One interesting fragment in Mary Wood's discussion of Italian noir is her mention of the character 
Za-la-Mort, featured with his female partner in crime 
Za-la-Vie in a silent-era Italian take off of Feuillade serials like 
Fantomas by Emilio Ghione, which she intriguingly  mentions as forerunner to the likes of 
Diabolik.
Has anyone seen any of the Za-la-Mort films? Are they even available? They sound like a fascinating piece of film history that 
should be...
A nice reproduction of a German Za-la-Mort poster
 
1 comment:
I'm an English MA student currently doing research into the Za La Mort films. They are not currently available, although I have a filmography of all of Ghione's films that lists the archive locations if you want. My address is j dot a dot north at durham dot ac dot uk.
There are two books on the subject, Vittorio Martinelli's Za La Mort and Denis Lotti's Emilio Ghione, l'ultimo apache (a better book in my opinion)
Thanks
Joe
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