(Some spoilers) Luigi Zampa's first directorial effort was this romanticised portrayal of the adventures of Michele Pezza (1771-1806), widely known as Fra Diavolo, a legendary Zorro-like peasant bandit who led a fight against the Napoleonic army to free the Kingdom of Naples from the French.
Besides having a talent for noble banditry, Fra Diavolo had a way with the women, so much so that when he and his men hold up a coach, the French Gabriella del Pra finds him "un homme charmant" and claims "Adoro I briganti I adore brigands." Our bandit hero is brazen enough to crash a masked ball thrown by the French nobility in which he claims to be disguised as Fra Diavolo, when in fact, he is the very man himself.
Fra Diavolo's fortunes ascend when he is given a post as a colonel in the Naples army by King Ferdinand IV, and he marries Fortunata Consiglio, a noble Neapolitan he has loved for a while.
Domesticity proves too boring for him, however, and he returns to the life of his irregular armed band and fight anew the once-again potent French forces and is involved in a major battle with them near the city of Itri.
The assistance of Gabriella will be invaluable for him at the end, when he is captured by the French under General Hugo, and is about to be hanged. She is able to procure him a reprieve, something that did not happen in reality, since it is a historical fact that he was indeed hanged in Naples in 1806. In this version he escapes and passes into the Campania countryside and into legend, into an 1830 opera by Auber, and into culinary terminology as well. "Lobster Fra Diavolo", is prepared with a spicy hot pepper sauce.
Enzo Fiermonte exudes a perfect Errol Flynn air as Fra Diavolo. The actresses who play Gabriella (Maria Nucci) and wife Fortunata (Elsa De Giorgi) are perfectly suited for their roles. The whole film exudes the air of a class-A production and was one of the most popular and critically applauded Italian wartime pictures.
Besides having a talent for noble banditry, Fra Diavolo had a way with the women, so much so that when he and his men hold up a coach, the French Gabriella del Pra finds him "un homme charmant" and claims "Adoro I briganti I adore brigands." Our bandit hero is brazen enough to crash a masked ball thrown by the French nobility in which he claims to be disguised as Fra Diavolo, when in fact, he is the very man himself.
Fra Diavolo's fortunes ascend when he is given a post as a colonel in the Naples army by King Ferdinand IV, and he marries Fortunata Consiglio, a noble Neapolitan he has loved for a while.
Domesticity proves too boring for him, however, and he returns to the life of his irregular armed band and fight anew the once-again potent French forces and is involved in a major battle with them near the city of Itri.
The assistance of Gabriella will be invaluable for him at the end, when he is captured by the French under General Hugo, and is about to be hanged. She is able to procure him a reprieve, something that did not happen in reality, since it is a historical fact that he was indeed hanged in Naples in 1806. In this version he escapes and passes into the Campania countryside and into legend, into an 1830 opera by Auber, and into culinary terminology as well. "Lobster Fra Diavolo", is prepared with a spicy hot pepper sauce.
Enzo Fiermonte exudes a perfect Errol Flynn air as Fra Diavolo. The actresses who play Gabriella (Maria Nucci) and wife Fortunata (Elsa De Giorgi) are perfectly suited for their roles. The whole film exudes the air of a class-A production and was one of the most popular and critically applauded Italian wartime pictures.