The Little Girl's Wrong
About The Little Girl's Wrong
After the Montevergine pilgrimage crowd returns to Naples, Tore meets Margaretella, daughter of donna Carmela, and will not be warned off. He spends the family workshop's installment money on jewelry she sometimes throws back as unfashionable, and his mother Maria and brother Gennariello catch him stealing cash and jewels from the safe. Carluccio, an earlier suitor, wounds him in a fight. Gennariello gets him to Maria's deathbed, where she forgives him. The next year, at the pilgrimage, Tore kills Margaretella in her carriage. The carabinieri take him to prison, and her ghost comes to the cell.
Cast & crew
More about The Little Girl's Wrong
Elvira Notari wrote the screenplay and directed for Dora Film, which also distributed it in Italy. Nicola Notari photographed it. The story uses the Neapolitan song "È piccerella," words by Libero Bovio and music by Salvatore Gambardella; some accounts name Nicola Valente for the music. The original length was four reels, 1,214 meters. Italian release was December 1922.
Themes
In film history
The title is the refrain of a Neapolitan song about a girl whose mother still calls her a child while the neighborhood says otherwise. Notari's Naples melodramas, this one among them, drew Italian emigrant audiences in the United States.
Making
Dora Film was the Notari family company in Naples. The 2018 restoration used a 1968 duplicate negative printed from a nitrate copy that no longer exists.
Reviews
Enza Troianelli wrote that Margaretella, unlike an American dark lady, spends for pleasure rather than to pile up money, and that an engagement in the South could feel like a life sentence inside four walls. Yann Esvan, writing on the murder, said Tore's face is twisted by rage in a way Italian silent films rarely allow, and he called that brutality a step toward the neorealism that came after the war.
Look
Nicola Notari shot the film in black and white at 1.33:1, in and around Naples.
Music
Silent, with Italian and Neapolitan intertitles. The title song is "È piccerella," lyrics by Libero Bovio and music by Salvatore Gambardella.
Preservation
Prints are held at the Cineteca Nazionale in Rome and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2018 the Centro sperimentale di cinematografia–Cineteca nazionale restored the film in 4K, with support from ZDF/Arte, from a 1968 duplicate negative.
Notes
- A poster puts the film at the Cosmo Theatre in New York on 24 April 1923.
- Eduardo Notari, Elvira and Nicola's son, plays Gennariello. Alberto Danza is Tore, Rosè Angione is Margaretella, and Antonio Palmieri is Carluccio.
- Elisa Cava plays the mother Maria. Signora Duval plays aunt Rosa.
- An intertitle quotes donna Carmela: "È piccerella, e dint'à casa nun arreposa.
- German television showed the restoration on 26 November 2018 as Neapolitanische Nächte – È piccerella, and French television the same day as La Petite.
Scenes
- Maria and Gennariello catch Tore at the family safe, taking cash and jewels for Margaretella.
- At the next Montevergine pilgrimage, Tore steps up to Margaretella's carriage and kills her.
Influenced by
- The Neapolitan song "È piccerella" (Libero Bovio, Salvatore Gambardella)
Also available
- Cineteca Nazionale, Rome (2018 4K restoration)
- Museum of Modern Art, New York
- Wikimedia Commons (E' Piccerella.webm)
Quotes
Intertitle, donna Carmela: "È piccerella, e dint'à casa nun arreposa.