Some of you will have an opportunity soon to see a new Italian movie, It's High Time, which bears the following screen credit:

Adapted from an Exclusive Report by

William Rospigliosi

Published in

TIME The Weekly Newsmagazine

You may recall the Rospigliosi report on which the picture is based. It was called A Clock for Fiumicino (TIME, Sept. 1, 1947), and it began:

At Fiumicino, the muddy waters of the Tiber merge with the blue Mediterranean. The town's life seems as sluggish as the river, but beneath the apparent calm there is a deep, turbulent rift which sometimes whirls up like an assault of wind-whipped breakers. That rift is symbolized by the tablet in the city hall commemorating Garibaldi's visit in 1849 (after the Republicans had driven the Pope from Rome), and by the blue & white statue of the Virgin Mary in the church.

Those who reverently place wreaths beneath Garibaldi's memorial and those who kneel before the Virgin--many citizens do both--have long lived together in drowsy tolerance. But now, the heirs of Garibaldi are tainted with Marxism, the Catholics are accused of Fascism. The bitter struggle that rends all Italy recently broke out, in miniature, at Fiumicino. It was known as the Clock Fight.

According to Rome Correspondent Rospigliosi's account, Fiumicino's clock had been shattered by the war. Since most townsmen had no watches of their own, repairing the clock was an urgent matter to the little fishing village. So the priest called all parties together for a raffle, and the united effort yielded 70,000 lire. Then dissension began. The Communists and the Christian Democrats each wanted sole credit for restoring the people's clock. They battled each other step by step through a fog of imprecations and Marxian dialectic until, via interminable compromises, the clock was eventually restored.

In June, 1948 Rospigliosi received an excited phone call from Paolo Tamburella, producer of the laureled Italian movie, Shoeshine, directed by Vittorio (The Bicycle Thief) De Sica. Tamburella had shelved the picture he was shooting--a long, drawn-out story of Faust. In a discussion with an associate about their next venture, they suddenly recalled the Clock Fight story in TIME. They went to the American library in Rome and thumbed through back issues of TIME until they found the story. Having read it again, they agreed that it would make a first-rate movie.

When Tamburella discovered that other Italian and American readers of TIME also remembered the story, he was satisfied that it was memorable. Said he: "It relates to the situation as it is now in Italy. Not everyone is consciously aware of this situation, but all will like recognizing it and having their ideas clarified in a film."

A visit to Fiumicino confirmed the facts of TIME'S story. It disclosed, however, that the basic antagonisms which created the Clock Fight were still present. Any attempt to make the picture in Fiumicino would probably be disastrous. Instead, Tamburella chose Terracina, a highly photogenic, centuries-old fishing village south of Rome. Having received TIME'S permission to use the story, he put his writers to work on the script. When shooting began last October, Tamburella used native Terracinans for all except the lead roles. One member of the cast, new to all moviegoers, is Patrizia Mangano (see cut), the heroine, who Tamburella thinks is headed for stardom.

Cordially yours,

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