Biography
Nunzio Malasomma, born on February 4, 1894 in Caserta, Italy, first worked as a journalist and in 1920 founded the film and theater magazine "Fortunio" together with the future producer Luciano Doria. In the same year he wrote his first screenplay, for the movie "La casa di vetro" (directed by Gennaro Righelli). Malasomma continued to work as a writer until, as a result of the coup d'état in Italy and Mussolini's seizure of power in 1923, he went to Germany. There he worked together with other Italian exiles like Mario Bonnard, Guido Brignone and Gennaro Righelli. In 1924 alone he wrote the scripts for Righelli's movies "Steuerlos" (1924) with Heinrich George, "Die Puppenkönigin" with Righelli's wife Maria Jacobini and "Orient" (1924) with Jacobini and Harry Liedtke.
Also in 1924, Malasomma directed his own first film, "Mister Radio", starring Italian silent film star Luciano Albertini and Evi Eva. With Albertini, Malasomma also made "Der König und die kleinen Mädchen" (1925), which also featured Hans Albers in an early supporting role, and "Eine Minute vor Zwölf" (1925). In "Jagd auf Menschen" (1926) he worked with Italian silent film star Carlo Aldini and again with Hans Albers in a supporting role. Other Malasomma-Aldini collaborations included "Einer gegen alle. Die Sensationen eines Millionärs ohne Geld" (1927) and "Der Mann ohne Kopf" (1927).
Not least because of his experience as a sensation and action film director, Malasomma seemed predestined to direct the high mountain drama "Der Kampf ums Matterhorn" ("The Fight for the Matterhorn", 1928; with his compatriot Mario Bonnard). The script was written by mountain film specialist Arnold Fanck, Luis Trenker played the leading role of the Italian mountain guide Jean-Antoine Carrel. Bonnard and Trenker collaborated on two other mountain films: "Der Ruf des Nordens" (1929), which Malasomma directed and wrote, while Bonnard served as artistic director; and "Der Sohn der weißen Berge" ("The Son of the White Mountains", 1930), which Bonnard directed and Malasomma wrote.
After the introduction of the sound film Nunzio Malasomma returned to Italy, where he first made some Italian films, before he worked from 1934 alternately for Italian and German production companies. He co-directed with Johannes Häussler the mountain adventure "Polarstürme" (1934) - the sound version of "Der Ruf des Nordens" with the same cast. In the second half of the 1930s, due to declining public interest in mountain movies, Malasomma turned to star-studded love melodramas: "Die un-erhörte Frau" ("Dissatisfied Woman", 1936) with Fita Benkhoff, "Rote Orchideen" with Olga Chekhova, "Die fromme Lüge" and "Die Nacht der Entscheidung" ("Night of Fate", all 1938) with Pola Negri, and in 1939 "Die Frau ohne Vergangenheit" with Sibylle Schmitz. A few years later, in 1942, Schmitz also starred in Malasomma's last film made in Germany before the end of the war, "Vom Schicksal verweht": Set in the Caribbean, the film, a mix of romance and adventure film with prominent Afro-German actor Louis Brody in a supporting role, was intended to satisfy German audiences' need for "Hollywood material" after the prevailing ban on American productions.
Before the end of World War II, Malasomma returned to Italy for good. Until 1951 he made comedies, adventures and dramas, partly from his own scripts. However, the gaps between his films became longer and longer. After the romantic drama "Quattro rose rosse" in 1951, it took seven years until the social comedy "Adorabili e bugiarde" (IT 1958). His last two works as a director were the sword-and-sandal film "La rivolta degli schiavi" ("The Revolt of the Slaves", IT/ES/DE 1961) with Gino Cervi and Fernando Rey and the Italo western "Quindici forche per un assassino" ("15 Scaffolds for a Murderer", IT 1967).
Nunzio Malasomma died on January 12, 1974 in Rome.