The Killers of Mussolini

"**The Killers of Mussolini**"
"The Killers of Mussolini"
Playhouse 90 episode
	Nehemiah Persoff as Benito Mussolini
Episode no.	Season 3; Episode 35
Directed by	Buzz Kulik
Written by	A. E. Hotchner
Original air date	June 4, 1959
Guest appearances
	Nehemiah Persoff as Benito Mussolini; Harry Guardino as Capt. Luigi Neri; Michael Ansara as Luigi Longo;
Episode chronology
← Previous; "The Rank and File"	Next →; "Project Immortality"

"The Killers of Mussolini" is an American television play broadcast live on June 4, 1959, as part of the CBS television series Playhouse 90. It was the 35th episode of the third season. The cast includes Nehemiah Persoff as Benito Mussolini and Harry Guardino as an Italian partisan leader.

Plot

The play dramatizes the final days and death of Benito Mussolini. It begins in April 1945 in Milan; a Mussolini associate, Zerbino, oversees the removal of $60 million in gold jewelry from the Italian treasury. Mussolini meets with his ministers and reviews their options. The Blackshirts have disbanded and are unavailable to escort Mussolini.

Cardinal Schuster arranges a meeting to discuss terms of surrender between Mussolini and Marshal Rodolfo Graziani and partisan leaders, including Gen. Raffaele Cadorna Jr. and Luigi Longo. The partisans demand unconditional surrender, but Mussolini opts to flee for Switzerland with his gold. The partisans learn of Mussolini's plan and make plans to capture him.

In Como, Mussolini is joined by his mistress, Claretta Petacci. After his path is blocked by partisan roadblocks, he attaches his group to a group of Germans led by Major Kurtz. When Kurtz betrays Mussolini to the Germans, Mussolini pays a group of Germans to allow him to hide among them in a German uniform. He is discovered in Dongo hiding among the Germans. The local partisan leader, Luigi Neri, confronts Mussolini with his crimes, and the people call for Mussolini to be hung.

The partisan leaders in Milan conduct Mussolini's trial in absentia. They find him guilty of treason and sentence him to death. Mussolini watches from his cell as his ministers are to be executed by a firing squad. Before the firing squad can act, a mob attacks and kills the ministers. Alone in his cell, Mussolini speaks to God and blames Hitler for all that has happened in Italy.

The Communists seek to steal Mussolini's treasures for the benefit of the party. Neri refuses to take part in the plot, and he is executed. Col. Tedesco arrives pretending to rescue Mussolini and Claretta. They drive to Villa Belmonte where Tedesco executes Mussolini. Claretta begs to be killed as well, and she is executed. A few days later, Mussolini is returned to Milan where he is shown in documentary footage hung by his feet "to quiet the skeptics who didn't believe the Duce was really dead."

Cast

The cast included performances by:^[1]

Nehemiah Persoff as Benito Mussolini
Harry Guardino as Capt. Luigi Neri
Michael Ansara as Luigi Longo
Ilka Windish as Claretta Petacci
John Dehner as Col. Tedesco
Eduardo Cianelli as Marshal Rodolfo Graziani
Lawrence Dobkin as Alessandro Pavolini
Frank Puglia as Cardinal Schuster
Erica Remberg as Gianna
Arthur Batanides as Vito
Tige Andrews as Bassi
Alberto Morin as Gen. Raffaele Cadorna Jr.
Paul Picerni as Lt. Alfredo
Vito Scotti as Zerbino
Eugene Iglesias as Tullio
Albert Szabo as Major Kurtz
Al Ruscio as Vittorio Mussolini
Edgar Barrier as Borsani
John Beradino as The Priest
Edward Colmans as Marcello Petacci
Nick Georgiades as Calistri
Sam Capuano as Guido
Peter Coe as The Corporal

Lee J. Cobb, the star of the following week's episode, "Project Immortality", hosted the broadcast.

Production

Buzz Kulik was both the producer and the director. A.E. Hotchner wrote the teleplay.^[1]

Reception

The production received generally negative reviews.

