Old Guard

The Old Guard (Italian:Vecchia guardia) is a 1934 Italian drama film directed by Alessandro Blasetti and starring Gianfranco Giachetti, Mino Doro and Franco Brambilla. It was one several pro-Fascist films made by Blasetti during the era. The film is set in a small Italian town in 1922, where a local group of Fascist blackshirts battle against rival socialists who have called a strike at the hospital. Mario, the young son of Doctor Cardini, is killed in the fighting. The film ends with the March on Rome that brought Benito Mussolini to power. Although intended as sympathetic to the regime, and the methods by which it came to power, the film was not popular with the Fascist hierarchy who felt its portrayal of violence undermined the respectable image the party was now trying to cultivate.