Elli Parvo

Gorgeous, dark-haired, luscious-lipped, shapely-legged, not afraid of showing as much of her body as could be, Elli Parvo was THE femme fatale of post-war Italy. Revealed by “Desiderio” (1943-1946), started in 1943 by Roberto Rossellini and completed in 1946 by Marcello Pagliero, she appeared as a sex-hungry vamp men had better not mix with. In her next film, directed by her husband Aldo Vergano, “Il sole sorge ancora” (1946), an important work about Italian Resistance, she was once again on the wrong side of morality as the provocatively beautiful noblewoman who tries to seduce her lover out of right-minded Lea Padovani’s arms. However this ability to embody the ruthless seductress proved a mixed blessing. Indeed, as she grew older, Elli Parvo had the same problem as her French look alike Ginette Leclerc: either she was reduced to parody herself, like the comical vamp she played in “Toto terzo uomo” (1951), or she got more and more insignificant supporting parts in the films of the nineteen fifties. As no director or producer gave her a real opportunity to express all her talent, she finally called it quits after a last foray into an Italian comedy. She can nevertheless be seen in Antonioni’s heart-rending “Il grido” (1957).