Malfatti, Marina

Post by **Emiliano** » 23/04/2019, 16:48

: Marina Malfatti in the TV mini-series Malombra (1974)

: In Annuario degli attori 1976

: In Annuario degli attori 1976

: In Cineguida 1965

Marina Malfatti was an award-winning theater actress. She achieve the fame with her participations in some Giallo movies of the early seventies, but much more in the middle of the decade, with a successful literary work TV adaptations.

She was born on 25 April 1933 in Florence. Never a surname was less apt ("Mal fatti" in italian means "badly done"): blonde, tall, of classic beauty and a little austere, long and beautiful legs, with an aristocratic bearing and a Nordic charm, even for the severe and somewhat cold look.

She cultivates a passion for acting from a young age, and when seventeen she's attending the acting school of René Simon at the Cours d 'Art Dramatique in Paris. Later, she was admitted at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome (in the 1958).

To discover her talent as a prose actress is Arnoldo Foà, but if the theater will be her true passion, it is thanks to the cinema and above all to the TV, that she will become one of the most famous faces of the Italian entertainment of the seventies.

Her first movie is Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia's Le cameriere (1959), but she gets the first important part in Un uomo da bruciare (1962) by Orsini, following I fuorilegge del matrimonio (1963) by the Taviani brothers and in Montaldo's Una bella grinta (1965).

She made the debut on the small screen with the RAI series Le inchieste del commissario Maigret (1966), with Gino Cervi, in the episode The Chinese Shadow, followed by the successful series: Sherlock Holmes and the TV movie Dal tuo al mio (1969) by Mario Landi, taken from a novel by Verga, for which she receive the Verga award; but, above all she obtained a resounding success in the role of the marquis Marina del Malombra, in the TV mini-series Malombra (1974), a psicological-drama from the novel of Fogazzaro.

The most popular genre of those years, the Giallo, needed beautiful and expressive protagonists: with her skill she elevates the quality of the film, while with beauty she entertains a wider audience. A perfect combination. She starred first in La última señora Anderson (aka In fondo alla piscina, 1971), with Carrol Baker, directed by Eugenio Martin (one of those many Italian-Spanish co-productions that made the fortune of the European cinema), than we find her in prominent parts in La notte che Evelyn uscì dalla tomba (1971), La dama rossa uccide sette volte (1972) by E. P. Miraglia, Tutti i colori del buio (1972) by Sergio Martino, Sette orchidee macchiate di rosso (1972) by Umberto Lenzi, Il prato macchiato di rosso (1973) by Riccardo Ghione, and as protagonist in Un fiocco nero per Deborah (1974).

From the mid-seventies she progressively distanced herself from the silver screen, turning her art to the theater and reserving some sporadic returns to the TV. On the stage she plays many classics, but not only (Moravia writes for her La cintura), and becomes a diva of the Italian theaters, like Anna Proclemer or Valeria Morriconi, but surpassing them in beauty, and in 1983 her interpretation in Elettra is rewarded with the Maschera d’Argento award.

In the nineties she joins in an artistic association with Luigi Squarzina, with whom she plays the works of Pirandello, Goldoni, Cocteau and Shaw.

In the 2000s she brought to the stage several works including Sorelle Materassi (2006), Gallina vecchia by Maccarinelli (2007) and finally her latest performance: Va dove ti porta il cuore (2008).

Long withdrawn from the scene and from public life, especially since she was widowed by the ambassador Umberto La Rocca, from whom she had no children, she's gone silently at the age of 83, on 8 June 2016 in Rome.[1]

Filmography

1959

Le cameriere .... Venerina (credited)

1960
E' morto Jack (TV movie) .... Vivienne (credited)
Une fille pour l'été / Una ragazza per l'estate .... the Slavic stranger (to be confirmed, news article credit)

1962
Un uomo da bruciare .... Wilma (credited)

1963
I fuorilegge del matrimonio .... Rosanna (credited)

1965
Una bella grinta .... Luciana's friend (credited)

1966
Io, io, io.... e gli altri .... Swedish girl on the train (credited)
Le inchieste del commissario Maigret (TV series) - S2, ep. 2: "L'ombra Cinese" .... Nina Moinard (credited)

1967
C'era una volta .... Olimpia Capecelatro, princess of Altamura (credited)
Missione Wiesenthal (TV movie) .... Anne Marie Mistelbach (credited)
Pronto... c'è una certa Giuliana per te .... Annalisa (credited)

1968
Amori senza amore (TV movie) .... Christina Viola (credited)
Più tardi Claire, più tardi... .... Granddaughter of George (credited)
Sherlock Holmes (TV mini-series) - ep.: "L'ultimo dei Baskerville", parts 1, 2, 3 .... Beryl Stapleton (credited)

1969
Dal tuo al mio (TV movie) .... Lisa (credited)
I dannati della Terra .... Luciana (credited)

1971
Doppio gioco (TV movie) .... Françoise (credited)
La notte che Evelyn uscì dalla tomba .... Gladys Cunningham (credited)
La última señora Anderson (1971) .... Julie Spencer

