Mussolini, Mamoulian

While fat, young Vittorio Mussolini was getting a Bronx bird in Hollywood last month (TIME, Oct. 18) Rome was turning Hollywood Director Rouben Mamoulian into a lion. To Hollywood, II Duce's son was the unattractive symbol of a repressive political system. To Rome, Director Mamoulian, despite his Hollywood background, was an artist and a good one. Film Tsar Luigi Freddi entertained him at his home, where no Hollywoodman has been before. Princess Jane San Faustino (nee Jane Campbell of Manhattan) introduced him to Crown Prince Umberto at a smart midnight party. Admirers brought him gifts--art objects, rare books, an Eleonora Duse autograph. Naive-looking, bespectacled Mamoulian finally fled, dazzled, to restful Capri.

No sooner had injured Vittorio returned than Rome picked up its cudgels. Rushing from an interview with II Duce, the editor of ultra-Fascist Il Tevere had his paper on the streets two hours later, condemning Hollywood for threefold intrusion into Italian cinemaffairs: 1) invasion of the market with a product "unsurpassable because of a crushing superiority of means," 2) control of distribution, 3) a threat to enter the theatre field (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's plan for a circuit of its own in Italy). Italy permits Hollywood to take home $1,000,000 profit annually. Since this represents a return of one twentieth of one percent on a two billion dollar investment, Hollywood was concerned, but mildly.

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