Film Forum

LA MACCHINA AMMAZZACATTIVI
Italy, 1952
Directed by Roberto Rossellini
Starring Giovanni Amato, Marilyn Buferd, Pietro Carloni
Approx. 85 min. 35mm.

“The people are bad and the saints have turned miserly, and quite rightly so.” So says an old man who may or may not be Saint Andrea, musing to photographer Celstino about the denizens of Amalfi, grown fat and corrupt in the post-war sun. Subsequently, Celestino discovers that the old man has turned one of his cameras into an instrument of mortal retribution: whenever Celestino copies an existing photograph with this camera in his studio, the person depicted in the original image immediately expires, eyes wide open and paused in rigor mortis. Celestino sets about righting all the wrongs in his town, from the authoritarian policeman to the usurous widow to the politicians scheming to sell a cemetery to Americans who want to exhume the bodies and turn it into a luxury hotel. The cast is a typical mix of Rossellini discoveries and hangers-on: a real-life carpenter and coffin builder plays Celestino (and also built the sets!), PAISAN favorite Bill Tubbs pops up as a Yankee schemer, and Marilyn Buferd (Miss America of 1946!) takes the role of his niece. An acid satire on the limits of social justice and the unexpected consequences of righteousness, THE MACHINE TO KILL BAD PEOPLE was itself a machine that ultimately broke down. While juggling various projects and setting his sights on Ingrid Bergman, Rossellini lost interest in the project and simply abandoned it. Shot in 1948, THE MACHINE TO KILL BAD PEOPLE was eventually pieced together and quietly released four years later.

35mm print courtesy Cinecittà.