It was interesting to read through the two pages of reviews already in place as I put in my 2 cents worth. Quite a mixed review. There's a pace to this movie, a speed at which the story unfolds that is rarely seen in contemporary films. Seems we just don't have the patience anymore for such a natural unfolding.Make that a 1 cent contribution though. I don't have enough of a context to intelligently comment on this film beyond a thought or two. In a way, I see the points made by both the positive and detracting reviews. (The one thing I can say though, unequivocally, I love any movie or TV show shot on location! This one is. They didn't try to pull off a sheep ranch on a Hollywood back lot. Thus we get some nice spring vistas of the Eastern Sierras.)So anyway, just a couple of thoughts....1) I had never heard of Anna Magnani. She is a fine actress. She emotes so well through her face and body language she would have made a wonderful silent film era actress. She sure generates a lot of power in this movie. As a man, I would NOT want her character on my case! But I loved watching her torture someone else. (And of course she too was tortured. Women kind of don't like it when the husband calls them by the name of his first wife).2) There is a moment when she comes to Tony Franciosa's room... the first time she approaches him, as opposed to him approaching her. What was played very well here is the inevitability of the two of them connecting. Neither of them want this! But they are drawn to each other, and sooner or later... and it took a while here, in keeping with the pacing of the film... sooner or later, as long as the two of them lived on the same ranch, they were going to end up in bed. There was just no fighting it. It was as though they were marionettes, and the puppet masters had decided they would join together. And even though they each knew the consequences, they had no choice. You see it her face. That moment of surrender, when she accepted the inevitable fate.Oh man. I've been there. Have you been there? When you literally cannot stop yourself? This is the kind of love that Plato termed "a serious mental disease". aahhhhh.

This "women's director" was also no slouch with men, and he helps Anthony Quinn to perhaps his best performance. Quinn often overacted, and here, as a hearty, swaggering, brutish sheep rancher who brings his dead wife's sister (Anna Magnani) over from Italy to marry, he easily could have resorted to his usual bluster. But it's a very shaded portrayal, with seemingly conflicting elements of roughness and tenderness that make sense in the end. Magnani is predictably great, even singing well, and Tony Franciosa, as Quinn's adopted son who forms an O'Neill-like triangle (it does feel like "Desire Under the Elms," as another commenter noted), is excellent. The outdoorsiness and earthiness (you even see a lamb born, before your boggled eyes) are un-Cukorlike, but he handles them confidently; and while the symbolism gets a little heavy and Dmitri Tiomkin's music is a bit intrusive, it's an effective family melodrama with a beautifully underplayed fadeout.

An elemental film, starting with the title. Anna Magnani was a force of nature, so the setting in the rugged Nevada mountains is apt, for this highly melodramatic tale. The passions of the characters are paralleled by images of raging rivers, rearing wild horses, and sheep giving birth, to the thunderous chords of Tiomkin's score. Several years earlier Magnani won an Oscar for her performance in The Rose Tattoo, and in this film she again dominates the screen. One of the most touching scenes is a quiet one at the beginning of the film, when she makes a connection with her niece, sensitively played by Dolores Hart. Anthony Quinn is enjoyable in this, although tending toward overacting. Franciosa holds his own with the two powerhouses.

Its not enough to say that Johnny Mathis sings the title song over the opening credits.With Cukor directing this grand meeting of Anthony Quinn and Anna Magnani thats says enough.The plot has its melodramatic moments for sure and its another film with the wonderful Dolores Hart who only a few years alter would become a nun.This also has the merits of Anthony Franciosca really playing his best role for many years in films.Franciosca, falls for Magnani in a lustful way while Quinn is away from the ranch.Its really the sweeping scenes and the acting of Quinn and Magnani that moves the film.Looking back , it would have been a treasure to see Magnani act in more US Films ( The Rose Tattoo) but that didn't happen. Finally , in her eyes we see how she made " Open City" ( Rosselini) a memorable film. Produced by the best...Hal Wallis CP