Mussolini: The Untold Story

The rise and fall of the Italian fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini. ==Cast==

The dictator's son Vittorio advised writer-producer Stirling Silliphant on the screenplay, which later led to accusations of bias. In a promotional interview, Silliphant said that his research "really got interesting when we went off to Rome and met his eldest surviving son, Vittorio. For about 10 days, we asked him hundreds of questions. He was delightful, charming, very sophisticated and still a spokesman for his father". ==Reception==

In September 1985, John J. O'Connor had concluded a lukewarm review for The New York Times of HBO's rival show: "The Decline and Fall of Il Duce serves as a kind of teasing introduction to what perhaps will be more illuminating television efforts to deal with one of this century's more confounding figures. Later this season, Mussolini is to be portrayed by George C. Scott." When the NBC production appeared in November, O'Connor was disappointed, noting again an emphasis on the dictator's private life at the expense of his political significance ("this is history as it might be reworked for Dynasty"). Pointing out Vittorio Mussolini's involvement, he felt the series painted too sympathetic a portrait, and summed up: "That, it's to be hoped, ends television's preoccupation with Mussolini and global politics for this season." When the series screened on BBC One in four parts in 1987, The Times wrote, "As drama, this is no better or worse than the usual American mini-series, but Scott is one of those rare actors who can transcend his material and take over the screen." A preview for The Sunday Telegraph was contemptuous: "The unique George C. Scott, the Olivier of thuggish monomaniacs, does his thing as Benito with lots of almost-Italian accents. The final punishment for that obsessive nationalist, a four-part series with about two Italian actors in it." A review for The Daily Telegraph published a few days later felt that the series started impressively ("George C. Scott, a colossus among contemporary screen actors by anyone's reasonable standards, postured and glowered and played Godfather to family, friends and enemies to considerable effect") but deteriorated into soap opera as it continued. Nancy Banks-Smith in The Guardian wrote: "It seems respectably researched though with a soft, not to say squashy, centre about family life with the Mussolinis." as was Patrick Stoddart in The Sunday Times ("not even the father of fascism deserved Mussolini: The Untold Story... this unspeakable story should have remained untold"). ==Awards==

The series was nominated for two Emmy Awards, for editing and sound mixing. ==Accuracy==

Mussolini's biographer, the Oxford historian Denis Mack Smith, detailed his objections to the series in an article for The Daily Telegraph. He felt that it glamorised Mussolini both in his private and his political life: Mack Smith wrote that Petacci was given undue prominence in the story by the removal of the dictator's other mistresses. Regarding Scott's performance, he stated that in the scenes of Mussolini's public speeches the actor reproduced his mannerisms exactly, but on other occasions did not bother, and was too old considering that, in the period depicted, Mussolini became Italy's youngest prime minister. Pointing out that Scott's make-up omitted the protuberant wart that Mussolini made sure was not visible in photographs, Mack Smith concluded that the series showed him according to his own self-image: "a decent, humane, affectionate person that he would have dearly liked the outside world to believe in". ==Notes==