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Luciano Albertini

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Muscular Italian actor Luciano Albertini (1882-1945) was one of the most famous strongmen and daredevils of the silent cinema. The former circus artist first worked as an actor and producer for the Italian cinema and later moved to Berlin, where his Latin appeal made many admirers swoon. He also filmed in America as well as in the Soviet Union.

Luciano Albertini
American postcard by A.G.F. Photo: Photocine.

Luciano Albertini
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 524/4, 1919-1924. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Luciano Albertini
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 577/2. Photo L. Klaude, Berlin /Phoebus Film. Albertini did very few films at Phoebus, so this might be Die Heimkehr des Odysseus/The Homecoming of Odysseuss (Max Obal, 1922), provided it was a modern adaptation of the story.

Luciano Albertini
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 798/3, 1925-1926. Photo: Phoebus Film, Berlin.

Luciano Albertini
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1815/1, 1927-1928. Photo: A. (Alex) Binder, Berlin.

Flying Trapeze


Luciano Albertini was born as Francesco Vespignani in Lugo di Romagna, Italy, in 1882.

In his youth, he already showed a passion for sports, joining the gymnastics club in Forlí and later in Bologna. After his studies he ended up in France, where he retook his lessons in physical exercise at the Ecole Péchin in Lyon.

He entered the Circus Busch and in 1905 he married circus artist Domenica Meirone in Marseille. He took the stage name of Luciano Albertini and created a number on the flying trapeze with 8 persons: Les Albertini. His speciality was a stunt, the ‘death spiral’.

When he returned to Italy, he started his film career in historical epics as Spartaco/Spartacus (Giovanni Enrico Vidali, 1913). At IMDb, Michael Elliott reviews: "The second adaptation of Raffaello Giovagnoli's novel comes at a time when Italy really started pumping out their epic films with the longer running times, expensive sets and lavish production values. This film really doesn't stray too far from the source as we have our hero Spartacus being sold as a slave only to rise up and battle the evil Crassus. These Italian movies are certainly a far cry from the American ones coming out at the same time and this one here has so much going for it that I'm sure even the most jaded silent-hater would have to respect what's on display here."

Albertini also appeared opposite film diva Francesca Bertina in Assunta Spina (Francesca Bertini, Gustavo Serena, 1915).

The First World War broke out and Albertini joined the navy. He still kept one foot to the ground though, and he worked at the film company Società Anonima Ambrosio of Turin.

His breakthrough was the circus film La spirale della morte/The Death Spiral (Filippo Castamagna, Domenico Gambino, 1917).

Afterwards he worked for the studios Pasquali and Latina Ars, both also in Turin. At Pasquali he started the successful Sansone (Samson) series, with Sansone contro i Filistei/Sansone Against the Philistines (Domenico Gaido, 1918).

Luciano Albertini's finest moment came when he founded his own company Albertini Film, that released its first films in 1919.

Until 1921 Albertini Film produced three series: the Sansone films, the Lilliput series with the children Arnold (Patata) and Varada (they were not Albertini’s children although the promotion pretended so), and the series Sansonette with Linda Albertini , his so-called wife, but her true identity remains a mystery.

Albertini also produced Il mostro di Frankenstein/The Monster of Frankenstein (Eugenio Testa, 1920), in which he himself personified Baron Frankenstein.

His best film was not one of his Sansone films but the costume drama Il Ponte dei Sospiri/The Bridge of Sighs (Domenico Gaido, 1921), a swashbuckler set in Venice.

Albertini played Rolando Candiani, son of the Doge of Venice, who is falsely accused of murder by his enemies. One plots to become Doge himself, another wants to steal the beautiful Leonora, Rolando's fiancée, a third is a courtesan rejected by Rolando.

On the day of his marriage Rolando is arrested, trialled and passes the Bridge of Sighs before entering lifetime imprisonment. His father is dethroned as Doge, blinded and reduced to a wandering beggar. But with the help of the courageous and good-hearted bandit Scalabrino (Garaveo Onorato), Rolando manages to escape and take revenge...

Luciano Albertini in Il ponte dei sospiri
Italian postcard by Unione Cinematografica Italiana. Luciano Albertini as Rolando in the four part serial film Il ponte dei sospiri/The Bridge of Sighs (Domenico Gaido, 1921). On his right side Carolina White (Leonora) and Bonaventura Ibanez (her father Dandolo).

Luciano Albertini in Le roi de Paris
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 196. Photo: Luciano Albertini in Julot, der Apache/Julot, the Apache (Joseph Delmont, Hertha von Walther, 1921), released in France as Julot l'apache but also Le roi de Paris.

Luciano Albertini and Lya de Putti in Die Schlucht des Todes
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 578/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Leo Klaude, Berlin / Phoebus Film. Publicity still for Die Schlucht des Todes/The Ravine of Death (Luciano Albertini, Albert-Francis Bertoni, Max Obal, 1923) with Lya de Putti.

