User Reviews

My summary above isn't meant to be cavalier. I just wonder how many folks want to watch a teleplay about the last sniveling days of Benito Mussolini. I just assume most folks are happy he's gone and seeing the details isn't particularly necessary or interesting. Perhaps I am wrong....but even as a retired history teacher, I wasn't particularly interested in this, though, as usual, Nehemiah Persoff does a great job. And, incidentally, this wonderful and gifted character actor turns 101 later this year! Surely, he's a national treasure....though sadly today few have heard of him or seen him act.

So is this any good? Yes, generally. My only complaint is that most of the actors have Italian accents or fake one well. But a few sound like Americans (such as Harry Guardino...who is talented...but couldn't do the accent)...and that seems silly considering nearly everyone in the teleplay is supposed to be Italian.

Nehemiah Persoff's sterling performance as Benito Mussolini in his last four days is what drives this Playhouse 90 production. You really feel like this is a newsreel camera letting you peek in on Il Duce's private moments.

With Italy devolving into chaos probably Benito's best bet would have been to surrender to the only real authority that existed in Italy in April of 1945 the allied armies. The Americans were only days, hours even from Milan where his Nazi puppet government was headquartered. But he was hoping for rescue from armies that did not exist any more. Although he would have had a formal trial and then been shot,

Persoff is killed with Ilka Windish playing mistress Clara Petacci. Windish plays Petacci as she has come down in history, basically a power groupie. Mussolini and Hitler with Eva Braun had exactly the same taste in women.

Other performances of note are Harry Guardino as a partisan fighter and Erika Remberg as his girlfriend, John Dehner as a Communist partisan, Eduardo Ciannelli as Marshal Graziani, Frank Puglia as Cardinal Shuster who tries to broker a truce.

Persoff should have gotten Emmy consideration for what he does here.

What a tremendous piece of work about actual history facts. The end of Mussolini and his try to escape from his fate with Clara Pettracci, as it as rarely, even never, shown except in TV movies, such as those mini series starring George C Scott or Bob Hoskins. Here, it is of course shorter, but the characters are very well described, in such a way that you nearly may feel some empathy for the lead character. So shame that is has not been best known through DVD release.

I highly recommend it, if you can get it.

Directed by the prolific TV film maker Buzz Kulik who also gave us great large screen films.