2. Caesar and Claretta
Aired: 5/9/1975
Robert Hardy and Helen Mirren star as Benito Mussolini and his lover Claretta Petacci in this dramatization of their last night together, locked in a small peasant cottage. Having admired Mussolini since she was a schoolgirl, Claretta finally had a chance to meet the Italian leader at the age of 24. For the next 10 years she was Mussolini's official mistress, and was the only woman with him when they and a group of supporters were captured by Communist partisans during an escape attempt. On April 28, 1945, Mussolini and Petacci were shot by their captors. Even though Claretta was offered her freedom, she refused to leave her lover, a touching declaration of a woman's love despite the dubious reputation of the object of her affections.