Fedora on AllMovie

The Italian Fedora was based on the Victorien Sardou play of the same name. Luisa Forida plays the title character, who falls in love neither wisely nor well with Russian painter Loris (Amedeo Nazzari). Osvaldo Valenti is seen as the irresponsible Count Vladimir, to whom Fedora has been promised in marriage. Though the story is a tragic one, audiences were so taken by the opulence of the production and the magnificence of Umberto Giordano's musical score that the impact of the unhappy ending was considerably softened. American critics were much taken by Fedora, noting that the film lacked the ponderous pretentious of most like-vintage European costume dramas.