Gli Sbandati (1955)
Directed by Francesco Maselli
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Synopsis by Hal Erickson
Gli Sbandati was released worldwide as The Disbanded. Set during WWII, the film is a drama of the Italian resistance, with all the usual clichéd characters in attendance. The central character, a bombed-out gamine who falls in love with an Italian partisan, is played by Lucia Bose, who earned a great deal of praise for her performance. Most of the film deals with the culture-clash between the citified resistance fighters and their rural hosts. Extremely well cast, and equipped with a powerhouse climax, Gil Sbandati proved to be a worthwhile feature-film directorial debut for onetime Antonioni associate Francesco Maselli.