ZALAMORT

Character. Created byEmilio Ghioneand modeled on the French mystery crime films of Victorin Jasset and Louis Feuillade, Za-la-Mort was a ruthless master criminal with a haggard face but a noble heart. Ghione appears to have derived the name from a battle cry intoned in Jasset'sZigomartrilogy (1911-1913), meaning "Long Live Death." The character's first appearance was inNelly la gigolette(Nelly, the Fast Girl, 1914), but Ghione went on to develop the character through more than a dozen feature films as well as several multiepisode series. After 1915 Za was usually flanked by his faithful female sidekick, Za-la-Vie, played by Kelly Sambucini. Gaunt faced but photogenic and moving with feline grace, Ghione's "sentimental Apache" threaded his way through loosely constructed serial plots that, although not always logical, held cinema audiences spellbound. A tough criminal, capable of violence and murder in the earlier films, Za became more of an investigator and defender of the law in the later ones. InZa-la-Mort contro Za-la-Mort(Za-la-Mort versus Za-la-Mort, 1922) Za is forced to track down a real thief who is impersonating him but whose crimes are soiling Za's reputation. In one of the last films,Ultimissime della notte(Latest Night News, 1924), Za abandons his usual criminal attitude to take on the role of investigative journalist. By this time, however, Za's popularity had begun to wane and so the films were discontinued. One attempt to revive the character was made in 1947 by directorRaffaele Matarazzo. The film, titledFumatori d'oppio o il ritorno di Za La Mort(The Opium Smokers or the Return of Za La Mori), starred Ghione's son, Emilio Jr., but it received little notice and sank without a trace.