Newly found Hollywood Mussolini film screened in Italy
Long-lost 1923 Hollywood film featuring Mussolini re-discovered by a student in the United States
ROME: (AFP) - A long-lost 1923 Hollywood film featuring Benito Mussolini was screened in Italy on Tuesday after being re-discovered by a student in the United States.
Only 28 minutes of "The Eternal City" remain. The reels of the silent film were found by student Giuliana Muscio at New York s Museum of Modern Art.
The film, produced by Samuel Goldwyn, starred Lionel Barrymore, great uncle of Hollywood actress Drew Barrymore, who plays the role of a Communist villain.
The film shows Mussolini reviewing troops and in his office. It was screened at a silent film festival in the northeastern town of Pordenone.
"The Eternal City" was filmed less than a year after the March on Rome paved the way for Mussolini s Fascist party to come to power in Italy, which was then a kingdom.
The George Fitzmaurice directed film portrays Mussolini as a leader who saves his people from the scourge of communism.
"The fascist parades appear to have been staged for the big screen and at this time Mussolini was a popular hero," Muscio said in a statement.
The film ends by showing Mussolini in his office at the Palazzo Venezia.
The dictator had been a fan of Hollywood and invited several stars to visit him, including Jackie Coogan, the child star of Charlie Chaplin s "The Kid" as well as Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, Hollywood s best-known star couple at the time.