Luciano Albertini and Lya de Putti
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 578/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Leo Klaude, Berlin / Phoebus Film. Publicity still for Die Schlucht des Todes/The Ravine of Death (Luciano Albertini, Albert-Francis Bertoni, Max Obal, 1923) with Lya de Putti.

Luciano Albertini in Der Sieg des Maharadscha
German postcard. Photo: Luciano Albertini in Der Sieg des Maharadscha/The victory of the Maharajah (Joseph Delmont, 1923).

Luciano Albertini
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 577/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Klaude, Berlin / Phoebus-Film. Publicity still for Der Sieg des Maharadscha/The victory of the Maharajah (Joseph Delmont, 1923).

Berlin Entourage


The crisis in the Italian cinema forced Albertini Film to move to Germany where Luciano Albertini was well received.

Linda, though, returned after one year and four films, because Luciano had an affair with another woman.

In the 1920s, he was very popular in German films directed by Joseph Delmont, Nunzio Malasomma – another Italian immigrant working in Berlin - and Max Obal.

Albertini also directed and produced himself once in Die Schlucht des Todes/The Ravine of Death (Luciano Albertini, Albert-Francis Bertoni, Max Obal, 1923) opposite vamp Lya de Putti.

He started in Germany with a series of films directed by Delmont and produced by himself: Der König der Manege/The King of the Circus Ring (1921), Der eiserne Faust/The Iron Fist (1921), Julot der Apache/Julot the Apache (1921), Der Todesleiter/The Death Ladder (1921), and Der Man aus Stahl/The Steel Man (1922).

With Malasomma, Albertini did Mister Radio (1924), Der König und die kleine Mädchen/The King and the Little Girls (1925), and Eine Minute vor 12/One Minute to Twelve (1925).

Obal directed the most of the Albertini films: Die heimkehr des Odysseus/The Return of Odysseus (1922), Rinaldo Rinaldini (1927) starring opposite Hans Albers, Der grösste Gauner des Jahrhunderts/The Biggest Crook of the Century (1927), Der Unüberwindliche/The Invincible (1928) with Vivian Gibson, Tempo! Tempo! (1929) with Hilda Rosch, and Jagd nach der Million/The Hunt for a Million (1930) with Gretl Berndt.

Albertini also appeared in the Soviet classic Arsenal/January Uprising in Kiev (Aleksandr Dovzhenko, 1928).

Luciano Albertini
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin SW, no. 524/3.

Luciano Albertini
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 577/8. Photo Krause, Berlin / Phoebus Film.

Luciano Albertini
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 798/1, 1925-1926. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Luciano Albertini
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 798/2, 1925-1926. Photo: Phoebus Film, Berlin. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Luciano Albertini
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1287/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Balazs, Berlin / Albertini-Produktion GmbH.

Luciano Albertini
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1387/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Balazs, Berlin / Albertini Produktion GmbH.

Luciano Albertini
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1387/3, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Balazs, Berlin / Albertini Produktion GmbH.

Asylum


In Berlin, Luciano Albertini lived in grand style, visiting restaurants with his friends and crew. He lived in a villa in the outskirts, in the workman’s quarter Siemensstadt.

Albertini had several affairs in Berlin, including one with actress Annie Gorilowa. At the Sportpalast, he and Marlene Dietrich were the big attractions.

His only setback had been his collaboration with Universal Studios to the American 15 part-serial The Iron Man (Jay Marchant, 1924), as he proved not to be the protagonist. Instead he had been forced to jump from the Brooklyn Bridge to a raceboat, while he often had his stuntmen doing this.

In 1930, the tide changed for Albertini. The talkies, his age (he was 50 now), the saturation of the acrobatic genre contributed, but his alcoholism really finished him.

Although Angelo Rossi, his double, and Lamberti, his ex-cameraman who had opened a restaurant in the Friedrichstrasse, helped him, Albertini went down all the way.

He performed in one last film: Es geht um alle/It Involves Everything (Max Nosseck, 1932) with Ernö Verebes.

When he showed aggression against a doorman he was put in an asylum and was diagnosed with dementia. In the late 1930s he returned to Italy, living in Bologna where a Father Marella took care of him.

His disease lead him to Villa Flora in Bologna and finally to the mental asylum San Gaetano in Budrio near Bologna. Luciano Albertini died here, in 1945.

Luciano Albertini
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1816/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Luciano Albertini
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3032/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Balázs, Berlin.

Luciano Albertini
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3032/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Balázs, Berlin.

Luciano Albertini
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3594/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Aafa Film.

Luciano Albertini
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3621/1, 1928-1929.

Luciano Albertini
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4624/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Aafa-Film.

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli/Mario Quargnolo (Maciste & Co. I giganti buoni del muto italiano), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Michael Elliott (IMDb), Guy Bellinger (IMDb), Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

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