Marie José of Belgium Claretta Petacci, claimed in her diary that in 1937 the then princess and wife of the heir to the throne tried and failed to seduce the dictator at a beach resort near Rome. However, Mussolini's son, Romano, claims that the princess and dictator entered into a sexual relationship. In 1943, the Crown Princess involved herself in vain attempts to arrange a separate peace treaty between Italy and the United States; her interlocutor from the Vatican was Monsignor Giovanni Battista Montini, a senior diplomat who later became Pope Paul VI. Her attempts were not sponsored by the king and Umberto was
The Mistress of the World short openers to a feature film, each part of "The Mistress of the World" was shot over six reels, making them feature length. Another difference to the American serials was the lack of a cliffhanger ending. Each episode of "Mistress" was a self-contained story, but the end goal was still out of reach, drawing audiences back to find out how the story resolved rather than how the heroine escaped a dangerous situation. Normal prerelease hype for serials was often manufactured through movie tie-ins, serialization in other media and spot prizes given to audience members. May attempted a different approach for