Wild Is the Wind (1957)

As Good As It Gets

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Blistering performances.

What's a sheep herder to do when his beloved Italian wife dies? Marry her extra earthy sister of course! Anthony Quinn is the lusty rancher who almost instantaneously looses her not yet full love by referring to her with her sister's name. The luscious. Anna Magnani, fresh from The Rose Tattoo, adds another unforgettable performance to her few English language films, a characterization so rich that you can't see her as anything other as gorgeous even though she lacks typical Hollywood sex appeal.Magnani's appeal comes from deep inside where true beauty exists. Watch her almost girl-like joy erupt when she speaks her first words of English. Then when she finds the wild horse she wants only to tame so much, wait for her sudden disappointment when Quinn makes the now tame stallion pull a buggy for her, a metaphor for her own refusal to be tamed. The wild, yet love-starved Magnani falls for Quinn's trusted ward, Anthony Franciosa, who struggles with guilt over his feelings towards her. In a very emotional scene between the two. Anthony's, Quinn takes male to male affection to a level never seen on screen before which is based on love, unique because there is no macho image desperate to hide it. The result is real and refreshing. Franciosa is not as showy as his earthier co-stars which helps level the intensity. A shocking scene involves the spontaneous birth of a sheep and another where Quinn tries to fool a sheep into thinking that an orphaned baby is hers so she will nurse it. Little details like this help this rise above its familiar story. The frothy opening theme song sets this American version of European new wave into first gear and never switches into neutral.

I finally saw it too in a copy that appears to have been made from American Music Classics on cable at the time they were running movies uncut.It's a well-acted film. The plot recalls O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms (filmed in 1958) and Sidney Howard's They Knew What They Wanted (filmed in 1940 with Charles Laughton and musicalized by Frank Loesser in The Most Happy fellow in 1956)--older man, mail order bride, affair between wife and younger man.Very slow in the 1950s style but powerfully acted. Not the sort of film you'd expect from Cukor. Interesting facet to his career.Also interesting to compare this film and Secret of San Vittorio which re-united Magnani and Quinn after 12 years--older and maybe toned down just a notch, with the Irish/Mexican Quinn again playing an Italian.

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.

A sheep rancher (Anthony Quinn) marries his sister-in-law (Anna Magnani)from Italy, but she falls in love with his son instead. A slow-moving, over-acted melodrama with no surprises. It earned an Oscar nomination for the title song.