Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

HotToastyRag When you start out watching The Secret of Santa Vittoria, you're going to say, "You've got to be kidding me! This was up for two Academy Awards?" Believe me, I was right there with you, and I considered turning it off. Thankfully, I didn't, because it turned out to be a very good movie.It takes place in a small Italian village, and in the first scene we are exposed to the completely idiotic, ridiculously stupid character of Anthony Quinn. He's so moronic, it's almost unbelievable. But, there's a purpose to that opening scene. The Secret of Santa Vittoria takes place at the close of WWII. When Mussolini reaches his downfall, there's a change of power everywhere in Italy, even in this small town. Tony-whose character's very name is idiotic: Bombolini-is well-liked by his neighbors, and he's quickly elected Mayor. When it's learned that the Nazis are coming to occupy the village, everyone panics for an unsuspecting reason: the village's only income is their wine. They have a million bottles of wine, and if the Nazis confiscate them, the entire town will be ruined. Under the guidance of Tony, his strong wife Anna Magnani, the beautiful spy Virna Lisi, and former soldier Renato Rascel, the townspeople all come together to hide the wine.This sounds like a silly movie, but it's actually quite moving. Just like a family, the different residents who clash and fight with each other under normal circumstances all pull together during tough times. Director Stanley Kramer adds incredible tension to the sequences. The scene in which everyone starts to unload the wine bottles gave me goosebumps, and I know it will stay with me for a very long time. Ernest Gold, nominated for his music, adds a lively Italian score to the film, underscoring the hope felt by the townspeople during the terrifying time.Obviously, I recommend this movie. If you have a strong aversion to Italians or Italian culture, then you probably won't like it, but besides that, there's a good chance you'll wind up recommending it to your friends. There's humor, drama, romance, suspense, and a heartwarming sense of community-what else do you need?

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.

zardoz-13 Anthony Quinn looks like he is play "Zobra the Greek" again as a clownish Italian in director Stanley Kramer's predictable but entertaining comedy-drama "The Secret of Santa Vittoria," a World War II story that takes place in a hill town where wine is the chief virtue. There is a little too much comedy and not nearly enough edgy drama in this 139-minute film that won a Golden Globe.As the story unfolds, the citizens of Santa Vittoria rejoice when they learn that the tyrant dictator Mussolini has been deposed. The protagonist Italo Bombolini (Anthony Quinn) gets roaring drunk on wine and ascends the water tower to paint out a pro-Mussolini slogan that he had painted on the structure some 20 years ago. "Asphalt Jungle" scenarist Ben Maddow and "The Ladykillers" scribe William Rose based their uneven but okay screenplay on Robert Crichton's novel about a town that hides a million bottles of wine from the occupying forces of the German army.What makes this comedy-drama worth watching are the performances of Quinn, Anna Magnani, Virna Lisa, and Hardy Kruger. Initially, everybody thinks that Italo is a complete buffoon so they make him mayor. He surprises them and uses political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli's tract "The Prince" as a guide to his administration. Before long he has the entire town eating out of his hand with the sole exception of his harridan wife, Rosa (Anna Magnani of "The Red Rose"), who cannot stand the sight of him. A teenager named Fabio (Giancarlo Giannini of "Quantum of Solace") is in love with Italo's daughter, but he leaves the town so he can continue his education at the university. When he arrives at the university, Fabio learns that the Germans will occupy Santa Vittoria in a few week and most likely confiscate the town's supply of wine. He rides his bicycle back home and warns Italo, and the citizens scramble to hide the wine.Initially, they try to cart it off to a Roman cave, but all the carts seem to breakdown and there is a massive traffic jam in the town square. Reluctantly, Italo changes his plans and a Fascist deserter, Tufa (Sergio Franchi of "Curse of the Red Butterfly") tells him to use the entire town in the form of two human chains to hand the bottles of wine one-by-one to each other over a half-mile to get the wine safely to the Roman caves. Mind you, they have to pause because the citizens start to get careless and drop bottles. One of Italo's closest advisers suggests that Italo keep 300-thousand bottles of wine to give to the Nazis because they know the enemy will not believe them if they hide all of the wine.Eventually, they hide the wine and double-brick up the passageways. Captain von Prum (Hardy Kruger of "The Wild Geese") arrives with a small detachment of German troops and they occupy the town. Von Prum and Italo bargain about the percentage of wine that the town must give up to the Germans, while von Prum actively tries to romance Caterina Malatesta (Italian beauty Virna Lisa of "Queen Margot") who has fallen in love with the Fascist deserter. Everything looks rosy until the Gestapo show up and explain that the bookkeepers at the winery out-of-town calculate that over a million bottles of wine have not been accounted for.Von Prum spends 36 hours turning the town inside out, but he finds nothing. The Gestapo take two hostages and torture them in the Roman caves where the wine is hidden under their noses, but the hostages are Fascists who were being held captive by the townspeople. The Gestapo learn nothing from the discredited Fascists and the Germans leave Santa Vittoria and Italo Bombolini is celebrated as a hero and he wins a renewal of respect from his bitter wife.

Robert D. Ruplenas This one deserves more than the 2 1/2 stars given it by Maltin. A superb combination of earthy humor and wartime intrigue, it gives us the triumph of human resourcefulness and peasant wiliness in the face of overpowering might. I like Anthony Quinn as Bombolini much more so than as Zorba. Anna Magnani as the long-suffering wife of Bombolini is magnificent. It is true that the love story subplot between the Sergio Franchi and Virna Lisi characters is a tad wearying, but it is not enough to detract from the overall success of the film. The true heros of the story, of course, are the Italian peasantry, as represented by the citizens of Anticoli Corrado, the central Italian village not far from Rome where the film was shot. As Babalucci says, finally: "I've been an anarchist all my life, although I've never been sure what it means, except that nothing means anything. But if anything does mean anything, it's this stinking town."