Another fine film for the year of 1957, one of the very best years in American cinema, and certainly my favourite year when Hollywood was perhaps at its peak. George Cukor directs with emotional intensity and the film is cast to perfection. Anthony Franciosa ( a vastly underrated actor ) almost steals the film from Anna Magnani, whose performance here is quite extraordinary. She is the force of life itself, ferocious, tender and ultimately heartbreakingly moving. But Franciosa equals her and together they had a chemistry that sets the screen on fire, and their passionate love is one of the greatest in American cinema. Anthony Quinn is good, but in my opinion he is eclipsed by their fiery eroticism and the way Magnani and Franciosa seize their roles with a very un- American passion. Watch out for the kiss that draws blood, and wonder at the audacity of it. Only the ending disappointed and the irritating way American cinema has of avoiding more subversive possibilities. But this does not stop me from giving it a well deserved 10 and even the banal and useless song by Johnny Mathis I can just about forgive. Once again Cukor proved what an incredible director he was. Is this film almost completely forgotten ? If so Hollywood should remember the best it had to offer.
Review of Wild Is the Wind
