Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano.
Franz Sala in
Maciste all’inferno (Guido Brigone, 1926).
Franz Sala, aka Francesco Sala (1886-1952) was a prolific actor of the Italian silent cinema, mostly playing the evil antagonist, such as the devil Barbariccia in
Maciste all’inferno (Guido Brigone, 1926). In the 1930s he was active as a make-up artist.
Francesco "Franz" Sala was born in Alessandria, on 17 December 1886. After 11 years at a seminary, he emigrated to South America in 1906, where he had various jobs such as journalist, teacher, salesman, and stage actor. In 1912 he returned to Italy and debuted in the Ambrosio production Sigfrido/ Siegfried (dir. Mario Caserini) and with Mario Voller-Buzzi in the title role. Later on, Sala worked at Milano Films, in films such as La maschera dell’onestà (1914) and L’ereditiera (1914), both with Hesperia and Livio Pavanelli and directed by Baldassarre Negroni.
When Italy joined the Allies in the First World War, Sala was called to arms and became infantry lieutenant. In 1916 he lost his hearing during a battle at the front lines and was dismissed from the world war conflict. He retook his work as a film actor, working for various film companies such as Medusa Film (La signorina Ciclone, 1916, with Suzanne Armelle), Milano (Primavera, 1916, with Elettra Raggio), Ambrosio (Lucciola, 1917, with Fernanda Negri-Pouget and Helena Makowska), Tiber-Film (Mademoiselle Pas-chic, 1918, with Diomira Jacobini) and others, performing in countless films, almost always as the antagonist and often as evil characters, for which he was well-known and praised.
In the 1920s Sala worked often for Stefano Pitaluga’s company Fert Films, including in the early 1920s a whole series of dramas with Italia Almirante Manzini such as L'innamorata (Gennaro Righelli 1920). Zingari (Mario Almirante 1920), Marthú che ha visto il diavolo (Almirante 1922), and La chiromante/ La maschera del male (1922). From about 1923 he acted in several adventure films with Domenico Gambino aka Saetta, and from 1924 in the films with Bartolomeo Pagano better known as Maciste (Maciste imperatore 1924, Maciste all’inferno 1926, Maciste contro lo sceicco 1926, Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni 1926), almost all at Fert. In the late 1920s, Sala continued to act in the films produced by Pittaluga despite the dwindling down of Italian film production, e.g. in the historical productions Beatrice Cenci (1926) and Frate Francesco (1927). With the advent of sound cinema, Sala stopped acting after a few minor parts in 1930-31 and became a fulltime professional makeup artist. In the 1930s he started to call himself Francesco Sala. His last performance was in 1939 in the film Abuna Messias, his second job as makeup artist he continued until 1952. Franz Sala died in Rome in November 1952.
Sources: Italian Wikipedia, IMDB, Aldo Bernardini/Vittorio Martinelli, Il cinema muto italiano, 1905-1930. For Maciste all'inferno, see
www.flickr.com/photos/truusbobjantoo/6724987527/in/photol....
