bhryun Posted July 3, 2005 Share Posted July 3, 2005 Just enjoyed watching The Third Man - Valli was wonderful - in reading about her life I see that she was invlved in some kind of infamous sex-drug-murder scandal in 1954 - does anyone have any details??? Thanks Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minatonga Posted July 4, 2005 Share Posted July 4, 2005 Hi I found this info from an obituary from 8/04 from the UK Times for Piero Piccioni, jazz musician. It really is quite involved. "In April 1953 the body of a young woman was found washed up on a beach not far from Rome. Wilma Montesi, the daughter of a carpenter, had not been seen since she left her home in the capital two days before. Soon, rumours started to circulate of a sex-and-drugs **** at a villa not far from where her corpse was discovered, and fingers were pointed at various high-society figures, including Piccioni, then best known as a jazz musician and as the son of Italy's Foreign Minister. Piccioni had an alibi, but it was not without implications for another of the country's leading lights, the film star Alida Valli. The dark-haired, aristocratic actress (best remembered by English-speaking audiences as Anna Schmidt, Harry Lime's girlfriend in The Third Man) vouched that Piccioni had been at her house on Capri at the time in question. Gossip had it that they were extremely close friends, although she had only some time before parted from her husband Oscar de Mejo, another jazz musician and the composer of the tune to "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth"." The obit goes on to say he was charged with murder, but acquitted, but it damaged Valli's career (& Piccioni's)but she never wavered from her story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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