Grazia Del Rio
French postcard by Europe, no. 992. Photo: Produzione Pittaluga Cines, Roma.
Little is known about the personal life of Italian actress and singer Grazia Del Rio, but probably because of her singing voice and clear vocals she had a prolific career in the earliest years of sound cinema. Between 1930 and 1933 she had a short but intense film career in Italy and France, peaking with La stella del cinema (Mario Almirante, 1931) in which she starred herself. In the late 1930s she had second career in Argentina and Chile.
According to Elena Mosconi, Grazia Del Rio aka Gracia del Río came from Santiago, Chili, studied piano in Paris, and song and dance in Milan. She became a music-hall actress, she herself claimed to have performed with the music-hall Za-Bum in the shows Broadway and K.41. Grazia Del Rio acted in one late silent film shot in Africa, Tramonto dei blasoni (Attilio Gatti, 1928), even if it is unsure whether that film really was released. Anyway, her breakthrough came in 1930 with the earliest sounds films made at the Cines Pittaluga studio in Rome, equipped for sound cinema in that year. Already in 1929 she sang in a short recorded by director Baldassarre Negroni, Serenata Tzigana (released in 1930), made to test the new sound equipment of the ENAC company. Negroni would henceforth become a floor manager at the new Cines Pittaluga sound film studios. It was here that in 1930 Del Rio performed as singer and actress in a series of Cines shorts by Mario Almirante, including Donne alla fonte and Fantasia di bambole (the latter found at the EYE Filmmuseum years ago). Together with actor Elio Steiner, Del Rio played a host to the film spectators in the first of a series shorts by Cines, called Rivista Cines. It showed the new studios and its visit by Minister Bottai. The short was shown together with what goes as the first Italian sound film, La canzone dell'amore, at its premiere at the Roman Supercinema (now Teatro Nazionale) on 8 October 1930. One month after, the film Nerone (1930) by Alessandro Blasetti was released, an anachronistic comedy with Petrolini in the title role and Del Rio as his admirer.
After a supporting part in the Armando Falconi comedy Rubacuori (Guido Brignone 1931), Del Rio starred in the film La stella del cinema (Mario Almirante, 1931), about a debuting actress who is catapulted into stardom, while her fiancé (Elio Steiner) remains an extra. Twenty years before Stanley Donen's Singin' in the rain, the histrionic acting of the former silent film actress (Sandra Ravel) is discredited, and the 'au naturel' acting of the newcomer is favored as more apt to the new medium. The plot was an excuse to give a peek into the behind-the-screens of the modern Cines sound film studio, and shows both actors and directors from the silent days and the new sound film generation. A few years ago, the film was fully restored and released on DVD.
Del Rio also went to France to act in early sound films there: first La dernière berceuse (Gennaro Righelli, 1931), the French version of Righelli's own La canzone dell'amore, starring Dolly Davis and Jean Angelo instead of Dria Paola and Elio Steiner, and with Del Rio in the part of Isa Pola. This would be followed by Mon ami Tim/ Fifty Fathoms Deep (Jack Forrester, 1932) with Jeanne Helbling and Thomy Bourdelle, and La petite de Montparnasse (Hanns Schwarz, 1932), in which she starred herself, opposite Lucien Gallas. In 1933 she had a supporting part in the comedy Les aventures du roi Pausole (Alexis Granowsky, 1933) starring Les aventures du roi Pausole (1933), filmed at the Côte d'Azur. Del Rio also played in the German language version of the film, in which Emil Jannings played the title character. Del Rio remained in France for three more films: the comedy Le tendron d'Achille/Achilles' Heel (Christian-Jaque, 1933), Le relais d'amour (André Pellenc, 1933), and La nuit des dupes (Maurice Labro, Pierre Weill, 1933) with Roland Toutain. After that, Grazia Del Rio's European film career was over. It is not entirely clear but she have gone back to Chile, as her namesake Grazia Del Rio made various films in 1938-1940 in Argentina and Chile: in Argentina, Turbión (Antonio Momplet, 1938), El misterio de la dama gris (James Bauer, 1939), Ambición (Adelqui Migliar, 1939), and La luz de un fósforo (Leopoldo Torres Ríos, 1940), and in Chile, Entre gallos y medianoche (Eugenio de Liguoro, 1940).
Sources: IMDB, Elena Mosconi ('L 'altra Pittaluga', Immagine No. 16, 2017), www.taxidrivers.it/108769/film-da-vedere/per-la-prima-vol....
