List of generici 1940's-1950's

[Johan Melle]

Great work and lots of interesting names here! Especially interesting to see that so many of our friends were active already in the 1940s or early 1950s. There's a lot of detective work left to do for this time period!

As for the other names, I naturally recognize a few who went on to a certain degree of fame, but there are also some I recognize from fotoromanzi. Two names especially stand out to me:

The first is Maria (Mary) Ballerini, who appears in many, many 1950s fotoromanzi as a character actress but only credited a few times. I know her face very well.

The other is Giuseppe Chevalier, who acted in many 1950s fotoromanzi as Giusi Chevalier. For him I even have a few biographical infos and a list of some films he appeared in because this was printed in the letter column of the fotoromanzo magazine Cine Illustrato.

I also recognize the following names from various fotoromanzi from the late 1940s and 1950s: Umberto Alivernini, Romeo Badessi, Giovanni De Angelis, Alcide Dinari, Siva Fazi, Giuliana Gardini, Mario Lo Cicero, Ermena Malusardi, Giselda Mancinotti (she's also in some fotoromanzi as Gisella Mancini), Attilio Olivo, Riccardo Scicolone, Amleto Tordi, Alessandro Werefkin and Maria Carla Vittone. Most of these only appeared in a few fotoromanzi, except Ermena Malusardi and Alessandro (Sandro) Werefkin, whom I've also spotted in one or two films.

Anyway, these actors could be good starting points since I know what they look like.

[Ciavazzaro]

WOW !!!
Really a great starting point, and a good thrust to search more movies from 1940's and 1950's !

For me i can say Egidio Ummarino a man for which i know the face and he is credited in some movies from 1961, but this proves he was active as a generico many time before !
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0880894/?re ... f_=nv_sr_1

So i will post his face, to see if you recognize him.

[Ciavazzaro]

I have made a little fast research for possible credited movies of the names you posted, after a search on cidb and imdb here what i found:


Maria Carla Vittone is credited in Baracca e burattini (1954)

Siva Fazi:
La scogliera del peccato
Le sei mogli di Barbablù
Vendetta di zingara

Ermena Malusardi:
Il dottor Antonio (1937)
L'ha fatto una signora (1938)
Giuseppe Verdi (1938)

Gisella Mancinotti:
Bellezze in motoscooter (1952)
La finestra sul luna park (1957)
I vampiri (1957)

Attilio Olivo:
Quo vadis as servant (1951) according to IMDB


Giuseppe Chevalier should be credited as set decorator in Arriva Dorrelik (1967) maybe he did appear also as a generico in the movie

[Johan Melle]

Giuseppe Chevalier should be credited as set decorator in Arriva Dorrelik (1967) maybe he did appear also as a generico in the movie

It's surely him because there's also a Giuseppe Chevalier Mifsud credited as "scenografo arredatore" in L'iguana dalla lingua di fuoco (1971) and I have one fotoromanzo where Giuseppe (Giusi) Chevalier is credited as Joseph Mifsud, so it must be the same man.

[Johan Melle]

Okay, I've started to work on this. The problem with these 1950s fotoromanzo magazines is that all the fotoromanzi are continuing and they usually consist of around 20-25 parts. So when trying to find good images to scan of the supporting actors, I have wade through a ton of magazines to find what I need. It's very tedious and time-consuming work, and for that reason I'm going to work on this little by little when I find time for it.

Anyway, as I mentioned, one of the names I recognize from the list is Alessandro Werefkin, who appeared in a couple of fotoromanzi in the magazines Sogno, Luna Park and Cine Illustrato (all three from the same publisher) from 1959 to 1961, either credited as Sandro Werefkin or uncredited.

Here is his credited role in "Cristina", published in Sogno from October 1959 to February 1960

I've also spotted him in the film Risate di gioia (1960) as one of the guests at the German villa

So this is one face to be on the look-out for in 1950s movies.

[Johan Melle]

Another interesting name from the list is Ermena Malusardi. She appears in several fotoromanzi, but apparently the only one in which she is credited is "La figlia del gondoliere", published in Polvere di Stelle from August to December 1957

Unfortunately no single shots of her in this fotoromanzo. I know there are some better shots of her in one of the fotoromanzi she appears in uncredited, but I didn't have the patience to search for it right now.

Anyway, I've also spotted Ermena in the film Il moralista (1959) - on the left with glasses

As pointed out by Ciavazzaro, IMDb credits Ermena Malusardi with three films from 1937-38, which based on her age, could very well be correct. She's definitely a woman to look out for in 1940s and 50s movies.

[Johan Melle]

Slowly continuing this work, I now present pictures of another name from the list: Siva Fazi. Here she is credited in the fotoromanzo "Catene di velluto", published in Tipo from October 1950 to February 1951

Siva Fazi also appears credited in the fotoromanzo "Gli angeli piangono" (Tipo, 1950) and has an uncredited role in "La figlia del mendicante" (Tipo, 1954), but I didn't make scans from those. I'll do it if Siva ever gets a topic of her own.

And while looking through "Catene di velluto", I couldn't help but notice this actor

His name is Renzo Paladini, and while not one of the names on the long list, he does have very characteristic features, so I attached the pics just in case. He may well turn out to be a generico too...

[Johan Melle]

Moving on with the list, it's time to take a closer look at Mario Lo Cicero, who appeared in two fotoromanzi.

The first one is "Ti odio, amore mio!", published in Sogno from April to September 1949

The second fotoromanzo he appeared in was "La divina follia", published in Sogno from May to November 1950

[Johan Melle]

Another interesting actor from the list is Umberto Alivernini, who has a terrific role in the fotoromanzo "I fiori sul fango", published in Sogno from July to December 1949

He has a really terrific bad guy face and should be possible to recognize in movies.

There's also an Umberto Oliverini credited in the fotoromanzo "Perdutamente tua", published in Bolero Film from May to October 1948 and it's definitely the same guy

Bolero Film was based in Milan and their fotoromanzi were produced there with Milanese actors, but this one was clearly an exception - just note how the 'organizzazione' is credited to A.B.C. Roma. You may also notice that several of the actors listed in the cast list are mentioned in the list of generici, so I'll be posting more about the other actors in this fotoromanzo very soon...

[Johan Melle]

Moving on to two other names on the list: Giovanni De Angelis and Riccardo Scicolone, both of whom are credited alongside Umberto Alivernini in the fotoromanzo "Perdutamente tua" (1948).

Here's Giovanni De Angelis

And a profile shot as well

And this is Riccardo Scicolone

Profile shot for him as well

Curiously, Riccardo Scicolone is also the name of Sophia Loren's father! However, it seems very unlikely that he is the same person as the actor in these scans. It's presumably just a case of homonymity.