The Secret of Santa Vittoria DVD, 1969

Stanley Kramer is one of the least-loved American filmmakers of the postwar period. When he tackled contentious social issues, he was accused of being a bleeding-heart liberal. Yet when he ventured into escapism, he was castigated for lacking serious purpose.

This highly enjoyable, Golden Globe-winning take on Robert Crichton’s bestselling novel ranks among his most unfairly derided outings, as it supposedly trivialised the plight of ordinary Italians at the end of the war by trading in clichés and caricatures. However, even Fellini delighted in larger-than-life grotesques and there’s more than a hint of La Strada’s Zampano about Anthony Quinn’s bombastic small-town drunkard and unwitting mayor Italo Bombolini, who, with their fellow villagers, strive to keep a million bottles of wine hidden from Hardy Krüger’s retreating Nazi commander. Krüger knows the wine is being hidden – but not where. Anna Magnani similarly draws on two decades of smouldering screen signoras as Bombolini’s tempestuous wife.

Anne Baxter on 1st July 2009
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