Links to films:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwbFUipPpsQ (British Pathe News)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zurm89QmUEg (Rivista Cines 1)
Grazia Del Rio
French postcard by Europe, no. 992. Photo: Produzione Pittaluga Cines, Roma.
Little is known about the personal life of Italian actress and singer Grazia Del Rio, but probably because of her singing voice and clear vocals she had a prolific career in the earliest years of sound cinema. Between 1930 and 1933 she had a short but intense film career in Italy and France, peaking with La stella del cinema (Mario Almirante, 1931) in which she starred herself. In the late 1930s she had second career in Argentina and Chile.
According to Elena Mosconi, Grazia Del Rio aka Gracia del Río came from Santiago, Chili, studied piano in Paris, and song and dance in Milan. She became a music-hall actress, she herself claimed to have performed with the music-hall Za-Bum in the shows Broadway and K.41. Grazia Del Rio acted in one late silent film shot in Africa, Tramonto dei blasoni (Attilio Gatti, 1928), even if it is unsure whether that film really was released. Anyway, her breakthrough came in 1930 with the earliest sounds films made at the Cines Pittaluga studio in Rome, equipped for sound cinema in that year. Already in 1929 she sang in a short recorded by director Baldassarre Negroni, Serenata Tzigana (released in 1930), made to test the new sound equipment of the ENAC company. Negroni would henceforth become a floor manager at the new Cines Pittaluga sound film studios. It was here that in 1930 Del Rio performed as singer and actress in a series of Cines shorts by Mario Almirante, including Donne alla fonte and Fantasia di bambole (the latter found at the EYE Filmmuseum years ago). Together with actor Elio Steiner, Del Rio played a host to the film spectators in the first of a series shorts by Cines, called Rivista Cines. It showed the new studios and its visit by Minister Bottai. The short was shown together with what goes as the first Italian sound film, La canzone dell'amore, at its premiere at the Roman Supercinema (now Teatro Nazionale) on 8 October 1930. One month after, the film Nerone (1930) by Alessandro Blasetti was released, an anachronistic comedy with Petrolini in the title role and Del Rio as his admirer.
After a supporting part in the Armando Falconi comedy Rubacuori (Guido Brignone 1931), Del Rio starred in the film La stella del cinema (Mario Almirante, 1931), about a debuting actress who is catapulted into stardom, while her fiancé (Elio Steiner) remains an extra. Twenty years before Stanley Donen's Singin' in the rain, the histrionic acting of the former silent film actress (Sandra Ravel) is discredited, and the 'au naturel' acting of the newcomer is favored as more apt to the new medium. The plot was an excuse to give a peek into the behind-the-screens of the modern Cines sound film studio, and shows both actors and directors from the silent days and the new sound film generation. A few years ago, the film was fully restored and released on DVD.
Del Rio also went to France to act in early sound films there: first La dernière berceuse (Gennaro Righelli, 1931), the French version of Righelli's own La canzone dell'amore, starring Dolly Davis and Jean Angelo instead of Dria Paola and Elio Steiner, and with Del Rio in the part of Isa Pola. This would be followed by Mon ami Tim/ Fifty Fathoms Deep (Jack Forrester, 1932) with Jeanne Helbling and Thomy Bourdelle, and La petite de Montparnasse (Hanns Schwarz, 1932), in which she starred herself, opposite Lucien Gallas. In 1933 she had a supporting part in the comedy Les aventures du roi Pausole (Alexis Granowsky, 1933) starring Les aventures du roi Pausole (1933), filmed at the Côte d'Azur. Del Rio also played in the German language version of the film, in which Emil Jannings played the title character. Del Rio remained in France for three more films: the comedy Le tendron d'Achille/Achilles' Heel (Christian-Jaque, 1933), Le relais d'amour (André Pellenc, 1933), and La nuit des dupes (Maurice Labro, Pierre Weill, 1933) with Roland Toutain. After that, Grazia Del Rio's European film career was over. It is not entirely clear but she have gone back to Chile, as her namesake Grazia Del Rio made various films in 1938-1940 in Argentina and Chile: in Argentina, Turbión (Antonio Momplet, 1938), El misterio de la dama gris (James Bauer, 1939), Ambición (Adelqui Migliar, 1939), and La luz de un fósforo (Leopoldo Torres Ríos, 1940), and in Chile, Entre gallos y medianoche (Eugenio de Liguoro, 1940).
Sources: IMDB, Elena Mosconi ('L 'altra Pittaluga', Immagine No. 16, 2017), www.taxidrivers.it/108769/film-da-vedere/per-la-prima-vol....
Links to films:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwbFUipPpsQ (British Pathe News)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zurm89QmUEg (Rivista Cines 1)