Benito Mussolini Mussolini was rescued from captivity in the Gran Sasso raid by German paratroopers and "Waffen-SS" commandos led by Major Otto-Harald Mors. Adolf Hitler, after meeting with the rescued former dictator, then put Mussolini in charge of a puppet regime in northern Italy, the Italian Social Republic (, RSI), informally known as the "Salò Republic". In late April 1945, in the wake of near total defeat, Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci attempted to flee to Switzerland, but both were captured by Italian communist partisans and summarily executed by firing squad on 28 April 1945 near Lake Como. His body was
The Mistress of the World audience." Carjels compares "The Mistress of the World" to a modern globe-trotting adventure story more akin to an Indiana Jones or Lara Croft film, rather than a more intellect take such as "Madame Dubarry". Although receiving mixed reviews, the public responded positively and "The Mistress of the World" was the most commercially successful German film of the 1919-1920 season, outstripping "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920) in popular appeal. "The Mistress of the World" was released in the United States in 1922 by Paramount Pictures but was shortened and re-edited into four films, spanning twenty reels, the result of which