Il Tredicesimo Commensale

Guido Brignone attempts, rather curiously, the traditionally English whodunit (the overall plot, deduced from the news reports of the period, further highlights this aspect: the guests that have been invited to the lunch at which the solution is to be revealed are all possible suspects). But, above all, the mystery formula as a guarantee to melodramatic functioning, otherwise close to being worn-out, seems to have been one of the marks of the Torino company (e.g. Il quadro di Osvaldo Mars). The result, at least in this final reel, is truely interesting. Flash-backs, subjective takes, alternate editing, all seems to be used without dispersion and beyond that practice of contemplative lingering on the framing that characterizes much of the Italian cinema up to 1920. (Paola Cristalli)