Enrico Caruso: leggenda di una voce (Enrico Caruso: Legend of a Voice) is an 1951

Italian films of 1951

A list of films produced in Italy in 1951 :-A:-B-D:-E-L:-M-Q:-S-Z:-External links:* at the Internet Movie Database...

 Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 biographical film

Biographical film

A biographical film, or biopic , is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their...

 about Enrico Caruso, directed by Giacomo Gentilomo

Giacomo Gentilomo

Giacomo Gentilomo was an Italian film director and painter.-Filmography:* Maciste e la regina di Samar * Le verdi bandiere di Allah * Brenno il nemico di Roma * I lancieri neri...

. It stars Ermanno Randi as Enrico Caruso and Gina Lollobrigida

Gina Lollobrigida

Gina Lollobrigida is an Italian actress, photojournalist and sculptress. She was one of the most popular European actresses of the 1950s and early 1960s. She was also an iconic sex symbol of the 1950s. Today, she remains an active supporter of Italian and Italian American causes, particularly the...

. It was released in English under the title The Young Caruso and produced by Asso Film, Londo Films and Tirenna Film Associata di Roma. It was adapted from a novel by Frank Thiess

Frank Thiess

Frank Thiess was a German writer.-Biography:Born in Eluisenstein, Russian Livonia , Thiess grew up in Berlin, where his family moved after Russia had annexed Livonia. He worked as a journalist for four years until he was enlisted into the German army in World War I...

, Neapolitanische Legende (Neapolitan Legend). The film follows the life of the legendary tenor from childhood poverty in Naples to the beginning of his rise to fame. Caruso's voice was provided by Mario Del Monaco

Mario del Monaco

Mario Del Monaco was an Italian tenor who is regarded by his admirers as being one of the greatest dramatic tenors of the 20th century....

 and Lollobrigida's voice was dubbed by Dhia Cristiani.

Cast

• Ermanno Randi as Enrico Caruso
• Gina Lollobrigida
  Gina Lollobrigida
  Gina Lollobrigida is an Italian actress, photojournalist and sculptress. She was one of the most popular European actresses of the 1950s and early 1960s. She was also an iconic sex symbol of the 1950s. Today, she remains an active supporter of Italian and Italian American causes, particularly the...
  
    as Stella
• Ciro Scafa as Luigi Gregorio Proboseide
• Carlo Sposito  as Giovanni "Gianni" Palma
• Maurizio Di Nardo as Caruso as a boy
• Gaetano Verna as Caruso's father
• Mária Tasnádi Fekete as Anna (Caruso's mother)
• Lamberto Picasso
  Lamberto Picasso
  Lamberto Picasso was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 70 films between 1914 and 1953.-Selected filmography:* The Naked Truth * Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal...
  
    as Vergine the Maestro
• Nerio Bernardi
  Nerio Bernardi
  Nerio Bernardi was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 192 films between 1918 and 1970.He was born in Bologna, Italy and died in Rome, Italy.-Selected filmography:* The Avenger * Vanina Vanini...
  
   as Francesco Zucchi
• Gian Paolo Rosmino as Goffredo
• Romano Laurienzo as Gino Saltamerenda
• Elena Sangro  as Signora Tivaldi
• Franca Tamantini as Carragi, a soprano
• Mimi Ferrari 

Reception

Although an initial commercial success, the film producers knew that the film was far from accurate; indeed, an introductory title describes the plot as "a poetic interpretation of [Caruso's] youth." The film has thus been called a "travesty" because it had so many biographical inaccuracies. The film greatly upset the Caruso family who ended up suing the producers of the film for five million lire. MGM was also forced to withdraw The Great Caruso

The Great Caruso

The Great Caruso is a 1951 biographical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Joe Pasternak with Jesse L. Lasky as associate producer from a screenplay by Sonya Levien and William Ludwig. The original music was by Johnny Green and the cinematography by...

from distribution in Italy, despite the film being a major success.