Gualino was an anti-fascist businessman who had clashed with the regime of Mussolini in 1931 and had been forced into internal exile on the island of Lipari.
[2] De Laurentiis, who became an executive producer for Lux in 1942,[3] oversaw such successful films as Alberto Lattuada's Il bandito (1946) and Mario Camerini's La figlia del capitano (The Captain's Daughter, 1947)[4] and Riso Amaro (Bitter Rice, 1949).
[5] Bitter Rice, a neorealist film whose plot includes "abortion, crime, illicit sex, a gruesome murder, suicide, nudity, and a realistic childbirth scene",[6] was deliberately not submitted by Lux for PCA approval when it reached the United States.
The Catholic Legion of Decency rated it 'C' (Condemned) before the distributor agreed to cuts, and the controversy abated.
[7] One of these films, Luchino Visconti's Senso (1954), led to conflict with both the Italian Army and the censors who progressively extended their demand for cuts, before the company protested and the authorities largely relented.