Domenico Gambino (Saetta)
Italian postcard. Domenico Gambino (Saetta). Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, No. 71. Card perhaps for Caporal Saetta (Eugenio Perego 1924).
Domenico Maria Gambino (1891-1968) was an Italian actor, director, scriptwriter and producer. He was well-known as the acrobatic comedian Saetta and often directed his own films.
Gambino was born in Turin on 17th May 1891 and came from a family of pastry bakers. At a young age he ran away from home and joined a circus but his dad brought him back. He then passed on to the stage where he became part of company by Enrico Gemelli, performing in dialect. According to Vittorio Martinelli, one day in 1908 he saw a shooting on location by the Itala film company and noticed an actor who had fallen from a coach, was not eager to repeat this, Gambino offered to replace him. True or not, in 1909 Gambino was hired by the rival company of Pasquali to star in the title role in the historical film Ettore Fieramosca – La disfida di Barletta (Ernesto Maria Pasquali 1909). Despite spectacular battle scenes and a final scene with Gambino jumping from a rock with his horse, the film wasn’t a big success unfortunately. Between 1910 and 1916 Gambino worked for the Itala company, appearing as extra in the comedies with Cretinetti (André Deed) and in comedies with other actors, often dressing up as woman. In 1911 he started his own comic series of Saltarelli, starting with Saltarelli ha fatto bagno nel caucciù (1911), followed by Vista corta, ma testa dura (1912). In Maciste & Co., Martinelli also mentions Saltarelli e l’ascensore and Saltarelli ladro per forza, but these are lacking in the Bernardini/Martinelli reference books. In 1912 Gambino returned to the stage as ‘young actor’ in the dialectic company of Carlo Nunziata, but in the following year he was again hired by Itala as actor and stuntman in the comedy L’attrice burlona (Mario Morais 1913) with Ernesto Vaser and the comedy Più forte che Sherlock Holmes (Giovanni Pastrone 1913) with Emilio Vardannes (Totò), the latter film with ingenious special effects by Segundo De Chomon. In 1914 Gambino appeared in the cast of the historical epic Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone 1914), starring Lydia Quaranta, Umberto Mozzato, Bartolomeo Pagano and Italia Almirante. In 1915 he had a supporting part in André Deed’s La paura degli aeromobili nemici (André Deed 1915). In 1915 Gambino returned to Pasquali for a supporting part in a remake of Ettore Fieramosca (Umberto Paradisi 1915), this time with Giovanni Cimara in the title role, and for a leading part as a heroic athlete in an adventure film by scenographer-turned-director Domenico Gaido: Mascherata in mare (1917-1918) starring Henriette Bonard. Apparently the tide was turning for Gambino, as in the same year he moved to Ambrosio and directed his first film: La spirale della morte (1917-1918), starring Luciano Albertini and Cecil Tryan, and with Bonard and Gambino in supporting parts. It dealt with a marine officer who, with the help of circus artists, fights an enemy navy. The film was well received by the press. In those years Gambino was a jack-of-all-trades at Itala, worked as assistant-director for Pastrone as well, and supposedly pointed him out Bartolomeo Pagano, who would become famous as Maciste.
In 1918 Gambino founded his own film company Delta Film, and started interpreting a new comic character, named Saetta by his regular scriptwriter Fantasio (Riccardo Artuffo). Saetta protects the good people against the evil ones, often helped by his animals (dogs, monkeys etc.). As a true acrobat he is specialised in climbing facades and doing daredevil jumps, meticulously preparing his stunts. Despite the crisis in Italian cinema in the 1920s, he manages to make several films each year. In 1919 Gambino directed and starred as Saetta in Un demone gli disse…/Il demone rosso (1919), after that he left directing to Ettore Ridoni in Il salto della morte (1919-1920) and I tre vagabondi (1919-1920). By now the character was so popular that Gambino made a film simply called Saetta (Ridoni 1920), followed by Saetta salva la regina (Ridoni 1920). After that Gambino retook directing in Il sotterraneo fatale (1921) and in co-direction with Michele Malerba: Saetta contro Golia (1920-1921), the latter for Albertini-Film. Eventually Saetta was a name Gambino also gave to his film company, altered in Saetta Film. Here he made Saetta e il club dei ciuffi (co-dir. Mario Roncoroni, 1921), Saetta contro l’orco di Marcouff (co-dir. Malerba, 1921), and Saetta più forte di Sherlock Holmes (co-dir. Roncoroni 1921-1922). Often Pina Majelli was the love interest of Saetta in these flms. While in 1922 he was momentarily away, he returned in 1923 with Il capolavoro di Saetta (Eugenio Perego 1923), Saetta contro la ghigliottina (Emilio Vardannes 1923), and I millioni di Saetta (Ubaldo Pittei 1923), while in 1924 he made Saetta impara a vivere (Guido Brignone 1924), he was Maciste’s sidekick in Maciste imperatore (1924), then continued with Caporal Saetta (Perego 1924), and Saetta principe per un giorno (Mario Camerini 1924). Until 1925 Gambino interpreted the prosperous series of Saetta, the last ones being Saetta e le sette mogli del Pascià (Luciano Doria 1925) and Saetta Mefistofele (Gambino 1925).
