Ultimatum alla vita (1962) User Reviews

"Last Chance for Life"

[Uriah43 · 6/10 · 26 May 2015]

As the daughter of an Italian general who has switched sides in the waning days of World War 2, "Mara Berri" (Franca Bettoia) is being held prisoner by the Nazis who want all the information she has about her father. Sharing the same cell with her are four other women who are also suspected of being with the partisans. Of these the most fervent partisan is a woman named "Anna" (Valeria Moriconi) who has so far managed to hold out without disclosing any information. On the opposite end of the scale is a woman named "Siria" (Tina Gloriani) who isn't a partisan and doesn't have any worthwhile information to give. Then there is a prostitute by the name of "Ciccia" (Didi Perego) who doesn't seem to care much about anything other than getting out. Last, but not least, is a blonde Jewish woman named "Marcella" (Cristina Gaioni) who has gone insane after witnessing the murder of both her father and brother. Personally, I thought she was the prettiest of the women featured with Tina Gloriani and Franca Bettoia following close behind. Be that as it may, the Nazis have one trump card to play against Mara and that is the fact that they are also holding her younger sister and are willing to kill her if necessary. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this is probably more realistic than most "Women-in-Prison" films because it leans more heavily upon drama than other movies of this type which rely upon scenes quite often involving sex or torture. Of course, it's also quite possible that this was just a product of its time and it would have been more graphic had it been produced ten years later. Whatever the case, from what I understand this is a difficult movie to obtain and caution should be used due to the fact that it was originally produced in Italian with some German thrown in as well. Fortunately, the version I saw had English subtitles for everything said in Italian and the German was basic enough to navigate without much difficulty. All things considered, I thought this was a fairly decent movie and I rate it as slightly above average.