Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1948)

Valli of Enchantment {Continued from page 59) the vino it has a seductive bouquet that’s inebriant. Valli is opposite your old idea of an Italiana — the operatic, combustions cheribiribim of Napoli who asphyxiates you with garlic kisses and sings Tosca while milking the goat in the parlor. She is still, subtle and composed. Her voice is low and warm, and a little melancholy. You keep wondering where you have seen before that cryptic smile, the amused glance from blue insinuative eyes beneath., a classic brow that curves a little outward from the hairline in an ivory oval face. Suddenly you recollect it was in the Louvre — it was the little Mona Lisa who has been sending men for centuries. Selznick is right in calling her simply Valli. It comes natural, as with Bergman and Garbo, Bernhardt and Duse. IJALLI has made thirty-four pictures in I Italy. She was Europe’s sweetheart before the war. We had to fight to get her. Old Cap Dan Dailey who was with our troops in Italy says she was Italy’s glamour girl. Valli herself says she was Italy’s Deanna Durbin in the beginning. She doesn’t sing but she has the naturalness and springtime freshness that Deanna had. From innocence of farmer’s daughter, her roles have ranged through comedy and tragedy to Manon Lescaut, her favorite. She also played a ruined lady whom a newspaperman picks, up to restore. When the Germans took over Rome they looked her up first thing, naturally. They wanted her to make propaganda films. They invited her to join the NaziFascist party. She did not so much as send regrets. She joined the Underground Resistance. After Liberation she was cited for glory by the Supreme Command in a scroll that reads; “VALLI: A Solemn Praise. During German occupation of Rome, inspired by high patriotic feelings, disregarding the Nazi-Fascist surveillance, she courageously excelled for the cause of resistance by strongly helping the clandestine organizations for the liberation of the oppressed Fatherland.” Our troops on reaching Rome found her name on a German Secret Service list, a memorandum reminding themselves tO' take her away with them. Instead we took her and won the war. “Now I know what we were fighting for,” said an enlightened GI on beholding her at a “Stars and Stripes” party. “Before the GI’s came I went in the streets only in the nights,” she said. “When I see coming a German I ran fast.” “And when you see a GI coming?” “I walk.” She has completed only two American films — “The Paradine Case” and “The Miracle of the Bells,” but she has a couple of Oscars she packed in from Italy. One she achieved for best acting in 1941 at the Venice film festival, the other she married per amore in 1944. Oscar de Mejo, her handsome husband, is a musician and composer of popular music. “When I hide from Germans,” she said, “I go at night to a house where others are hiding. There I meet Oscar.” Two can hide as cheaply as one. . . They were young and they fell in love. And on a moonless night they were married in the nearby church of Santa Theresa. Next year a son was born. He is named Carlo but now at age three responds only to Charlie. “Already he is American,” said Valli. “He laughs when he hears us speak Italian. I wrote of this in a letter to my mother in Italy. Just now I spoke to her on the telephone. She tells me she is c A ZA'y, ri s His Inw" «*> kk’*. • • a. Kr % Vi*? Crtin ftvi ‘tA?’ KA VC >rv'6 ‘ihA VJ*? O I r ri IV.S-htk®’' Cr<t*s fy Of-r. TttV*' tw.fs tuv hwhasob (tvs str vw V^CH’.?SHlVSfk^HASOA? VCA? ' Vp THE aOlDEH CHVW 'NHH THE CtE*H __ 'jOA? VOAP Ch'?*iHA SG^ CHtyS HWHA ' ^ maam.mak. , MADE IN PHILA. BY FELS a CO. Fels-Naptha Soap Chips are sold in just this one generous package . . . millions of women prefer these husky, active Fels-Naptha Soap Chips to any package soap or substitute . . . regardless of price. p 99