Nico Pepe

During planting season in Northern Italy’s Po Valley, an earthy rice-field worker (Teorema’s seductive Silvana Mangano) falls in with a small-time criminal (Il sorpasso’s Vittorio Gassman) who is planning a daring heist of the crop, as well as his femme-fatale-ish girlfriend, played by the Hollywood star Doris Dowling (The Lost Weekend). Both a socially conscious look at the hardships endured by underpaid field workers and a melodrama tinged with sex and violence, this early smash for producer extraordinaire Dino De Laurentiis (Blue Velvet) and director Giuseppe De Santis (Days of Love) is neorealism with a heaping dose of pulp.

A noble king and his naive brother enter a bitter feud over the affections of a peasant woman while a treacherous general plots against them both.

A doctor saves a girl from suicide and marries her out of pity. Soon the evil man who had pushed her to the limit taking advantage of her re-enters her life. The ensuing crisis will help the newlyweds overcome their differences and start a fresh, better new life.