The Great Caruso Crowther says, "All of the silliest, sappiest clichés of musical biography have been written by Sonya Levien and William Ludwig into the script. And Richard Thorpe has directed in a comparably mawkish, bathetic style." Nearly 40 years after its release, Caruso's son, Enrico, Jr., reminisced that, "Vocally and musically "The Great Caruso" ...has helped many young people discover opera, and even become singers themselves."He added that, "I can think of no other tenor, before or since Mario Lanza, who could have risen with comparable success to the challenge of playing Caruso in a screen biography." The film has also been
Giuseppe Caruso (brigand) Giuseppe Caruso (brigand) Giuseppe Caruso, nicknamed "Zi 'Beppe" (Atella, 18 December 1820 - Atella, 1892), was an Italian brigand, the most distinguished of the Lucan banditry. He was, with Giovanni 'Coppa' Fortunato and Ninco Nanco, one of the most ruthless deputies of Carmine Crocco but, after that he was delivered to the Savoy authorities in 1863, he also was one of the responsibles of the suppression of banditry in the Vulture. According to the Crocco's sayings, Caruso killed 124 people in about four years as a fugitive. Before becoming a brigand, Caruso was a rural caretaker for the Saraceno noble