In The New York Times, Jack Gould wrote the that play focused so much on the details of Mussolini's flight and capture that "there was little time for any penetrating or meaningful characterization."^[2]

John Crosby of the New York Herald Tribune criticized Persoff's performance as "a very actorish performance in a very actorish role" and found Guardino with his "open American accent" to be "terribly miscast." He was also puzzled by the attempt to portray the Communist partisans as the villains and concluded: "Both as play-writing and as political commentary, this is pretty bad."^[3]

William Ewald of the UPI wrote that it "can be summed up in a single unhappy sentence: It didn't play well." He blamed Hotchner for employing "cheap emotional contrivances" and "shoddy ironies" and failing to pull the "chunky material" together into "a tight dramatic package." He found Persoff's performance unconvincing but credited Windish with turning in "the only hard and effective portrait in the entire piece."^[4]

References

^ ^a ^b "Playhouse 90: The Killers of Mussolini". The Paley Center for Media. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
^ "TV: 'Killers of Mussolini': 'Playhouse 90' Drama Delineates Decline and Fall of Italian Dictator". The New York Times. June 5, 1959. p. 53.
^ John Crosby (January 14, 1959). "'Killers of Mussolini' Unsatisfying". The Hartford Courant.
^ William Ewald (June 5, 1959). "TV 'Killers of Mussolini' Just Didn't Play Well". Tucson Daily Citizen. p. 17 – via Newspapers.com.

[Paley-1] "Playhouse 90: The Killers of Mussolini". The Paley Center for Media. Retrieved September 21, 2020.

[2] "TV: 'Killers of Mussolini': 'Playhouse 90' Drama Delineates Decline and Fall of Italian Dictator". The New York Times. June 5, 1959. p. 53.

[3] John Crosby (January 14, 1959). "'Killers of Mussolini' Unsatisfying". The Hartford Courant.

[4] William Ewald (June 5, 1959). "TV 'Killers of Mussolini' Just Didn't Play Well". Tucson Daily Citizen. p. 17 – via Newspapers.com.

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Season 2	"The Death of Manolete" "The Dark Side of the Earth" "Topaze" "A Sound of Different Drummers" "The Playroom" "Around the World in 90 Minutes" "The Mystery of Thirteen" "The Edge of Innocence" "The Clouded Image" "The Jet Propelled Couch" "The Troublemakers" "Panic Button" "Galvanized Yankee" "The Thundering Wave" "For I Have Loved Strangers" "The Lone Woman" "Reunion" "The Last Man" "The 80 Yard Run" "Before I Die" "The Gentleman From Seventh Avenue" "The Violent Heart" "No Time at All" "Point of No Return" "Portrait of a Murderer" "The Last Clear Chance" "The Male Animal" "The Right Hand Man" "Turn Left at Mount Everest" "The Dungeon" "Verdict of Three" "Rumors of Evening" "Not the Glory" "Nightmare at Ground Zero" "Bomber's Moon" "Natchez" "The Innocent Sleep" "A Town Has Turned to Dust" "The Great Gatsby" "A Bitter Heritage"
Season 3	"The Plot to Kill Stalin" "Days of Wine and Roses" "The Time of Your Life" "The Long March" "Shadows Tremble" "Word From a Sealed-Off Box" "Heart of Darkness" "Old Man" "The Return of Ansel Gibbs" "Free Weekend" "Seven Against the Wall" "The Nutcracker" "Face of a Hero" "The Wings of the Dove" "The Blue Men" "The Velvet Alley" "A Quiet Game of Cards" "Child of Our Time" "The Second Man" "The Raider" "The Dingaling Girl" "Made in Japan" "For Whom the Bell Tolls" "A Trip to Paradise" "In Lonely Expectation" "The Day Before Atlanta" "Judgment at Nuremberg" "A Corner of the Garden" "Dark December" "Diary of a Nurse" "A Marriage of Strangers" "Out of Dust" "The Rank and File" "The Killers of Mussolini" "Project Immortality" "Dark as the Night" "The Second Happiest Day"
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