabbri. In 1945, in the just liberated Rome, he performed in The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck, directed by Vito Pandolfi.
Betrone was very active in cinema, though his silent parts were scarce. He began in 1916 with the silent films Tigrana (196) and Alcova tragica 1916), both by Edouard Micheroux de Dillon, and with Betrone, Mary Light and Sergio Tofano. After this followed two films with Italia Almirante Manzini: L’innamorato (Gennaro Righelli (1920) and L’arzigogolo (Mario Almirante 1924). Betrone had a new breakthrough in early 1930s Italian sound film, when he got a critical and public success playing king Vittorio Emanuele II in the feature film Villafranca (1934) by Gioacchino Forzano, in whose fascist propaganda film Camicia nero (1933) he had acted too. Later he was admired as the human uncle in Piccolo mondo antico (Old-Fashioned World, Mario Soldati 1941) - where rivaled the icy Ada Dondini - and the sensitive father of Doris Duranti in Nessuno torna indietro (Alessandro Blasetti 1943). During the war years, Betrone acted in some 26 films, ranging from propaganda films like Giarabub (Goffredo Alessandrini 1942) to comedies like Teresa Venerdi (Vittorio De Sica 1941) with De Sica himself and Adriana Benetti, and (melo)drama’s like the two-part film Noi vivi/Addio Kira! (Goffredo Alessandrini 1943) with Alida Valli, Rossano Brazzi and Fosco Giachetti.
On February 20, 1912, Betrone married Elvira Sanipoli - who later took the name of Elvira Betrone - and who often played with him on stage and on the screen, such as the films Teresa Venerdi, Noi vivi and Nessuno torna indietro. Betrone was also the father of the young assistant-director, scriptwriter and ediitor Gino (Cino) Betrone, who e.g. edited the film Tosca (1941) by Carl Koch and Jean Renoir. As lieutenant of the Alpine soldiers he fell on the Greek-Albanian front in 1941. Dedicated to his memory the film Quelli della montagna (Aldo Vergano 1943) was released posthumously, for which Cino had delivered the idea and in which Annibale had a small part (the leads were for Amedeo Nazzari and Mariella Lotti). After the war Betrone was hardly active but for the radio. Among his last film roles were minor parts in two epics: Fabiola (Alessandro Blasetti 1949) and Marcel L’Herbier and Paolo Moffa’s Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei (1950), starring Micheline Presle and Georges Marchal. Annibal Betrone died in Rome, on December 11, 1950. His wife Elvira Betrone died in Milan, on August 11, 1961.
Sources: Italian Wikipedia, IMDB.
Annibale Betrone in L'arzigogolo
Italian postcard for the Italian silent film L'arzigogolo (Mario Almirante 1924), starring Italia Almirante Manzini, Annibale Betrone, Alberto Collo and Oreste Bilancia. G.B. Falci, Milano, No. 209.
The story: Monna Violante (Almirante), wed by her father to the rich merchant Floridoro (Oreste Bilancia), falls in love with Spallatonda (Annibale Betrone), the buffoon of count Giano (Alberto Collo), one her suitors. After Giano has been killed by the hand of Spallatonda, the latter flees with Monna Violante.
Annibale Betrone (1883-1950) was an Italian film, stage and radio actor, and theatre director.
Annibale Betrone, born Turin, December 9, 1883, was an important figure of the Italian theatre of the first half of the 20th century. Unlike many of his colleagues he was no ‘figlio d’arte’, his father was a tailor, but being passionate about the stage, Annibale found way to study acting with Domenico Bassi. His debut came at the age of 17, in 1900, with the title of ‘second actor’ in the company of the brothers Marchetti. Hired by the company of Ermete Novelli, with whom he remained from 1901 to 1908, he passed the whole trajectory going from extra, to lover, to young first actor, and finally first actor. He then moved over to Virgilio Talli’s for a long period (1909-1921), where along with Maria Melato and Alberto Giovannini he established a famous triad.
He then formed his own companies, and famous companies with some of the most reputed actresses between the two wars, such as Melato, Giannina Chiantoni, Tatiana Pavlova, Emma Gramatica, Paola Borboni, Kiki Palmer, Margaret Bagni, Olga Solbelli, and many more. In the late 1930s he had his own company together with Anna Magnani, and directed her and Salvo Randone in several plays at the Roman Teatro Eliseo. In 1940 he worked with Letitia Maria Celli and Angelo Calabrese, but after the outbreak of the war and the immediate post-war period, he reduced his presence on stage and focused on film acting.
Betrone was an actor of a strong dramatic, sometimes explosive, temperament, and moved around within a vast repertory. He achieved great fame. Among his greatest successes we must remember his parts in Il beffardo by Nino Berrini and in Glauco by Ercole Luigi Morselli. He also played in Anfissa by Leonid Andreev and in La sonata di Kreutzer (The Kreutzer Sonata) by François Nozières, after Leo Tolstoy. He was Bruneri-Canella in L’uomo no. 15 by E. Wool, and also recited in plays by Rosso di San Secondo (Il delirio dell’oste Bassà ) and Diego Fabbri. In 1945, in the just liberated Rome, he performed in The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck, directed by Vito Pandolfi.
Betrone was very active in cinema, though his silent parts were scarce. He began in 1916 with the silent films Tigrana (196) and Alcova tragica 1916), both by Edouard Micheroux de Dillon, and with Betrone, Mary Light and Sergio Tofano. After this followed two films with Italia Almirante Manzini: L’innamorato (Gennaro Righelli (1920) and L’arzigogolo (Mario Almirante 1924). Betrone had a new breakthrough in early 1930s Italian sound film, when he got a critical and public success playing king Vittorio Emanuele II in the feature film Villafranca (1934) by Gioacchino Forzano, in whose fascist propaganda film Camicia nero (1933) he had acted too. Later he was admired as the human uncle in Piccolo mondo antico (Old-Fashioned World, Mario Soldati 1941) - where rivaled the icy Ada Dondini - and the sensitive father of Doris Duranti in Nessuno torna indietro (Alessandro Blasetti 1943). During the war years, Betrone acted in some 26 films, ranging from propaganda films like Giarabub (Goffredo Alessandrini 1942) to comedies like Teresa Venerdi (Vittorio De Sica 1941) with De Sica himself and Adriana Benetti, and (melo)drama’s like the two-part film Noi vivi/Addio Kira! (Goffredo Alessandrini 1943) with Alida Valli, Rossano Brazzi and Fosco Giachetti.
On February 20, 1912, Betrone married Elvira Sanipoli - who later took the name of Elvira Betrone - and who often played with him on stage and on the screen, such as the films Teresa Venerdi, Noi vivi and Nessuno torna indietro. Betrone was also the father of the young assistant-director, scriptwriter and ediitor Gino (Cino) Betrone, who e.g. edited the film Tosca (1941) by Carl Koch and Jean Renoir. As lieutenant of the Alpine soldiers he fell on the Greek-Albanian front in 1941. Dedicated to his memory the film Quelli della montagna (Aldo Vergano 1943) was released posthumously, for which Cino had delivered the idea and in which Annibale had a small part (the leads were for Amedeo Nazzari and Mariella Lotti). After the war Betrone was hardly active but for the radio. Among his last film roles were minor parts in two epics: Fabiola (Alessandro Blasetti 1949) and Marcel L’Herbier and Paolo Moffa’s Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei (1950), starring Micheline Presle and Georges Marchal. Annibal Betrone died in Rome, on December 11, 1950. His wife Elvira Betrone died in Milan, on August 11, 1961.
Sources: Italian Wikipedia, IMDB.