The Secret of Santa Vittoria (Region 1 Import DVD)

Reviews

Reviewed by Carin H. - 17 June 2010

When Fabio (Giancarlo Giannini) came screaming Mussolini's death, the villagers of Santa Vittoria were quite indifferent... But when he returned much later shouting that the Germans are coming to take the wine of Santa Vittoria, this was different! It was the beginning of an amazing adventure... Italo Bombolini (Anthony Quinn), is the beloved mayor of the hillside village of Santa Vittorio... He is in terrible crisis... Where to hide his precious wine? l,317,000 bottles more or less... Tufa (Sergio Franchi), who has deserted the crumbling Italian army and has returned home in despair, recommends him to conceal a million bottles of wine in the tunnels of an old Roman cave outside of Santa Vittoria, and to hide them in such a way, that "if" the Germans enter the cave looking for the wine, 'they will see an empty cave!' Rosa (Anna Magnani) enlists the entire town for that purpose... When German commander Sepp Von Prum (Hardy Kruger) arrives, it becomes a battle of wits for the possession of the wine... Von Prum is distracted in his search by Bombolini's protests of ignorance and by the Contessa's obvious charms... The local Contessa, Caterina Malatesta is played by the exquisite blonde Virna Lisi... The last scene of the film is hilarious! We see the German Officer leaving, and Bombolini - a bottle of wine in his hand - addressing him: 'To the captain, from the people of Santa Vittoria. It's not a great wine but it's not bad!' The captain receives the bottle whispering to Bombolini: 'You're sure you can spare it?' Bombolini replies: 'Oh, there's one million more where this came from.' You can imagine the face of Hardy Kruger - extremely good as the German Captain... Maybe the film is too long... But it is a great joy to see two legendary stars, Quinn and Magnani, dancing with the whole town of Santa Vittoria... Great score... Great fun! A must have for the movie collector!