Spanish collectors card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, no. 6 of 6. Photo: Pasquali Film. Mario Guaita-Ausonia in Salambò (Domenico Gaido, 1914), very freely adapted from Gustave Flaubert's classic novel. This card shows the capture of Matho. Left on the horse we see Hamilcar, with a Greek-like helmet. On the right horse is Narr Havas.
Plot: Suzanne De Labroy plays the title role of the Carthaginian princess Salammbô, keeper of the sacred veil of the goddess Tanit and daughter of general Amilcar. She first meets Matho (Mario Guaita/ Ausonia) when he is still a slave in the granaries, and a sparkle ignites between them. Two years after, Hamilcar, leader of Carthage, asks the mercenaries to help him fight the Romans. Matho, who has become the head of the mercenaries, accepts the challenge against a fat payment. He defeats the Roman army by ruse and by fight and the mercenaries are treated on a banquet at Carthage, which, however, turns into an orgy. The mercenaries abduct the priestesses of Tanit, so Salammbô comes to rescue. Matho recognizes her, lets the women go and fights his mercenary partner Narr Havas, who wants to rape her. The mercenaries return to their camp, waiting for their gold. Evil Giscone, one of the Carthaginians, suggests to replace the due money by false money. The fraud is discovered and Matho threatens to pillage Carthage. An old man of the mountains tells Spendius, Matho's aid that if the mercenaries steal the sacred veil of Tanit, they will win. Matho, whose heart now burns for Salammbô, sees it as the opportunity to win her love. Matho and Spendius secretly enter the city by the water system, unknowingly followed by Narr Havas and his men. The bad guys close off all exits to Matho and Spendius, so they are bound to drown. But this Matho is Ausonia, the iron bars bender, so they manage to escape. They enter the palace, steal the veil, have a brief meeting with Salammbò and escape thanks to the veil the Carthaginians are not allowed to look at. Spendius additionally weakens Carthage by draining the aquaduct. Salammbô is ordered by Tanit (rather a priest hidden in the statue) to get the veil back. When they meet again, Matho is overcome with passion and joy. Meanwhile Narr Havas offers Hamilcar to betray Matho in exchange of Salammbô's hand and joining their armies they attack Matho's. Matho is captured because of Narr Havas' treachery and Salammbô's witnesses this. Giscone brings her back to town. Spendius, who has survived the massacre of the mercenaries, secretly enters town, dressed as a Carthaginian soldier. He manages to give Matho a potion that simulates death and dresses as a golddigger. Meanwhile Salammbô is about to be married to Narr Havas and the latter orders before everybody to have Matho killed, but Matho feigns a deathly heart attack by use of the potion. Spendius warns a terrified Salammbô about the scam. While the lovers escape, Spendius pretends to be the Voice of Tanit, ordering marriage between Matho and Salammbô, and their reigning together of Carthage. Hamilcar obliges the Oracle, and Narr Havas disappears from the narrative.
American distributor George Kleine was so smitten with Ausonia's previous Antiquity film Spartaco (1913) that he co-produced Salambò with his Chicago based company Photodrama. Apart from a poor DVD version, even if tinted, of Kleine's print, no other restored print resurfaced up till now, alas. At the time, the Italian press was less impressed after such Antiquity films such as Cabiria, but the Spanish press lauded the epic spectacle for its rare beauty and technical perfection.
Of course this happy ending of the Kleine version quite deviates from the original novel, in which Salammbô kills her lover before everybody and then dies on the spot. The novel also much more focuses on the eroticism connected with Salammbô - actually rather presented as an adolescent girl, a young woman, and connected to a sacred snake - and doesn't narrate of Matho's strongman feats. Moreover, the siege of Carthage, the hunger and thirst, and the horrific children sacrifices to Moloch - part of Pastrone's Cabiria - are all blatantly absent, as well as the suspicion Matho and Salammbô had sex and therefore she is doomed. NB the plot description in Vittorio Martineli's Il cinema muto italiano deviates from the Kleine version, suggesting that Spendius eliminates Narr Havas (was it censored afterward?). The description by Jon Solomon in his book The Ancient World in the Cinema as even bigger deviations from the Kleine print. As from Spartaco exist two different final scenes, a sad ending for the European and Latin-American market and a happy end for the Northern-Americans, it would be interesting to know if this existed for Salambò too. In addition, it would also interesting to know the name and whereabouts of the Afro-European actor who plays Spendius, as his name is unmentioned in the film and in reference works. The settings of the film are really impressive, e.g. the elephant statues in the architecture of the palace and temple remind of those in Cabiria, while the Tanit statue reminds of the statues in Cabiria - but also the Tanit statue as depicted by the painter G.A. Rochegrosse in his illustrations for Flaubert's novel Salammbô, in an edition released in 1900.
Athletic muscleman Mario Guaita aka Ausonia (1881-1956) was an Italian actor, director, producer and scriptwriter in the silent era. He had his international breakthrough with Spartaco (Enrico Vidali 1913) and became a major actor in the Italian forzuto genre. In the early 1920s, he moved to Marseille, made a few films there and ran a cinema.
Very little is known about Suzanne De Labroy. In 1912-1913 she acted at the Turinese company Savoia, while from 1913 she acted at Pasquali, e.g. in the Othello adaptation Bianco e negro/ The Iron Fist (Ubaldo Maria Del Colle, 1913), and Jone ovvero gli ultimi giorni di Pompei/ The Last Days of Pompeii (Enrico Vidali, 1913), the latter a rival to the simultaneously released version by Ambrosio. Salambò was Labroy's final film, both at Pasquali and in general. At the French site Gallica, her name is absent, so she probably didn't have a career in France and she might even have been an Italian actress.