In Nome del Papa Re Aka In the Name of the Pope King (1977 Film)

In the Name of the Pope King is a 1977 Italian drama film written, and directed by Luigi Magni. Starring Nino Manfredi, it was not released in USA until 1986. Audio in Italian with English subtitles.

Magni achieved critical recognition with In nome del Papa Re, which also gave him his first David di Donatello Award.

In 1867, with Garibaldi's forces close to bringing Rome into the Italian kingdom, Monsignor Colombo da Priverno, a world-weary judge on the papal court, wants to resign, disgusted by the violence to which the papacy resorts to hold secular power. That night, three rebels blow up the Zouaves' barracks. Colombo learns that a brief liaison with a countess 20 years' before produced a son, one of the rebels arrested for the bombing. He uses his influence to gain the youth's release, hides him, and then engages in doomed battles of wit with the court and with the Black Pope to free the other two. Can this priest be a father, blunt power, and live out his faith?

The film describes how advanced the decrepitude of the temporal power and its laws in papal Rome. This power will fall three years later with the Breach of Porta Pia.

Cast & Characters:
Nino Manfredi: Don Colombo
Danilo Mattei: Cesare Costa
Carmen Scarpitta: Countess Flaminia
Giovannella Grifeo: Teresa
Carlo Bagno: Perpetuo
Ettore Manni: Count Ottavio
Gabriella Giacobbe: Maria Tognetti
Camillo Milli: Don Marino
Rosalino Cellamare: Gaetano Tognetti
Salvo Randone: Black Pope