Celebrated producer/director Stanley Kramer (Guess Whos Coming to Dinner, Judgment at Nuremberg, Its a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World ) blends charm, suspense and romance in William Rose and Ben Maddows screen adaptation of Robert Crichtons best-selling comic tale of a small Italian village and its attempt to hide a million bottles of wine from the Nazis. In a performance infused with the same bravado and humanity as his Zorba the Greek, Anthony Quinn plays Italo Bombolini, a wine-sodden buffoon who becomes the towns mayor, its inspiration and, ultimately, its hero. And who better to portray his flashing-eyed and fiery-tongued wife than Anna Magnani (The Rose Tattoo)? No less excellent is Hardy Krugers characterization of a German officer obsessed by honor and consumed by duty. Giancarlo Giannini (later to achieve international stardom in Lina Wertmullers films Swept Away and Seven Beauties) is outstanding as an impassioned young villager.