Vintage German publicity still, used in Dutch cinemas (therefore the mark of the Dutch national censorship board). FSK. Adler Film (Anna Althoff). Still for Ossessione / Obsession/ Von Liebe besessen (Luchino Visconti, 1943), freely adapted from James M. Cain's novel The Postman Always Rings Twice. Here with Massimo Girotti (Gino), Clara Calamai (Giovanna) and Michele Riccardini (Don Remigio). In West-Germany the film was only first commercially released in 1959. In the Netherlands, the film was shown in cineclubs in 1958.
Handsome, manly Italian actor Massimo Girotti (1918-2003) had a career that spanned seven decades. He is best remembered for four roles: the young wanderer Gino in Luchino Visconti's Ossessione (1943), the stern lover in Michelangelo Antonioni's Cronaca di un amore (1950), the passionate patriot in Visconti's Senso (1954), and the tormented father in Pier Paolo Pasolini's Teorema/ Theorem (1968).
Though she acted in many light entertainment films, Clara Calamai's (1909-1998) most famous role will for always be the one of the femme fatale Giovanna in Luchino Visconti's steamy (proto-)neorealist film Ossessione/ Obsession (1943).