starring
Gian Maria Volonte
Riccardo Cucciolla , Cyril Cusack Geoffrey Keen , Milo O'Shea
On 5 May 1920, two Italian immigrants, a shoemaker and a fish peddler, were arrested by the police for robbery with murder. They had alibis, they had witnesses; but they were also self-confessed anarchists and the case against them' split America in two'. ' The most atrocious crime committed by human justice in this century' was how Franklin D. Roosevelt described the case of Sacco and Vanzetti.
Tonight's film reconstructs the famous - or infamous - trial, using some of the actual speeches, including the simple but moving final statements of the men in the dock.
Screenplay by FARRIZIO ONOFRI and GIULIANO MONTALDO
Produced by ARRIGO COLOMBO and GIORGIO PAPI
Directed by GIULIANO MONTALDO Films: page 8