The Siege of the Alcazar

The Siege of the Alcazar or LAssedio dellAlcazar is a 1940 Italian war film directed by Augusto Genina about the famous episode Siege of the Alczar during the Spanish Civil War set in Toledo, Spain. The film won the Mussolini Cup in Venice Film Festival for being the Best Italian Film. The film runs more in the Spanish dubbed version, it was restored by Filmoteca Espaola and released in DVD in Spain by Divisa Home Video. The film was shot in Cinecitt with Italian, French and Spanish actors. In the Italian version all three nonItalian actors Mireille Balin, Rafael Calvo and Carlos Muoz spoke their lines in Italian. They were dubbed by Italian actors afterwards.

The Italian version was released in Italy in August 1940. The Spanish version of the film, known as Sin novedad en El Alcazar was released in Spain in October 1940. After the war, the film was rereleased in Italy under the new title Alcazar with significant cuts. All references to the involvement of Italy in the Spanish Civil War as well as the cruelty of the Republicans were excised to avoid any political debate.The film was preceded by a prologue in the Italian, Spanish and German versions, all introducing the subject and setting the scenes. While the Italian and Spanish prologues are almost identical and only praised the courage of the besieged, the German prologue is decidedly more sinister in tone and, not surprisingly, openly condemns Bolshevism as the source of all evils ........

Source: Wikipedia