I Pagliacci on AllMovie

Love of a Clown was originally released in Italy as Il Pagliacci--and rightly so, since this is a film adaptation of Leoncavallo's one-act opera. Famed baritone Tito Gobbi dons clown suit and cries his eyes out as Pagliacci, the provincial entertainer who takes in a homeless woman, only to be betrayed by the girl and his best friend. The girl is played by 21-year-old Gina Lollobrigida, who at the time of the film's release was praised by the more impressionable critics for her marvelous singing; when the picture is seen today, even a preschooler can deduce that Gina's voice is dubbed. Filmed on location in the Calabrian Mountains, Love of a Clown runs a brief 60 minutes--exactly the time-span of the original opera.