Line #29 Film/GeneralDellaRovere


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/88155b65c8b02d90e973f6e20d632a0a.jpg]]
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3	''General della Rovere'' (Il generale della Rovere) is a 1959 film from Italy directed by Creator/RobertoRossellini.
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5	The film is set in Genoa in 1944 in the dying days of UsefulNotes/FascistItaly--the Germans have occupied the country and installed UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini as a puppet, while the Allies hold the southern part of the country. Creator/VittorioDeSica (more famous as a director of films like ''Film/BicycleThieves'') plays Emanuele Bardone, a petty criminal who masquerades as "Colonel Grimaldi" and affects the manner of an aristocrat. He is in cahoots with a German sergeant, running a scheme in which Bardone collects bribe money from locals whose loved ones are in the hands of the Germans, then splits the money with the sergeant. Sometimes, they actually get a person out.
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7	Eventually he gets busted. Bardone makes the mistake of coming to a particular woman and telling her that he's prevented her husband's deportation, only for the woman to tell him her husband was shot. Bardone is arrested for bribery.
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9	Meanwhile, an anti-fascist Italian officer, one General della Rovere, tries to infiltrate enemy lines only to be almost immediately caught and shot by the Germans manning a roadblock. SS Col. Müller, head of the German garrison in Genoa, hits on an idea. He will have Emanuele Bardone impersonate the general! Bardone will be put in a jail for political prisoners, and, while posing as the general, will glean intelligence which he will share with Col. Müller.
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11	But will Bardone play along?
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13	----
14	!!Tropes:
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16	* BecomingTheMask: Bardone, a con artist and weasel, is asked to impersonate a hero of LaResistance. In the end he becomes a hero of the resistance, accepting death by firing squad rather than give over the identity of a covert operative, when he could have gotten a big cash bonus and a ticket to Switzerland.
17	* CoincidentalBroadcast: A radio erupts to life to broadcast a news report of stalemated battle lines at Anzio (thus fixing the date of the story to January-May 1944), then becomes silent again.
18	* CreatorCameo: Rossellini can be seen as a nervous-looking man at the Gestapo office.
19	* DrivenToSuicide: Branchetti, who managed to avoid revealing Fabrizio's identity despite a brutal round of torture, kills himself so that he won't break when the Nazis torture him again.
20	* FaceDeathWithDignity: Bardone bravely faces execution by firing squad rather than betray a resistance leader.
21	* FatalFamilyPhoto: An unusual example in that it's someone else's family. But towards the end Bardone gets a letter from the real Della Rovere's wife, complete with a picture of her and her two sons. It helps Bardone in BecomingTheMask.
22	* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Olga, who apparently was once Bardone's lover and still carries a torch for him. When Bardone can't sell a fancy ring for 50,000 lira--it's fake--Olga finally tries to buy it despite knowing its fake. When he won't sell to her, she simply gives him 30,000 lira, all she has.
23	* LaResistance: The real della Rovere is shot before he can join them. Bardone accepts death by firing squad rather than expose the identity of "Fabrizio", a resistance leader who is among the men arrested in a roundup and being held with Bardone.
24	* LingerieScene: An entire {{Fanservice}} scene is dedicated to Bardone's luscious young lover Valeria lounging around the bedroom in a very tight silk nightie, while the two of them snipe at each other.
25	* ReassignedToAntarctica: Col. Müller, furious that the roadblock guards shot the real della Rovere instead of taking him alive, orders that all of them be transferred to the Russian front.
26	* ShotAtDawn: Bardone is shot by firing squad, along with several other prisoners, keeping the secret of "Fabrizio" to the end.
27	* SpySpeak: The radio operator on the submarine dropping off the real General della Rovere broadcasts the code message "The piano tuner has arrived" to the LaResistance people picking him up.
28	* StockFootage: A lot of Allied bombing of Genoa (an important port city), and of the damage caused.
29	* TranslationByVolume: Lampshaded. Col. Müller's driver screams at Bardone in German, only for Col. Müller to roll his eyes and tell the driver that obviously Rovere doesn't speak German and won't understand.

Context Film / GeneralDellaRovere