rodrig58 How much has to endure an Actor: to be hit with a huge paddle, to be kicked in his butt, to have put noodles in his head, to be hit with pots and saucepans. But it is not any actor, it is Anthony Quinn, who does not care of nothing to live his character, Bombolini, to his own... blood. Anna Magnani, a great tragedian actress of the Italian cinema, has the most funny replica: "The whole world knows that Bombolini's brains are in his ass!" Virna Lisi, my childhood love from "Coplan prend des risques" is beautiful and credible in the role of Caterina. A very young Giancarlo Giannini is OK. The same Hardy Krüger and Renato Rascel. Actually, Krüger is great! I've seen almost all Stanley Kramer's films, the best, in my opinion are "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World", "The Defiant Ones" and this one.

MartinHafer The film is set in Italy and begins just after the Italians surrender to the Allies during WWII. At first, the town is ecstatic--they are free and the fascists leaders quickly surrender the town to a man they designate the new mayor, Bombolini (Anthony Quinn). Bombolini seems ill-prepared, however, when the town learns that the Germans are coming--and will be occupying the town. However, a bright young man (Giancarlo Giannini) comes up with a great idea--to put all the town's wine in the Roman tunnels and then collapse the tunnels. That way, the Germans won't be able to steal the town's best resource. First, they need to move 1,000,000 bottles very quickly. Second, Bombolini needs to play nice to the German commander (Hardy Kruger) while also keeping the secret. Third, Bombolini needs to keep his nasty harpy of a wife (Anna Magnani) in line--and that might just be the most difficult task of all! So is the film any good? Of course. With Anthony Quinn in the lead, the film is naturally quite good--as he seems a natural. He is also ably assisted by a nice supporting cast and nice location shooting. However, the film is a bit odd. The first half was rather comical and light in mood. The final portion, with the Nazis, was very dark--and it drug a bit in tempo compared to the first part. Not a perfect film but a very good one.

Bardotsalvador I saw this movie many years ago and i love it , any movie with Anna Magnani is A most for everybody she was an special actress is not other actress in the cinema like her maybe Jenane Moreau.in this movie she played Rosa Palmolive i remember very well watching the movie and saying how wonderful this woman is, Anthony Quinn is great in the movie they worked together in the past in wild is the wind, Virna Lisi is great here she show how good as actress she can be and how beautiful she was but the movie is LA MAGNANI is a tour de force her performance and plus is her the most amazing actress of the world cinema, the first time i saw Anna Magnani was in the movie Roma open city and i was mesmerized by her performance i feel sorry for Ingrid Bergman when she married Rosellini and he try to make her in another Anna Magnani they flopped nobody can be ANNA MAGNANI

cutterccbaxter I read "The Secret Of Santa Vittoria" about ten years ago and I thought it would make a good movie. It turned out that Stanley Kramer had the same idea back in 1968. The movie is a bit uneven, but I thought there were some good moments. The film did a good job of showing the people of the town hiding the wine in the old cave. Their exhaustive work indicated how important and vital the wine was to the town. Anthony Quinn may have been a bit too broad in certain scenes. Also, there's something in his screen persona that indicates a forceful personality that seems to contradict the clownishness of his character. I liked Hardy Kruger and thought there was a little more to his character than the usual one dimensional evil Nazi seen in a million other World War II films. Apparently Anna Magnani really didn't care much for Quinn. In the scene where she repeatedly kicked him she broke her foot. The real town of Santa Vittoria was not chosen as the location because it was too modern in appearance by 1968, so the the beautiful and atmospheric town of Anticoli Corrado was chosen as the location.