"Cinema"

Over the years there have been many magazines with a focus on Hollywood and the movies. One such was the Italian journal, Cinema, which championed film as an art form. It contains articles by future art cinema icons, such as Michelangelo Antonioni.

However, no film or publication exists in a political vacuum. Just look at the masthead and see the name of Cinema’s editor-in-chief: Vittorio Mussolini, son of the nation’s dictator Benito Mussolini.

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Primi Passi – "First steps" in Italian – from January 1940, features actresses Luisella Beghi, Silvana Jachino (Juliet of the Spirits), Maria Denis (La vie de bohème), Alida Valli (The Third Man), Laura Nucci (A ciascuno il suo) and Oretta Fiume (La Dolce Vita).

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The magazine Cinema followed the doings of the American film industry throughout the War, and offered "news regarding arrivals of films from America." Twenty-two films (almost six month's supply at a rate of one-film-a-week) were listed in February 1940. They include:

The Cowboy and the Lady (1938), Wuthering Heights (1939), They Shall Have Music (1939), The Real Glory (1939), Raffles (1939), The Young in Heart (1938), Made for Each Other (1939), The Duke of West Point (1938), King of the Turf (1939), The Man in the Iron Mask (1939), There Goes My Heart (1938), Topper Takes a Trip (1938), Captain Fury (1939), Zenobia (1939), Stagecoach (1939), Trade Winds (1938), Winter Carnival (1939), The Forgotten Woman (1939), Ex Champ (1939), East Side of Heaven (1939), Newsboys' Home (1938), Service de Luxe (1938), and Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939).

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Back issues of this magazine, from Oct 1939 to Jun 1940, are available online here, courtesy of the Media History Digital Library at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.