By 1920, Luciano Albertini’s Sansone (presented here as Sansonia) and his feats of strength and circus acrobatics were already an established factory brand. The public knew exactly what they were getting when they entered the cinema: breathless action. The plots that constructed around this basic principle were always of secondary importance. The copy of Figli di Sansonia that has survived is missing its beginning and end. It is not entirely clear what leads one of the two sadistic evildoers (Niska and Markus) to torment our hero and his loved ones so stubbornly, but it is also largely irrelevant. All that matters can be found elsewhere: climbing a chimney stack to convey the thrill of being suspended in the void with the Mole Antonelliana in the background; inventing pointlessly complicated devices to induce vicious dogs to attack children; using a train to hunt down unfortunate enemies… The important thing is to relaunch, encapsulate and intensify a winning formula without pause for thought. If anyone was interested in developing more complex screenplays, then they could find enough material in Figli di Sansonia for three features. But it would be a pointless exercise. Sansone and his companions (both good and bad) are knowing pawns in a game that could last for ever (or at least as long as the public is willing). This time, for a good part of the film, Albertini’s alter ego leaves his wife and children to bear witness, while he travels to the Andes to shoot a film in which he scales arduous mountains to save defenceless young girls. By this stage, he is already a fully rounded creature of the cinema.

Andrea Meneghelli