1972
Decameron n° 3 - Le più belle donne del Boccaccio (segment "The Jealous Husband") .... Wife of Jealous Husband (credited)
Il ritorno di Clint il solitario .... Norma Murrayson (credited)
La dama rossa uccide sette volte .... Franziska Wildenbrück (credited)
Sette orchidee macchiate di rosso .... Kathy Adams (credited)
Testa in giù, gambe in aria .... Marina (credited)
Tutti i colori del buio .... Mary alias Celia Morgan (credited)

1973
Alexander Zwo (TV mini series) (Ep. 1: "Gefährliche Heimkehr"; 2: "Zum Abschuß freigegeben"; 6: "Ping Pong") .... Sonja (credited)
Il prato macchiato di rosso .... Nina Genovese (credited)
La notte dell'ultimo giorno .... Francesca (credited)
Sans sommation /Il clan del quartiere latino .... Isabelle Maury (credited)

1974
Il venditore di palloncini .... Maria (credited)
Malombra (TV mini-series) .... Marquis Marina del Malombra (credited)
Un fiocco nero per Deborah .... Deborah Lagrange (credited)

1976
Lezioni di violoncello con toccata e fuga .... Stella Brega (poster credit - role unconfirmed)

1988
Silvia è sola (TV movie) .... Silvia (credited?)

No Marina, and Malfatti is not Mulligan!

Marina Mulligan is the pseudonym of Marina Rabissi, the ex wife of Carlo Croccolo (director of Black Killer), not of Marina Malfatti, as listed long time on the IMDb

Black Killer (1971)
Una pistola per cento croci! (1971)

Plus, she does not appear in
Era Sam Wallash!... Lo chiamavano... E così sia (1971) .... Marge (uncredited)
Il figlio di Zorro (1973) .... Carmen (uncredited) - I've been through this and did not recognize her, but the copy was at VHS level

Titles to check

Die Welt des Pirandello - Liebe! - Liebe? (TV Movie, 1970) - segment "Wenn man das Spiel kennt" .... Christina Viola
Per amore o per forza (1971) .... Nora
L'ultimo aereo per Venezia (TV Mini-Series, 1977) - eps. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 .... Irene Oro
Il fauno di marmo (TV mini-series, 1977) .... Miriam
Il prigioniero (TV Movie, 1978) .... Nadia Zamboni
Racconti di fantascienza (TV Series, 1980) - ep.: "I sosia" .... Marta
Anna Kuliscioff (TV mini-series, 1981) .... Anna Kuliscioff
Teresa Raquin (TV mini-series, 1985) .... Teresa Raquin
La signora Morlì, una e due (TV Movie, 1991)
Un posto freddo in fondo al cuore (TV Movie, 1992) .... Giulia Mussi
A rischio d'amore (TV Movie, 1994) .... Chiara
Come prima, meglio di prima (TV Movie, 1995) .... Fulvia Gelli

Notes and sources

1.This mini-biography is the result of editor's personal research as the summary of many sources.

Post by **Emiliano** » 19/06/2020, 16:20

Starting with her double-face character named Gladys, in the Giallo by Emilio Pompilio Miraglia: La notte che Evelyn uscì dalla tomba (1971).
She plays a fascinating lady, with some flash of unexpected violence. It's probably her most memorable interpretation in the genre. Not dubbed (in the Italian version).

Post by **Emiliano** » 19/06/2020, 16:51

A very charming, ambiguous and almost otherworldly character, Mary, in Sergio Martino's dreamlike giallo Tutti i colori del buio (1972).
In the Italian version she is not dubbed.

Post by **Emiliano** » 19/06/2020, 18:59

In the bizarre cheap horror Il prato macchiato di rosso (1973) as the evil Nina Genovese.
Here she plays a "bloody murderer" who loves money, maybe too much. Again she is paired with Enzo Tarascio, after the success of the Miraglia's Giallos.

Post by **Emiliano** » 19/06/2020, 22:51

Malombra (TV mini-series, 1974) as the Marquis Marina del Malombra
The drama consist of 4 episodes in which she is the protagonist together with Ugo Pagliai.
The story unfolds around the character of a tormented young woman (Malombra), whose forced solitude and ill-concealed resentment against her uncle cause anxieties and fears till to madness. This is the series that consecrates her to success.
Filmed with direct sound, so we listen her real voice.

Post by **Emiliano** » 19/06/2020, 23:09

In Un fiocco nero per Deborah (1974) as Deborah Lagrange.
Another "tormented" interpretation, in the wake of Malombra, in a cheap mistery that echoes Rosemary's Baby a little.
Not dubbed in the italian version.

Post by **Emiliano** » 19/06/2020, 23:21

In the classic Giallo by Umberto Lenzi Sette orchidee macchiate di rosso (1972) as Kathy Adams.
She has a little part, and appears only few minutes as the beautiful painter victim of the murderer. Dubbed.

Post by **Emiliano** » 20/06/2020, 21:17

In Miraglia's second Giallo La dama rossa uccide sette volte (1972), again in a evil role, as Franziska Wildenbrück.
This character has several points in common with that of the previous Miraglia's giallo. Obviously the director liked Marina in this diabolical key. Not dubbed.

Post by **Emiliano** » 21/06/2020, 15:19

In the melancholic western Il ritorno di Clint il solitario (1972) as Norma Murrayson
Here she plays a mother who suffers from the return of her husband, wanted by law and from the abuse of a band of outlaws. Happy ending. Dubbed.