Anthony Quinn looks like he is play "Zobra the Greek" again as a clownish Italian in director Stanley Kramer's predictable but entertaining comedy-drama "The Secret of Santa Vittoria," a World War II story that takes place in a hill town where wine is the chief virtue. There is a little too much comedy and not nearly enough edgy drama in this 139-minute film that won a Golden Globe.As the story unfolds, the citizens of Santa Vittoria rejoice when they learn that the tyrant dictator Mussolini has been deposed. The protagonist Italo Bombolini (Anthony Quinn) gets roaring drunk on wine and ascends the water tower to paint out a pro-Mussolini slogan that he had painted on the structure some 20 years ago. "Asphalt Jungle" scenarist Ben Maddow and "The Ladykillers" scribe William Rose based their uneven but okay screenplay on Robert Crichton's novel about a town that hides a million bottles of wine from the occupying forces of the German army.What makes this comedy-drama worth watching are the performances of Quinn, Anna Magnani, Virna Lisa, and Hardy Kruger. Initially, everybody thinks that Italo is a complete buffoon so they make him mayor. He surprises them and uses political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli's tract "The Prince" as a guide to his administration. Before long he has the entire town eating out of his hand with the sole exception of his harridan wife, Rosa (Anna Magnani of "The Red Rose"), who cannot stand the sight of him. A teenager named Fabio (Giancarlo Giannini of "Quantum of Solace") is in love with Italo's daughter, but he leaves the town so he can continue his education at the university. When he arrives at the university, Fabio learns that the Germans will occupy Santa Vittoria in a few week and most likely confiscate the town's supply of wine. He rides his bicycle back home and warns Italo, and the citizens scramble to hide the wine.Initially, they try to cart it off to a Roman cave, but all the carts seem to breakdown and there is a massive traffic jam in the town square. Reluctantly, Italo changes his plans and a Fascist deserter, Tufa (Sergio Franchi of "Curse of the Red Butterfly") tells him to use the entire town in the form of two human chains to hand the bottles of wine one-by-one to each other over a half-mile to get the wine safely to the Roman caves. Mind you, they have to pause because the citizens start to get careless and drop bottles. One of Italo's closest advisers suggests that Italo keep 300-thousand bottles of wine to give to the Nazis because they know the enemy will not believe them if they hide all of the wine.Eventually, they hide the wine and double-brick up the passageways. Captain von Prum (Hardy Kruger of "The Wild Geese") arrives with a small detachment of German troops and they occupy the town. Von Prum and Italo bargain about the percentage of wine that the town must give up to the Germans, while von Prum actively tries to romance Caterina Malatesta (Italian beauty Virna Lisa of "Queen Margot") who has fallen in love with the Fascist deserter. Everything looks rosy until the Gestapo show up and explain that the bookkeepers at the winery out-of-town calculate that over a million bottles of wine have not been accounted for.Von Prum spends 36 hours turning the town inside out, but he finds nothing. The Gestapo take two hostages and torture them in the Roman caves where the wine is hidden under their noses, but the hostages are Fascists who were being held captive by the townspeople. The Gestapo learn nothing from the discredited Fascists and the Germans leave Santa Vittoria and Italo Bombolini is celebrated as a hero and he wins a renewal of respect from his bitter wife.

The names Stanley Kramer and Anthony Quinn sucked me into this one. This is more or less a story about a small hillside village and when its buffoon Italo Bombolini(Quinn)hears about the death of Mussolini and his hanging on a meat-hook for all to view, he goes to the town's water tower to paint over a pro-Mussolini slogan. Bobolini's wife Rosa(Anna Magani)kicks his drunk butt out of the house and her wine shop for celebrating with his friends and giving away too much wine. Well, the village idiot is proclaimed Mayor of Santa Vittoria and upon hearing that retreating German forces were on the way through town, he convinces hundreds of villagers to help hide the town's only asset...tens of thousands of bottles of wine. Kudos to Kramer. The cinematography is fine, what there is of it. A few passionate scenes, but mostly a light dramatic atmosphere with comedic overtones. It is definitely Quinn's movie, but also in the cast are: the beautiful Virna Lisi, Sergio Franchi, Hardy Kruger, Giancarlo Giannini and Wolfgang Jansen.

In short there is no other move quite like it. One of those that you might not think to rent, but if you find yourself at the beginning of it, you'll not leave until you see the ending. Quinn is excellent.The nutshell is that The Germans are coming, and the town has lost all of its older boys and men to the Italian army. They're a wine-producing town, and elect the town-fool to be the "mock mayor". The problem is that they need to hide the wine from the Germans, being their only real treasure. From that premise forward, the movie becomes dark and deeply compelling. I believe that these are some of the best performances of the star-studded actors...I recommend it, as one of life's "must see's".(PS: I'm a tough critic, so an "8" for me is just about tops)

Overblown and cartoonish "Secret..." is less a light comedy with earthy characters, as it's usually billed, than it is a loud and long drama for some left-wing theater company. Despite the renown of some of the actors (primarily Anthony Quinn and Anna Magnani) this movie suffers from over-acted cliche Italian characters and a central story line that offensively glosses over German atrocities in Italy during World War II.The action centers in the idealized Italian min-city state of Santa Vittoria--run by a drunk Mayor and peopled with stoic peasants--and the necessity to hide all the bottles of the local vino from the encroaching Nazis. There is very little substantive plot otherwise and what little there is is not worth waiting throw the over-dramatized pacing and staging. This is a real dud. Miss it or be warned!