The Secret of Santa Vittoria is a beautiful comedy in Italy during the last days of World War II. The original name of the 1969 film is The Secret of Santa Vittoria. Italy’s Santa Vittoria town is famous for its viticulture and wine. The film tells the tragicomics of the townspeople hiding 1 million bottles of wine from German soldiers.
Adapted from the novel by American novelist Robert Crichton in 1966, the film is directed by Stanley Kramer and starring Anthony Quinn. In 1970, the film was nominated for an Oscar for best fiction and best original music, and won the Golden Globe for best musical film.
The film is set in the Italian town of Santa Vittoria in the late World War II. The livelihoods of this charming town are the wines they produce. The administration of the town is in the hands of the fascists. One day, a young man named Fabio comes to the town square and announces that Mussolini is dead and that Fascism is over. The townspeople do not react first, but then they begin to celebrate. Italo Bombolini (Anthony Quinn), who owns a wine house and sells wine in the village, has supported Mussolini like many other towns, even climbing a water tank and writing a praise.
Frustrated by the practices of the fascist administration, Bombolini is drunk (often seen as the town’s drunkard and clown), climbs into the water reservoir and asks to erase the writing, but is stranded extinct. His wife is tired of Bombolini and he doesn’t care if he falls from the warehouse. The young man, Fabio, climbs the water reservoir to lower Bombolini from above, erases the writing and encourages Bombolini to try to bring him down. Meanwhile, the public watches the gathered. Fabio encourages Bombolini by making people shout “Viva Bombolini”.
On the other hand, fascist administrators think in fear what to do. In the meantime, they misunderstand that people come together and shout slogan Viva Bombolini slogan; they think that the people have chosen Bombolini as the mayor and they go and give the mayor to Bombolini. But everyone knows that Bombolini is a useless drunk. His wife even fires Bombolini out of the house.
After calm days, the retreating German armies temporarily occupy the towns on their way and begin to confiscate the property of the townmen to cover their war expenses. Bad news arrives in Santa Vittoria. The Germans are on their way to confiscate the wines. The town has 1 million bottles of wine stacked in the cellar. Bombolini and his friends decide to give the Germans some wine and store a large part of it. To transport wine to a Roman cave, the whole town mobilized and carried bottles day and night to this old cave. They use the tunnels in the cave to store the wines, and make the walls look empty.
The Germans come into town, with Captain von Prum (Hardy Krüger) at their head. In fact, he doesn’t treat villagers badly, he just says that they want inventory and wine. Bombolini, by throwing himself from the ground, negotiates the Captain with less than 300,000 bottles that they have allocated to the Germans. Meanwhile, an SS officer came and told him that there should be 1,000,000 bottles in town
The SS officer came along with officials from the Cinzano Vermouth factory. Lie is about to emerge. The Germans search everywhere but cannot get a result; they even torture two people from the public, yet they cannot learn the truth. The SS officer believes that there are no 1,000,000 bottles of wine in the town and leaves. But Captain von Prum realizes that he is being fooled and goes after the truth.
Meanwhile, a warrant comes out of the center, but Captain von Prum wants to take his chance for the last time and puts a gun to Bombolini’s head in front of the public in the town square. Nobody makes a sound. The captain says he doesn’t want the wines, he just wants to know the truth, but it’s futile. Ne What kind of people are you? Bağ he shouts and understands that he cannot learn the truth. Bombolini buys a bottle of wine and gives it to the Captain. Bombolini does not forget to say, “Where there is another 1,000,000 bottles“. In this way, the Germans leave town. The secret of the town has been preserved.
A film that wine lovers can watch without hesitation. It’s quite entertaining, but also touching scenes. The scenes where the bottles were carried from hand to hand in the cave were the scenes that left their mark on the film. In one scene, the term kanı blood of our labor için was used for wine. It was very impressive for a people whose livelihood was wine to describe wine this way.
The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969)
Directed by: Stanley Kramer
Starring: Anthony Quinn, Giancarlo Giannini, Virna Lisi, Anna Magnani, Hardy Kruger, Eduardo Ciannelli, Patrizia Valturri, Quinto Parmeggiani, Francesco Mulè, Wolfgang Jansen, Leopoldo Trieste
Screenplay by: William Rose, Ben Maddow
Production Design by: Robert Clatworthy
Cinematography by: Giuseppe Rotunno
Film Editing by: Earle Herdan, William A. Lyon
Costume Design by: Joe King
Music by: Ernest Gold
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some sexual content and language.
Distributed by: United Artists
Release Date: October 29, 1969
Visits: 295