In the dying days of WW2, Benito Mussolini, ousted from Rome by the Allied forces, rules over a small and shrinking sector of northern Italy, uneasily aware that his German allies are about to dump him.
Carlo Lizzani’s film, shot on the original locations, traces the four days that preceded the dictator’s execution. Rod Steiger gives a good account of
himself as the ailing, weary Duce, but Henry Fonda dials in his performance as a Milanese cardinal.
Philip Kemp
