The Iron Crown
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Iron Crown is a 1941 Italian adventure film written and directed by Alessandro Blasetti, starring Massimo Girotti and Gino Cervi. The narrative revolves a sacred iron crown and a king who is prophesied to lose his kingdom to his nephew. It blends motifs from several European myths, legends and modern works of popular fiction. The film won a Coppa Mussolini award, which is the ancestor to the Golden Lion.
Plot
Sedemondo (Gino Cervi) succeeds his brother Licinio (Massimo Girotti) upon his death as king of Kindaor, and a messenger bearing a crown made from a nail from the true cross requests permission to cross the kingdom. The crown by legend will stay wherever injustice and corruption prevail. Sedemondo takes it to a gorge where it is swallowed by the earth.
A wise woman prophesies to the king that his wife will bear a daughter and Licinio's widow (Elisa Cegani) a son, that the two will fall in love, and the son take the kingdom from Sedemondo. When he gets home, he is told that his wife has given birth to a boy (the daughter having been switched with the child of Licinio) and so believes the prophecy to be invalid. He raises both the boy Arminio and girl Elsa. After some strife between Sedemondo and Arminio, the king orders Arminio to be taken to the gorge and slain.
Twenty years later, with Arminio (Massimo Girotti) having grown up in the forest, Sedemondo arranges a tournament to determine who will marry Elsa (Elisa Cegani). Tundra (Luisa Ferida) leads the resistance among the people against the king. The tournament, with various characters attending in disguise, sets up whether the prophecy will come to pass.
Cast
- Elisa Cegani as the mother of Elsa & Elsa
- Luisa Ferida as Kavaora, mother of Tundra & Tundra
- Rina Morelli as the wise old woman
- Gino Cervi as Sedemondo, the king of Kindaor
- Massimo Girotti as Licinio & Arminio, his son
- Osvaldo Valenti as Eriberto
- Paolo Stoppa as Trifilli
- Primo Carnera as Klasa, the servant of Tundra
- Dina Perbellini as Elsa's nurse
- Dubbing
- Gualtiero De Angelis ... voice dubbing: Massimo Girotti, role of "Arminio" only (uncredited)
- Lauro Gazzolo ... voice dubbing: Osvaldo Valenti (uncredited)
- Augusto Marcacci ... voice dubbing: Massimo Girotti, role of "Licinio" only (uncredited)
- Cesare Polacco ... voice dubbing: Primo Carnera (uncredited)
- Giovanna Scotto ... voice dubbing: Dina Perbellini (uncredited)
