Early career Salvatore Gennaro Righelli was born in Salerno on 12 December 1886 to the Neapolitan actor Angelo Righelli and Maria Galassi. After working as a stage actor in his youth, he started his career at the production company
Cines, initially as a
screenwriter and then as a director. His debut film was
La fidanzata di Messina (1911), in which he played the lead role. He then moved to Vesuvio Films, where he directed several films with his wife, Maria Mauro, until 1913. In 1916, he began working for Tiber Film, before moving to Fert in 1920. Righelli drew inspiration for most of his films from great works of literature. Examples include
Il Decamerone (1912), inspired by
Giovanni Boccaccio's collection of short stories
The Decameron, and
The Voyage (1921), based on
Luigi Pirandello's novel of the same title.
In Germany Due to the crisis that affected the Italian film industry in the 1920s, Righelli moved to
Germany, where he worked as a director from 1923 to 1929. Initially hired by Berlin producer Jakob Karol, he then founded the film company Maria Jacobini-Film GmbH with
Maria Jacobini, whom he married in 1925. During his time in Germany, Righelli directed over fifteen films, including
La Boheme (1923) and
Rudderless (1924), which are widely considered among the finest works of his career and enjoyed success throughout Europe.
Back in Italy Back in Italy, Righelli was hired by
Stefano Pittaluga, the head of Cines, to direct the first Italian sound film,
The Song of Love (1930), starring
Dria Paola,
Isa Pola, and
Elio Steiner. Based on
Luigi Pirandello's
novella In silenzio, the film was a huge success with critics and audiences alike, and was distributed in
France and Germany. Following the comedy
Patatrac (1931) starring
Armando Falconi, and the subsequent ''L'aria del continente
(1935)based on a play by Nino Martoglio starring Angelo Musco. In 1935, he directed with Eduardo and Peppino De Filippo in the comedy Quei due'', a farce based on Eduardo's one-act play ''Sik Sik l'artefice magico
. Righelli also directed the sentimental comedies Mr. Desire (1933) and They've Kidnapped a Man (1938), starring Vittorio De Sica. After the war, he directed Down with Misery (1945) and Peddlin' in Society (1946). Despite their evidently populist tone, these films are marked by neorealist traits in their depiction of the hardships and economic difficulties faced by the country in the aftermath of World War II. In 1947, he directed his final film, the drama The Courier of the King'', based on
Stendhal's novel
The Red and the Black. ==Selected filmography==