Operatic drama with Anthony Quinn as a Nevada land baron who travels to Italy & marries the sister of his dead wife. The new wife is Anna Magnani and she proves to be an opinionated pistol. Refusing to acquiesce to self appointed king Quinn, Magnani embarks on a passionate affair with ranch hand Anthony Franciosa. The fact that Franciosa is Quinn's adopted son heightens the melodrama. Magnani, in her second American film (after her Oscar-winning performance in THE ROSE TATTOO), gives a great performance. She exudes sexuality and has a lot of chemistry with both of her leading men. Directed by George Cukor (who replaced John Sturges after Sturges realized the film was shaping into a romance). The now classic music score, including the much recorded title song, is by Dimitri Tiomkin. Charles Lang did the cinematography. The supporting cast includes Joseph Calleia, Lili Valenty (excellent as Quinn's loyal sister-in-law), and Dolores Hart.

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.

Wild is the Wind is a torpid melodrama directed by George Cukor attempting to keep Anna Maganni and Anthony Quinn off the furniture. Quinn looks the role of an aging Italian sheepherder that made good in North America but his character is all my way or the highway stubbornness that Quinn over emotes every other sentence. Maganni plays Goia his wife and sister of his widow with an exhausted look but is also prone to temper tantrums. Cukor is more a less a referee allowing both free range in his interpretation of the Mediterranean personality. It's strictly tourismo neorealismo.Goia is treated callously and feeling like a stand in for her dead sister takes up with Bene (Tony Franciosa) whose been like a son to Gino. With implications of necrophilia and incest one would think Cukor along with his hot blooded cast would be able to get the story up to a passionate boiling point. Instead we are given shrill rage and tepid desire culminating in a cop out ending. Wild is the Wind calls for high heat but is mostly lukewarm and fails to pull the wool over any one's eyes in its attempt to be more than it is.

1976:I've just bought the new Bowie album "Station to station" and there's a track I find quite intriguing;it 's called "Wild is the wind" .Bowie gives a grandiose overblown rendition which I love from the first listening.The authors are Tiomkin/Washington;at the time I did not know them at all,and I must confess I barely knew Cukor (I'd seen "gaslight" and that was all).For thirty years ,I've been hoping to have the opportunity to see the movie whose song I've been playing for years (still am) 2005:After watching most of Cukor's filmography ,I finally saw "Wild is the wind" today.I was eagerly waiting for the song and there's more suspense cause the movie does not begin with the cast and credits.After the five-minute prologue that's it!Well it's terribly different.It's sung by Johnny Mathis (not Nina Simone)and I must admit...it's not what I expected.It's typically fifties melodrama song .Now the movie.A movie which features Anna Magnani cannot be bad but I must say she's better in her native Italy (with Rossellini,Visconti,Pasolini et al).The Anthonys - Quinn the Eskimo and Anthony the Method - are good thespians and the story is interesting.An aging Italian whose wife passed away has her sister fly from Italy to marry her.And he begins to shape her personality, to break her as he does for the wild horse,in a nutshell,to make her a brand new Rosetta her first beloved wife.Symbolism is a bit overdone,ponderous (the horse,the ewe)but the actors can get away with it with gusto.Anna Magnani's metamorphosis during the movie is stunning,from a rather ugly gauche little woman with bags under her eyes to a bright Mediterranean beauty.Clint Eastwood might have remembered the lesson when he filmed Meryl Streep in his celebrated "bridges of Madison County" ,a return to the glorious fifties melodrama.Not a great Cukor,but a must for fans of melodramas and/or Magnani.