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Rating:  -
Bombolini (Anthony Quinn) is Santa Vittoria's resident fool, drunk, and lazy good-for-nothing, but everybody in town loves him. He becomes the new mayor just as the Germans are coming to occupy the village and confiscate over a million bottles of wine. Bombolini comes up with a plan to hide most of it, but will everyone keep the secret?
This drama with comedic elements has a lot going for it, especially Anthony Quinn in a happy-to-lucky role similar to his in Zorba the Greek with the wonderful Anna Magnani playing his long-suffering wife. Their scenes are full of earthy charm and raucous energy. Handsome Hardy Kruger plays the German captain who tries to find the wine; he's quite charming but his playfulness and non-violent approach to war are a bit hard to believe. Sultry Virna Lisi gives a solid performance as a troubled, snooty Countess who catches the captain's eye.
The movie, unfortunately, is too long by half, with the first hour moving at a snail's pace, and the energy fades when Quinn isn't on the screen. Still, I liked it a lot because the characters are endearing and the message of solidarity is a good one. Directed by Stanley Kramer and nicely photographed in Italy.
Rating: -
The Secret of Santa Vitoria is a delightful tragi-comedic gem about the dehumanization of war and keeping priorities straight. At first the characters seem one-dimensional but gradually we see them change into more complex people. The high light of the film is the amazing human ladder to save the wine which propels the story.
Rating: -
"Secret of Santa Vittoria" is a wonderfully flavorful comic drama whose major fault can be overlength which is apparent in the film's second half. Anthony Quinn, whose made a garden industry out of playing earthy peasant types(I wasn't a big fan of Zorba), is totally winning as the town clown, Italo Bombolini, foisted into the position of mayor on the eve of the German occupation in the waning days of World War II. The town's lifeblood is it's wine supply and the German's intentions are to abscond with it and it's up to the fool Bombolini to outsmart the master race. Hardy Kruger is equally fine as a German officer torn by gentility and his desire not to look foolish in front of these "barbarians". Anna Magnani shines as Bombolini's hard-bitten long-suffering spouse. The film looks great and you get a real sense of community here. A real gem.
Rating: -
THE SECRET OF SANTA VITTORIA (1969) is a long, but utterly charming WW2 comedy about a small Italian village and its attempt to hide its "pride," a million bottles of precious wine, from the Nazis.
Stanley Kramer directed this handsome adaptation of Robert Crichton's novel, which stars Anthony Quinn as the town's drunken "clown," who inexpiably becomes the mayor and chief mastermind in the plot to deceive the German troops. They are led by the honorable, but duty-bound, Hardy Kruger.
Also in the fine cast are Anna Magnani as Quinn's wife who initially can't stand the man, yet develops a new respect for him as he deals with the enemy, Virna Lisi as the daughter of the village's once aristocratic family, Sergio Franchi as the peasant soldier that she falls for and Giancarlo Giannini, playing a young villager in love with Quinn and Magnani's daughter.
© Michael B. Druxman
Rating:  -
The delivery time was excellent. I gave this as a gift, so I can't comment on the product.
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