The Secret of Santa Vittoria
The Secret of Santa Vittoria is a 1969 American war film distributed by United Artists. It was produced and directed by Stanley Kramer and co-produced by George Glass from a screenplay by Ben Maddow and William Rose. It was based on the best-selling 1966 novel by Robert Crichton. The music score was by Ernest Gold and the cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno.
Plot
The story is set during World War II in the summer of 1943, immediately after the fall of Italy's Fascist government under Benito Mussolini, when the German army moved to occupy most of the country. The only substantial source of income for the little hill town of Santa Vittoria is its wine. The townsfolk learn that the German occupation forces will be arriving soon, with plans to confiscate most of Santa Vittoria's wine and transport it to Germany. The people organize under the inspiration of their new mayor, Italo Bombolini (Anthony Quinn), who until days before had been thought of as a buffoon by everyone in town including his wife (Anna Magnani), and had only been appointed mayor by the town’s pro-Mussolini politicians as a ruse to deflect the people’s anger. With everyone working together, the villagers are able to hide a million bottles of wine by sealing them up in the galleries of an ancient Roman cave before the arrival of a German army detachment under the command of Sepp von Prum (Hardy Krüger).
Awards
Cast
- Anna Magnani
- Anthony Quinn
- Clelia Matania
- Curt Lowens
- Eduardo Ciannelli
- Francesco Mulé
- Giancarlo Giannini
- Gigi Ballista
- Hardy Krüger
- Karl-Otto Alberty
- Leopoldo Trieste
- Marco Tulli
- Patrizia Valturri
- Peter Kuiper
- Quinto Parmeggiani
- Renato Chiantoni
- Renato Rascel
- Sergio Franchi
- Tim Donnelly
- Valentina Cortese
- Virna Lisi
- Wolfgang Jansen