1969 - THE SECRET OF SANTA VITTORIA, interesting story, poor presentation.

Towards the end of World War II, the citizens of the small town of Santa Vittoria hide over one million bottles of wine to keep the German army from confiscating them,  The Secret of Santa Vittoria turns into a battle of wits between the mayor and the German Army Captain to keep the Krauts from locating the hidden bottles.

The Secret of Santa Vittoria was a well regarded novel by the author Robert Crichton.  Somehow producer/director Stanley Kramer acquired the rights to the book and got United Artists to finance it.  Kramer had made his reputation producing low budget message films early in his career. He was lucky to have decent filmmakers like Fred Zinneman, Richard Fleischer, Carl Foreman and Mark Robson work with him.  After a string of successes with Champion, Home of the Brave and The Men.  Kramer got it into his head that he wanted to direct as well as produce his own films.

 

Kramer turned out to be a film director who wasn't particularly good at directing.  Among the films that Kramer had a hand in were, The Pride and the Passion, a film about a bunch of guys dragging an enormous cannon around.  On the Beach the end of the world nuclear war film had more soap opera than message.  Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Kramer's sort of comedy film about interracial marriage and race relations was so free of conflict it's safe to say there was no conflict.  All of these films suffered from Kramer's inability to tell a story while at the same time bludgeoning the movie viewer with his sanctimonious liberal sentiments.  Kramer was reasonably successful for a while but as he moved into the 1960's his liberal themes seemed extremely dated.  Kramer actually thought the tepid Guess Who's Coming Dinner put him in the category of major directors like Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard.

The Secret of Santa Vittoria is a very good example of a late in his career film. Written by his longtime screenwriting associate William Rose who in this case had certainly seen better days.  Kramer signed up and interesting cast to say the least.  Anthony Quinn who only had one performance level which was always over the top. Anna Magnani was a performer who could match Quinn for exaggerated and hysterical acting.  Hardy Kruger the German officer looking for the wine seemed frightened dealing with these bombastic actors.  The great Virna Lisi had a nothing part as Kruger's love interest.

 

The film is an overlong mess with Kramer indulging in that 1960's photography crutch, the zoom lens to drive home any plot point he had already driven home. It's unfortunate that a better filmmaker and writer weren't involved in this movie, the plot is actually kind of interesting.  But as they say it's how you tell the story that counts as well.  As one critic said about Kramer "he was a man directing a comedy who never understood how drama worked."

The running time is 139 minutes