On 27 June 1959, I Ladri was released in Italy. It is notable primarily because it was the first feature film of horror legend Lucio Fulci.

The title is translated “The Thieves.” It is a comedy starring Armando Calvo as Joe Castagnato, a gangster deported from the US back to Italy. He manages to return with a ton of gold smuggled in jars of pineapple jam. But the dimwitted Scognamiglio family figure out what he is doing and blackmails him into working with them. Meanwhile, he is surveilled by Commissioner Di Sapio (Totò).

Giovanna Ralli got top billing as the intelligent seamstress wife of Vincenzo Scognamillo (Giacomo Furia). Fulci was one of eight writers on the film. It was an Italian-Spanish co-production, released 12 December 1960 in Spain. It doesn’t look like an English dub was ever made nor that the film was ever released in the United States.

Regardless, I have not been able to find a copy of I Ladri — in any language. In fact, I haven’t even been able to find a trailer for the film. It is available on an expensive DVD with only Italian sound and subtitles. It seems like the kind of thing that will eventually end up on Archive.

I Ladri is definitely something to look out for. Those who have seen it tend to think it was fairly entertaining. If anyone finds a print (or even a trailer), please let me know in the comments!

Other 27 June Anniversaries

Filmmakers

• Bob Keeshan (1927-2004): Captain Kangaroo!
• Isabelle Adjani (1955-): Actor known for Nosferatu the Vampyre and Ishtar.
• JJ Abrams (1966-): Director of big-budget films including Cloverfield.
• Tobey Maguire (1975-): Actor known as one of many Spider-Man. Also in a number of other interesting films, most specifically Pleasantville.

Films

• The Phantom of the Convent (1934): Friends lost in the woods are taken to a creepy convent.
• The Thing That Couldn’t Die (1958): A psychic finds the living head of a centuries-old Satanist.
• Hysteria (1965): Amnesia murder mystery from Hammer.
• Dark Shadows (1966-1971): Gothic horror soap opera.
• Live and Let Die (1973): Roger Moore Bond.
• Scream Blacula Scream (1973): Blacula is back and at least it took more than a couple of drops of blood! Arguably even better than the original.
• Labyrinth (1986): A teenage girl must save her baby brother from an evil wizard. Shockingly good.
• Santa Sangre (1990): Circus-based Alejandro Jodorowsky film. I can’t really be any clearer!
• Hologram Man (1995): A criminal escapes a cyber-prison into a hologram and bullets fly.
• Face/Off (1997): Cop and criminal literally swap faces and learn valuable lessons.
• 28 Days Later (2002): Better than average zombie film.
• Messengers (2004): A doctor returns to her home after her father dies and discovers an unearthly threat.
• Hood of Horror (2006): Snoop Dogg acts as the “Cribkeeper” for this urban anthology film.
• WALL-E (2008): A trash-collecting robot falls in love. The first act is magical. It gets kind of dull after that.
• Land Shark (2017): Typically competent and charming outing from Mark Polonia, which is exactly what you expect.

Note that The Room (2003) was also released on this date. It is not a psychotronic film. It is the result of a man with too much money who never got over a woman cheating on him. And for the record, I don’t find the football scene odd. That’s one of the few things in the film that seems reasonably true. But it and everything else about it is boring.

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The I Ladri poster image was taken from Wikipedia and used under Fair Use.