Pagliacci_(1936_film) Knowpia

Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Directed by	Karl Grune
Written by	Ruggero Leoncavallo (libretto); Ernest Betts; Roger Burford; John Drinkwater; Monckton Hoffe; Bertolt Brecht; Fritz Kortner;
Produced by	Max Schach
Starring	Richard Tauber; Steffi Duna; Diana Napier;
Cinematography	Otto Kanturek
Edited by	Walter Stokvis
Music by	Albert Coates; Hanns Eisler;
Production; company	Trafalgar Films
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	11 December 1936
Running time	92 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Pagliacci is a 1936 British musical film directed by Karl Grune and starring Richard Tauber, Steffi Duna and Diana Napier.^[1] It is an adaptation in English of the 1892 opera Pagliacci by Ruggiero Leoncavallo.

Production edit

The film is shot partially in colour (using the UFAcolor process) and partially in black-and-white. The film's art direction was by Oscar Friedrich Werndorff. The film was made by the independent Trafalgar Films at Elstree Studios. The film was a very expensive production, with Tauber himself receiving £60,000 for appearing, which turned into a costly flop on its release.^[2]

Caught up in the technical procedures of the colour sequences, Grune asked Wendy Toye to direct the actors for him.^[3]

Cast edit

Richard Tauber as Canio Salvatini
Steffi Duna as Nedda Salvatini
Diana Napier as Trina
Arthur Margetson as Tonio
Esmond Knight as Cadet Silvio
Jerry Verno as Beppe, comic trouper
Gordon James as Leone
Harry Milton as Cadet
Ivan Wilmot as Silvio's Coach Driver
John Traynor as Coach-Home Builder

References edit

^ BFI.org
^ Low p.203-4
^ 'Backed by the Butter Board – then a Cannes premiere: rediscovering the films of Wendy Toye', in The Guardian, 18 November 2022