1969 | PG-13 | 2h 19m | Comedy, Drama, War
World War II had reached a feverish pitch in 1943 as Axis forces continued to lose ground to the Allies. By the summer, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini had been deposed and much of Italy celebrated the removal of “Il Duce.” However serious these global events may have been, director Stanley Kramer was able to make a mostly lighthearted comedy set during that tumultuous period—a film about wine, dancing (and stumbling), and the survival of an entire village—in his 1969 film “The Secret of Santa Vittoria.”
The quaint, hilly Italian village of Santa Vittoria learns about the good news of Mussolini’s departure when one of their own, young Fabio (Giancarlo Giannini), announces it on the piazza. One of Fabio’s friends, the village idiot and raging alcoholic Bombolini (Anthony Quinn), attempts to celebrate at home with some of his boozing buddies, including Fabio and another chum, Babbaluche (Renato Rascel).
However, Bombolini’s fiery wife Rosa (Anna Magnani) has had it with their drunken antics and kicks all of them out of the house. This causes Bombolini to spiral out of control. He promptly gets completely hammered and somehow ends up on the balcony of a water tower, on which he paints a message praising Mussolini.
In a hilarious (yet somewhat sad) scene, Fabio talks drunken Bombolini out of jumping from the balcony in angst. After painting over the message, the two men manage to climb back down the tower and Bombolini is inadvertently hailed as a hero. The village doesn’t know that he is the one who originally scrawled the pro-Mussolini graffiti on the tower.
Because of his sudden rise in popularity, Bombolini quickly replaces the village’s pro-fascist mayor. As he begins to pull himself out of his state of inebriation and settle into his position as the new mayor, Fabio returns with another urgent announcement: The German army that occupies Italy is expanding out into the countryside and confiscating whatever valuables it can find. For a place such as Santa Vittoria, the annexation of its sole valuable resource—its exemplary wine—could spell doom for its economy and wipe the village out.
Self-aware enough to know that he’s not the brightest bulb of the bunch and desperate for any ideas on how to avert such a calamitous disaster, Bombolini consults a wounded officer of the Italian army named Tufa (Sergio Franchi). Together, they devise a plan to move the village’s one-million-plus bottles of wine to an ancient Roman cave in the area and disguise it in the hopes that the Germans can’t find its treasures.
However, in order to safely transport all the bottles of vino, the villagers must form a huge human line and hand each bottle of wine to one another, one by one. They also cleverly leave behind some of the wine bottles in the village’s massive cellar in an effort to fool the Germans into believing that’s all they have.
The villagers manage to hide the main bulk of their wine inventory in the Roman cave just before the arrival of a detachment of German soldiers led by Capt. Von Prum (Hardy Krüger).
What transpires from here is a highly entertaining game of cat and mouse between Von Prum, who suspects that the village is hiding a wine stash somewhere, and the bumbling Bombolini.
Three Performances
This film’s premise is an interesting one, pitting a bunch of rural Italian country bumpkins and their clownish leader against a regiment of the German army and its clever commanding officer. Quinn’s exaggerated hand gestures and facial expressions complement his character well, and the actor’s unique brand of goofy humor elicits many a laugh. Krüger is likewise convincing as a shrewd German army officer who is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery.But what surprised me was the sadly underutilized talents of Anna Magnani. She had already won an Oscar for Best Actress for her role in 1955’s “The Rose Tattoo.” Magnani was an intensely radiant woman who imbued the characters she played with a gravitas that most actresses can only dream of. I could have watched her and Quinn go back and forth for most of the movie and been completely satisfied; they have great chemistry in their brief scenes together.
As it is, “The Secret of Santa Vittoria” is a lengthy (in a good way), fun, and mostly funny drama that features memorable characters, an intriguing plot, and the ever-gorgeous natural scenery of the Italian countryside.
