The Secret of Santa Vittoria * (1969, Anthony Quinn, Anna Magnani, Virna Lisi, Hardy Kruger) – Classic Movie Review 11,867

Producer-director Stanley Kramer’s 1969 film The Secret of Santa Vittoria was nominated for two Oscars, is based on the best-selling novel by American novelist Robert Crichton, and stars Anthony Quinn, Anna Magnani, Virna Lisi and Hardy Kruger.

Stanley Kramer stumbles badly in directing this shrill, shapeless comedy about Italian wine-producing villagers who conspire to hide their million bottles of wine from the occupying German army.

As Bombolini and Rosa, the married Italian couple at the centre of things, Anthony Quinn and Anna Magnani head a cast making such noisy babble that it makes you long for the days of silent film.

Quinn as an Italian? Well, at least Kruger is cheerily typecast as the German captain. There are some actual Italians in the fine cast that also include Sergio Franchi, Renato Rascel, Giancarlo Giannini, Patrizia Valturri, Eduardo Ciannelli, Leopoldo Trieste and Valentina Cortese (uncredited).

The screenplay is by Ben Maddow (story) and William Rose.

The score is by Ernest Gold and the cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno, shooting almost entirely near Rome in Anticoli Corrado, Italy.

The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Comedy.

It cost $6.3 million and earned $6.5 million worldwide, a disappointment.

Robert Crichton’s The Secret of Santa Vittoria is his first novel, published in 1966.

The cast are Anthony Quinn as Italo Bombolini, Virna Lisi as Caterina Malatesta, Hardy Krüger as Sepp von Prum, Sergio Franchi as Carlo Tufa, Anna Magnani as Rosa Bombolini, Renato Rascel as Babbaluche, Giancarlo Giannini as Fabio de la Romagna, Patrizia Valturri as Angela Bombolini, Eduardo Ciannelli as Luigi, Leopoldo Trieste as Vittorini, Gigi Ballista as Padre Polenta, Quinto Parmeggiani as Cop, and Valentina Cortese.

RIP Hardy Kruger [Franz Eberhard August Krüger] (12 April 1928 – 19 January 2022), who appeared in more than 60 films after 1944 and became an international favourite.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,867

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