This movie is based on an episode from Dante's INFERNO, Canto XVIII, in which we see Count Ugolino and Archbishop Ruggieri, both traitors from Pisa, encased in the ice of the Ninth Circle up to their heads. Ugolino is eternally eating the head of Ruggieri because it was the archbishop who had had him and his children imprisoned, with the prison tower sealed, so that Ugolino would die from starvation after watching his children die too. (There are three here, as in Dante. In reality there were four: two children, two grandchildren.) The killer by starvation becomes eternal food for his victim. That was Dante's grisly symbolic retribution.
The film recounts the episodes leading up to the imprisonment and death of Ugolino, with many liberties in the historical facts taken along the way. Ugolino has received the task of leading an army of Pisans against Genoese rivals. Ruggieri, who had been his presumed ally in political maneuverings within Pisa, now doublecrosses Ugolino, has him accused of treason, and condemned to death in the tower dungeon. In the final scene, when his daughter Emilia is able, through the pope , to get the order reversed, it is too late. As she enters the dungeon, we see the horror on her face which tells us that Ugolino has eaten his children's flesh, then gone mad, then died. The title on the screen is a quote form Dante, " poscia, piu' che l dolor, pote' l digiuno..." or "Then, hunger overcame him more than the suffering."
Considering the potency of its material, this film of Riccardo Freda has an unfolding that is rather bland at times, and it seems to operate on one note throughout without really building up through any heightening sense of drama. Carlo Ninchi as Ugolino give an assertive but unsubtle performance. Peter Trent is a convincingly slimy Ruggieri. Gianna Maria Canale is OK as devoted daughter Emilia, caught in the world of male machinations. The music is by Alessandro Cicognini, who scored a number of good films from that period, including De Sica's SHOE SHINE, THE BICYCLE THIEF, MIRACLE IN MILAN, UMBERTO D, and Moguy's TOMORROW IS TOO LATE. COUNT UGOLINO never seems to have been released commercially in the United States and remains unlisted in most guides.
The film recounts the episodes leading up to the imprisonment and death of Ugolino, with many liberties in the historical facts taken along the way. Ugolino has received the task of leading an army of Pisans against Genoese rivals. Ruggieri, who had been his presumed ally in political maneuverings within Pisa, now doublecrosses Ugolino, has him accused of treason, and condemned to death in the tower dungeon. In the final scene, when his daughter Emilia is able, through the pope , to get the order reversed, it is too late. As she enters the dungeon, we see the horror on her face which tells us that Ugolino has eaten his children's flesh, then gone mad, then died. The title on the screen is a quote form Dante, " poscia, piu' che l dolor, pote' l digiuno..." or "Then, hunger overcame him more than the suffering."
Considering the potency of its material, this film of Riccardo Freda has an unfolding that is rather bland at times, and it seems to operate on one note throughout without really building up through any heightening sense of drama. Carlo Ninchi as Ugolino give an assertive but unsubtle performance. Peter Trent is a convincingly slimy Ruggieri. Gianna Maria Canale is OK as devoted daughter Emilia, caught in the world of male machinations. The music is by Alessandro Cicognini, who scored a number of good films from that period, including De Sica's SHOE SHINE, THE BICYCLE THIEF, MIRACLE IN MILAN, UMBERTO D, and Moguy's TOMORROW IS TOO LATE. COUNT UGOLINO never seems to have been released commercially in the United States and remains unlisted in most guides.