La paura degli aeromobili nemici
R: André Deed. K: Segundo de Chomón. D: André Deed, Leonie Laporte, Domenico Gambino, Felice Minotti. P: Itala Film, Torino. It 1915
Print: Cineteca del comune di Bologna / Museo Nazionale del cinema di Torino

“The film is constructed on a contemporary requirement tied to the wartime situation, seeing as Italy had gone to war with Austria in May 1915. At the end of the wedding ceremony the procession of newlyweds, parents and friends sets off along a road in Turin. The group finds itself in front of a poster that provides advice in case of an aerial attack by Zeppelins. Cretinetti, shocked, tears the poster and takes it with him to make sure that he won’t forget anything. The recommendations focus on the need to have sand bags and buckets of water to hand to put out any fires caused by the bombs. (…)”
Jean Gili: Catalogue Il Cinema Ritrovato 2005
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“André Deed, who played Cretinetti, was one of the most representative comic actors within the lavish Italian genre production. His speciality was creating continually different situations in which to vent his anarchic and destructive energy. In ‘The Fear of Zeppelin’ a finale with an unusually bitter back-flavour is included, in which the newly-wed are separated by war the day after their wedding.”
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“(…) La paura degli aeromobili nemici equated the war emergency to a series of governmental instructions that the film’s protagonists, Cretinetti/Foolshead and his new bride, follow all to literally to prepare themselves against any imminent attacks. While Cretinetti is supposed to reach the front line and join the anti-aircraft defense division, he never leaves home. Unsurprisingly, the film never shows any airplane or anti-aircraft defense armament. At the same time, it never shows anti-state for official injunctions. Its real target, as it was typical in Italian comedies, was the upper-middle class’ excessive attachment to rules of proper conduct – in both peace or war times.”
Giorgio Bertellini: Italian Cinema and Worl War I, in: Graziella Parati (ed): Italy and the Cultural Politics of World War I. Rowman & Littlefield 2016, p. 73

>>> more Cretinetti: André Deed as Cretinetti,  From Boireau to Cretinetti