La Wally

The Film Daily reviewer of this 1932 film, (finally shown in the US in 1939 at the Cine Roma with Italian dialogue and no English titles)called the photography "fair" and that was the highest praise that reviewer/critic was able to find. Must have been auditioning for a position at the New York Times.

The lead was..."Obscure opera badly projected by amateurish cast," and then he got warmed up, after mentioning that this A. Catalani opera was probably one of the least known operas in the world. A slight bone was thrown with..." rabid music lovers or dyed-in-the-wool Italian filmgoers able to stand anything will be the only audiences that can appreciate this film to any extent." And then opined that..."the performance of Germana Paolieri is replete with histrionics of an antedeluvian era that school children would scoff at today...and the performance of the rest of the cast is almost as bad." (Well, maybe the school children of 1932-1939, but those of this day would still be struggling with pronouncing "antedeluvian, much less knowing the meaning. Sounds like a prime candidate for a keyword. Unless he spelled it incorrectly)