Between the end of 1911 and the beginning of 1912, Mario Bonnard was hired by the Società Anonima Ambrosio of Turin, for whom he made, among other films, La nave dei leoni, directed by Luigi Maggi. The adventure-filled crossing from Africa to Europe of a group of lions destined for a zoo becomes the shipboard setting for a story of love and jealousy between Captain Jack (Mario Bonnard), the lion tamer Jeannette (Gigetta Morano), and the young entrepreneur Johnson (Vitale De Stefano). What in the end will become of the caged lions? Maggi employed several of Ambrosio’s best-known names, including Giovanni Vitrotti as cameraman and actress Gigetta Morano, already famous for her comic pairings with Eleuterio Rodolfi and completely believable here in a dramatic role. Bonnard, who continued to work with Maggi in such films as Satana (1912) and La figlia di Zazà (1913), shows early signs of the seductive ladies’ man he would soon become onscreen, certainly more smiling than later characterizations such as in Ma l’amor mio non muore! (1913).
It is striking how he copes with the exigencies of an almost certainly difficult set, between live lions and shipboard recreations, not to mention the shift in emotional register in the second half from sentimental to dramatic. G.F. Blaisdell, writing in Moving Picture World (26.10.1912), neglects to cite the actors, but does praise the direction and photography: “Among the many lion pictures which the public has recently been privileged to see, probably none has had more thrilling situations than are contained in this latest production of the Ambrosio. Adding to the effectiveness of the film is the superb photography. … In The Ship with the Lions there are many good scenes – and great discretion has been used in the tinting of them. There is one picture that particularly stands out. This is when the man at the masthead sights San Blas Bay. It is a night scene. The sailor, with flag in hand, is shown in the masthead signaling the shore. It is close camera work, and the man and the mast are most effectively silhouetted against the sky.” Stills in the collection of the Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino clearly show the studio-constructed ship, with sailors atop the main mast and a handful of lions waiting for them below, as gunsmoke moves across the scene. Luckily we’re reassured by a candid photo taken during the film’s production, of Morano sitting outside the set, with a lion cub in her arms…

Marcello Seregni