Bitter Rice

Drama · 1950Not Rated

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.

Starring

Vittorio Gassman, Dino De Laurentiis, Doris Dowling, Otello Martelli, Silvana Mangano, Roberto Gerardi, Ivo Perilli, Mario Monicelli, Ivo Perilli, Raf Vallone, Checco Rissone, Giuseppe De Santis

Director

Giuseppe De Santis