After this Gambino was supposed to shoot a film called Saetta fascista, but he refused and went abroad to Germany. There he shot a modest number of films between 1928 and 1935, starting with Die letzte Galavorstellung des Zirkus Wolfsohn, then Diebe (1928). Switching to German sound film even he didn’t speak the language very well, he shot Ich hab’ mein Herz im Autobus verloren (1929), Der Bergführer von Zakopane (1930), Dynamit (1932), and Meister Petz in Wintersport (1935). These films were almost always done in co-direction with German filmmakers. Gambino also acted in a series of films with the character Billy, directed by Edmund Heuberger, plus some other films. Returning to Italy in 1935, film boss Luigi Freddi didn’t forgive Gambino’s earlier refusal, so he became jobless for a year. He tried to return with the film Un bacio a fior d'acqua, a cheap film which tried to revamp his old glories as Saetta, but it flopped. Between 1938 and 1941 Gambino managed to shoot some adventure films and cheap thrillers: Lotta nell’ombra (1939), La traversata nera (1939), Il segreto di Villa Paradiso (1940), La donna perduta (1941), and La pantera nera (1942). He had a last finest hour with Arditi civili (1940), a film on the fire brigades. Leaving actors and firemen breathless, he did several daring stunts as stand-in. After the war Gambino still did a handful of film acting and directing before retiring. As actor he peaked in Abbasso la ricchezza! (1948), opposite Anna Magnani and Vittorio De Sica as main actors. Gambino’s last film was La Luciana, which he directed in 1954. Domenico Gambino died in Rome on 17th April 1968.
Sources: IMDB, Italian Wikipedia, Vittorio Martinelli, Maciste & Co., Aldo Bernardini/Vittorio Martinelli, Il cinema muto italiano.
Domenico Gambino (Saetta)
Italian postcard. Domenico Gambino (Saetta). Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, No. 71. Card perhaps for Caporal Saetta (Eugenio Perego 1924).
Domenico Maria Gambino (1891-1968) was an Italian actor, director, scriptwriter and producer. He was well-known as the acrobatic comedian Saetta and often directed his own films.
Gambino was born in Turin on 17th May 1891 and came from a family of pastry bakers. At a young age he ran away from home and joined a circus but his dad brought him back. He then passed on to the stage where he became part of company by Enrico Gemelli, performing in dialect. According to Vittorio Martinelli, one day in 1908 he saw a shooting on location by the Itala film company and noticed an actor who had fallen from a coach, was not eager to repeat this, Gambino offered to replace him. True or not, in 1909 Gambino was hired by the rival company of Pasquali to star in the title role in the historical film Ettore Fieramosca – La disfida di Barletta (Ernesto Maria Pasquali 1909). Despite spectacular battle scenes and a final scene with Gambino jumping from a rock with his horse, the film wasn’t a big success unfortunately. Between 1910 and 1916 Gambino worked for the Itala company, appearing as extra in the comedies with Cretinetti (André Deed) and in comedies with other actors, often dressing up as woman. In 1911 he started his own comic series of Saltarelli, starting with Saltarelli ha fatto bagno nel caucciù (1911), followed by Vista corta, ma testa dura (1912). In Maciste & Co., Martinelli also mentions Saltarelli e l’ascensore and Saltarelli ladro per forza, but these are lacking in the Bernardini/Martinelli reference books. In 1912 Gambino returned to the stage as ‘young actor’ in the dialectic company of Carlo Nunziata, but in the following year he was again hired by Itala as actor and stuntman in the comedy L’attrice burlona (Mario Morais 1913) with Ernesto Vaser and the comedy Più forte che Sherlock Holmes (Giovanni Pastrone 1913) with Emilio Vardannes (Totò), the latter film with ingenious special effects by Segundo De Chomon. In 1914 Gambino appeared in the cast of the historical epic Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone 1914), starring Lydia Quaranta, Umberto Mozzato, Bartolomeo Pagano and Italia Almirante. In 1915 he had a supporting part in André Deed’s La paura degli aeromobili nemici (André Deed 1915). In 1915 Gambino returned to Pasquali for a supporting part in a remake of Ettore Fieramosca (Umberto Paradisi 1915), this time with Giovanni Cimara in the title role, and for a leading part as a heroic athlete in an adventure film by scenographer-turned-director Domenico Gaido: Mascherata in mare (1917-1918) starring Henriette Bonard. Apparently the tide was turning for Gambino, as in the same year he moved to Ambrosio and directed his first film: La spirale della morte (1917-1918), starring Luciano Albertini and Cecil Tryan, and with Bonard and Gambino in supporting parts. It dealt with a marine officer who, with the help of circus artists, fights an enemy navy. The film was well received by the press. In those years Gambino was a jack-of-all-trades at Itala, worked as assistant-director for Pastrone as well, and supposedly pointed him out Bartolomeo Pagano, who would become famous as Maciste.
