In the film Ghione plays the part of the devil, and at this time his earlier acting style still survives. The film, preserved in the Museo del Cinema of Turin, is presented in its integral version with French intertitles, and is one of a series of Christmas films directed by the come­dian [André Deed]. The story is simple and entirely centred on Cretinetti’s nightmare, the result of indigestion from eating too many sweets. The oniric atmosphere allows the film makers to forgo elaborate production, apart from a discreet number of extras. The costumes reflect the traditional iconology, and present strident associations between sacred and profane: we go from Father Christmas (dressed as we know him today) to St Peter, bearing all the keys of Paradise, to the Eternal Father (with a triangular halo on his head). Ghione appears in few but important scenes; his make-up emphasizes his hollow face and big eyes. The costume recalls the iconography of Mephistopheles in Goethe’s Faust, subsequently adapted to Arrigo Boito’s melodrama Mefistofele (1875), as we can see from a photograph dated 1906 showing the baritone Antonio Macini Coletti in a stage costume very like that worn by Ghione. It is one of the few comic performances in the career of Ghione, and even in this instance the role, despite the light tone of the film, is adapted to his disturbing look.

Denis Lotti