Before Loren There Was Mangano (Wow!)
8/10
Author: romanorum1 from Rhode Island, United States
15 March 2013

*** This review contain spoilers ***

Riso Amaro is one of those atypical movies that is not only multi-layered and realistic, but also difficult to categorize. And it has Mangano. Silvana Mangano, age nineteen, is simply stunning in every way one can visualize. Can a man take his eyes away from her? And her two dances … what an electrifying screen presence!

Prettier than Drago, Loren, and Cardinale, she was a natural actress in the right setting. She may not have had the drive of many of Italy's breathtaking actresses, but she certainly lit up a screen. And this movie was made in a situation that did not demand flamboyant make-up,fancy hairstyles,and fine clothing.Even her underarms were unshaven (not unusual in Europe for the time; see a few French or German movies).

No,this is what Italian neo-realism is all about,unlike the French new wave,with professional actresses all puffed up with baroque makeup and without a hair being out of place, and always looking prim! So much differently, Mangano is "earthy" and sensual! And she was not the only lovely "peasant girl" in the motion picture!

Ah yes, the movie. The beginning presents a newscaster on location in northeastern Italy who reports that the world's major rice-producing regions are China, India, and northern Italy. He comments on the hundreds of women arriving in the area for the 40-day rice-harvesting season. Only women have the nimble hands and feet to do the backbreaking work in low-level water. They welcome the task, for it provides the recently war-torn citizens a chance to earn some precious money. Mixing among the group is a wanted thief, slippery stiletto-wielding Walter (Vittorio Gassmann) and an attractive female accomplice, Francesca (American Doris Dowling). Sergeant

Marco (Raf Vallone), a ten-year veteran of the Italian army, is about to be discharged. We have the makings of a movie centering on the working classes, doomed love, abuse of women, robbery, illegal immigrants, and bravery. The focus is on the toil of the proletariat, the obvious tension between union and nonunion labor. But the parallel story is on a heist that will thwart all the wearisome work of the ladies. There will be a shootout, and our gorgeous Italian girl will climb a long ladder to her destiny.

Superb camera-work (long/wide vantage points), nice character-development, singing, and on-location shooting are big pluses of this fine, largely unknown, melodrama. Worth seeing.