In 1918 Gambino founded his own film company Delta Film, and started interpreting a new comic character, named Saetta by his regular scriptwriter Fantasio (Riccardo Artuffo). Saetta protects the good people against the evil ones, often helped by his animals (dogs, monkeys etc.). As a true acrobat he is specialised in climbing facades and doing daredevil jumps, meticulously preparing his stunts. Despite the crisis in Italian cinema in the 1920s, he manages to make several films each year. In 1919 Gambino directed and starred as Saetta in Un demone gli disse…/Il demone rosso (1919), after that he left directing to Ettore Ridoni in Il salto della morte (1919-1920) and I tre vagabondi (1919-1920). By now the character was so popular that Gambino made a film simply called Saetta (Ridoni 1920), followed by Saetta salva la regina (Ridoni 1920). After that Gambino retook directing in Il sotterraneo fatale (1921) and in co-direction with Michele Malerba: Saetta contro Golia (1920-1921), the latter for Albertini-Film. Eventually Saetta was a name Gambino also gave to his film company, altered in Saetta Film. Here he made Saetta e il club dei ciuffi (co-dir. Mario Roncoroni, 1921), Saetta contro l’orco di Marcouff (co-dir. Malerba, 1921), and Saetta più forte di Sherlock Holmes (co-dir. Roncoroni 1921-1922). Often Pina Majelli was the love interest of Saetta in these flms. While in 1922 he was momentarily away, he returned in 1923 with Il capolavoro di Saetta (Eugenio Perego 1923), Saetta contro la ghigliottina (Emilio Vardannes 1923), and I millioni di Saetta (Ubaldo Pittei 1923), while in 1924 he made Saetta impara a vivere (Guido Brignone 1924), he was Maciste’s sidekick in Maciste imperatore (1924), then continued with Caporal Saetta (Perego 1924), and Saetta principe per un giorno (Mario Camerini 1924). Until 1925 Gambino interpreted the prosperous series of Saetta, the last ones being Saetta e le sette mogli del Pascià (Luciano Doria 1925) and Saetta Mefistofele (Gambino 1925).
After this Gambino was supposed to shoot a film called Saetta fascista, but he refused and went abroad to Germany. There he shot a modest number of films between 1928 and 1935, starting with Die letzte Galavorstellung des Zirkus Wolfsohn, then Diebe (1928). Switching to German sound film even he didn’t speak the language very well, he shot Ich hab’ mein Herz im Autobus verloren (1929), Der Bergführer von Zakopane (1930), Dynamit (1932), and Meister Petz in Wintersport (1935). These films were almost always done in co-direction with German filmmakers. Gambino also acted in a series of films with the character Billy, directed by Edmund Heuberger, plus some other films. Returning to Italy in 1935, film boss Luigi Freddi didn’t forgive Gambino’s earlier refusal, so he became jobless for a year. He tried to return with the film Un bacio a fior d'acqua, a cheap film which tried to revamp his old glories as Saetta, but it flopped. Between 1938 and 1941 Gambino managed to shoot some adventure films and cheap thrillers: Lotta nell’ombra (1939), La traversata nera (1939), Il segreto di Villa Paradiso (1940), La donna perduta (1941), and La pantera nera (1942). He had a last finest hour with Arditi civili (1940), a film on the fire brigades. Leaving actors and firemen breathless, he did several daring stunts as stand-in. After the war Gambino still did a handful of film acting and directing before retiring. As actor he peaked in Abbasso la ricchezza! (1948), opposite Anna Magnani and Vittorio De Sica as main actors. Gambino’s last film was La Luciana, which he directed in 1954. Domenico Gambino died in Rome on 17th April 1968.
Sources: IMDB, Italian Wikipedia, Vittorio Martinelli, Maciste & Co., Aldo Bernardini/Vittorio Martinelli, Il cinema muto italiano.