It is that time of year here in Florida when the seas begin to wake up and remind us that they exist.  I am talking about hurricane season.  With Idalia bearing down on the state, I obeyed the order to evacuate my waterside home and stayed with my dad.  Like any good father, he is a supporter of The Legionnaire.  He also knows about my routine of watching a movie in the evening, then writing my review.  As such, after dinner, I gave him the option to choose what to watch.  He landed on Robbing Mussolini (2022).  After a few minutes, he almost gave up, and not because it is an Italian movie dubbed in English.  Still, we got through those strange opening moments, buoyed by my declaration that our course was plotted, and we were in for the long haul.  Actually, I should probably say “short haul” since it is only an hour and a half in run time.  Either way, by the end, I was mostly pleased by my decision to stick it out.

One of the reasons my dad chose Robbing Mussolini is because it is a World War II film.  It is set in Milan, Italy, in 1945, in the closing days of the conflict.  Navigating this complicated political environment of an Italian fascist government on the verge of collapse with the Allies approaching from the south is Pietro “Isola” Lamberti (Pietro Castellitto).  He is a lot of things, spy and purveyor of arms among them, but he is dedicated to bringing down Il Duce’s regime.  That is Benito Mussolini, by the way, fascist leader of Italy since the 1920s.  Pietro sells his procured explosives and guns to the resistance, some of which he gets from the Americans, but expects to be well paid for his services.  Unfortunately, fascist soldiers find their exchange, and Pietro loses the cash in his escape.  He is aided in his get away by his compatriot, Marcello Davoli (Tommaso Ragno), who also acts as his sharp shooter.  They have a hideout, where they have the third of their party, Amedeo (Luigi Fedele), who specializes in forgery.  There is one more person in Pietro’s world, and that is Gianna “Yvonne” Ascari (Matilda de Angelis).  She is a lounge singer, but she has connections to the remnants of the fascist government, namely in the form of Federal Secretary Achille Borsalino (Filippo Timi).  Though Gianna and Pietro love each other, it is clear that Secretary Borsalino is infatuated with Gianna, too.  As such, she is Secretary Borsalino’s mistress.  I do not exactly want to say that Pietro takes advantage of this situation because he truly cares for Gianna.  Still, he gets a piece of information that leads to the formation of a plan.  It is that Mussolini plans to flee into Switzerland with his ill-gotten gains.  Thus, he comes up with an idea of stealing the stash.  Gianna is against this notion, citing the fact that the riches are kept in a heavily guarded area of the city.  Not only would such an attempt be dangerous, but she has a secret, as we later learn: she is pregnant with her and Pietro’s child.  For the moment, he does not know this fact, and is going ahead with making the arrangements for the heist.  This involves collecting a cast of characters to be a part of the plot, and they will be introduced as needed.  Once they are assembled, it is time to gain the necessary material to implement their plan.  This involves stealing the same horde of explosives and guns from the resistance that Pietro had earlier attempted to sell.  Little do they know, however, that Secretary Borsalino’s estranged wife, Nora Cavalieri (Isabella Ferrari), has discovered their intentions.  She had first overheard an argument between Gianna and Pietro about the heist.  Then, Nora notices Pietro at the party where they take back the armaments.  Finally, she has Pietro followed and manages to slip a bug into their safehouse.  She approaches the cabal following a confrontation between Pietro and Secretary Borsalino over Gianna where she was performing.  The final piece of knowledge that Nora has is that Secretary Borsalino plans to escape with Mussolini a few days earlier than originally intended, and she feels particularly scorned because Secretary Borsalino plans to take Gianna with him.  Obviously, Gianna does not want to go, and instead wants Pietro to run away now with her before they are discovered.  However, Pietro wants to carry on, and questions his paternity.  Before walking away, Gianna gives him a stamp she had been asked to steal from Secretary Borsalino that will help them gain access to the base.  Pietro is hurt, but decides to carry on, despite Nora demanding she get half of the haul.  Their plan works mostly according to their intent, except when their demolitions expert, the anarchist and aptly named Molotov (Alberto Astorri), is spotted and dies with his explosions.  Finally, they get to their target and once more it is Nora that disrupts the operation.  Just as all the gold and money is loaded, she shows up with a group of armed men and with Gianna as a hostage.  Despite the timely intervention of the resistance, Nora gets away with the loot and still holding Gianna captive.  All seems lost until their cocaine using driver, Giovanni Fabbri (Maccio Capatonda), finds Mussolini’s personal sports car.  He and Pietro take off after the small convoy and come upon it as it is making its way into the mountains.  Giovanni manages to get Pietro onto the trucks, but both of the vehicles are forced off the road and careen into a lake.  Luckily, Gianna and Pietro emerge from the water and make their way to the shore, the riches forgotten and thankful to be alive.

There is a disclaimer at the beginning of Robbing Mussolini that I have never seen in a film.  Of course, the statement that a given movie is “based on a true story” is nothing new.  What I have never encountered is one saying that the events depicted are “true-ish.”  What is even more amazing is that this had to be translated from Italian to English.  There is something else that was a first for me in this one, unfortunately, and that is seeing a monk do cocaine.  Okay, it is Giovanni, and he is not actually a member of a religious order.  He is at a monastery in order to avoid having to serve in the army during World War II.  While this is a little over-the-top in keeping with the tone of the movie, it does speak to something that the Church once did on a regular basis.  There was a time when a person fleeing from some kind of persecution could find safe harbor on Church grounds.  This had been abused at times, but I do not wish to give the impression that somebody could commit a crime and expect to find haven with a bunch of monks and nuns.  The key word is persecution.  Such people have always been near to Catholicism’s heart.  I doubt that Giovanni, or the people responsible for this movie, had this in mind.  Yet, I am here to fill in this context for you whenever I encounter it.

There is nothing too out-of-the-ordinary with Robbing Mussolini.  One of the reasons why my dad got frustrated in the beginning because during the opening credits you see Gianna singing an Italian version of “Paint it, Black” by the Rolling Stones . . . roughly twenty years before that song existed.  Nonetheless, I felt pretty satisfied by watching the film, particularly with its quiet pro-life message.