''The Law'' ( it, La legge, french: La Loi and originally released in America as ''Where the Hot Wind Blows'') is a 1959 French-Italian film directed by
Jules Dassin
Julius "Jules" Dassin (December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008) was an American film and theatre director, producer, writer and actor. A subject of the Hollywood blacklist in the McCarthy era, he subsequently moved to France, and later Greece, whe ...
.
Plot
Beautiful Marietta (
Gina Lollobrigida
Luigia "Gina" Lollobrigida (born 4 July 1927) is an Italian actress, photojournalist, and politician. She was one of the highest-profile European actresses of the 1950s and early 1960s, a period in which she was an international sex symbol. As o ...
) is a small-town girl who lives in southern Italian fishing village of Porto Manacore, a corrupt village ruled by a petty crook Matteo Brigante (
Yves Montand
Ivo Livi (), better known as Yves Montand (; 13 October 1921 – 9 November 1991), was an Italian-French actor and singer.
Early life
Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, to Giovanni Livi, a broom manufacturer, Ivo held strong ...
). An engineer, Enrico Tosso (
Marcello Mastroianni
Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni (28 September 1924 – 19 December 1996) was an Italian film actor, regarded as one of his country's most iconic male performers of the 20th century. He played leading roles for many of Italy's top di ...
) comes into town to drain the marshes, and helps the villagers to take back their town.
Cast
*
Gina Lollobrigida
Luigia "Gina" Lollobrigida (born 4 July 1927) is an Italian actress, photojournalist, and politician. She was one of the highest-profile European actresses of the 1950s and early 1960s, a period in which she was an international sex symbol. As o ...
- Marietta
*
Pierre Brasseur
Pierre Brasseur (22 December 1905 – 16 August 1972), born Pierre-Albert Espinasse, was a French actor.
Biography
The son of actors Georges Espinasse and Germaine Brasseur, the latter a cousin of Albert Brasseur; his grandfather, Jules Br ...
- Don Cesare
*
Marcello Mastroianni
Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni (28 September 1924 – 19 December 1996) was an Italian film actor, regarded as one of his country's most iconic male performers of the 20th century. He played leading roles for many of Italy's top di ...
- Enrico Tosso, the Engineer
*
Melina Mercouri
Maria Amalia "Melina" Mercouri (, 18 October 1920 – 6 March 1994) was a Greek actress, singer, activist, and politician. She came from a political family that was prominent over multiple generations. She received an Academy Award nomination a ...
- Donna Lucrezia
*
Yves Montand
Ivo Livi (), better known as Yves Montand (; 13 October 1921 – 9 November 1991), was an Italian-French actor and singer.
Early life
Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, to Giovanni Livi, a broom manufacturer, Ivo held strong ...
- Matteo Brigante
* Raf Mattioli - Francesco Brigante
*
Vittorio Caprioli
Vittorio Caprioli (15 August 1921 – 2 October 1989) was an Italian actor, film director and screenwriter. He appeared in 109 films between 1946 and 1990, mostly in French productions.
Biography
Caprioli was born in Naples. Having graduated fr ...
- Attilio, the Inspector
*
Lidia Alfonsi
Lydia Alfonsi (28 April 1928 – 21 September 2022) was an Italian actress.
Life and career
Born Lidia Alfonsi in Parma into a wealthy middle-class family, Alfonsi interrupted her accounting studies at a young age to pursue a career in theate ...
- Giuseppina
*
Gianrico Tedeschi
Gianrico Tedeschi (20 April 1920 – 27 July 2020) was an Italian actor and voice actor.
Life and career
Born in Milan in April 1920, Tedeschi got a degree in pedagogy before enrolling at the Silvio D'Amico National Academy of Dramatic Art, wh ...
- First Loafer
*
Nino Vingelli
Nino Vingelli (4 June 1912 – 26 March 2003) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1941 and 2000.
Selected filmography
* ''I mariti (Tempesta d'anime)'' (1941)
* '' The Betrothed'' (1941) - (uncredited)
* '' ...
- Pizzaccio
*
Bruno Carotenuto
Bruno Carotenuto (8 May 1941) is an Italian actor. He is known for playing Antonio Baxter in ''A Fistful of Dollars'' (1964), and Tom Strike in ''La sceriffa
''La sceriffa'' (''The Sheriff'') is a 1959 Italian Western comedy in black-and-white ...
- Balbo
*
Luisa Rivelli
Luisa Rivelli (10 February 1931 – 12 June 2013) was an Italian film actress. She appeared in 50 films between 1951 and 1994.
Rivelli died in Guidonia Montecelio on 12 June 2013, at the age of 82.
Selected filmography
* ''La figlia del diavol ...
- Elvira
*
Anna Maria Bottini
Anna Maria Bottini (24 March 1916 – 9 August 2020) was an Italian actress.
Biography
Bottini attended the Accademia dei Filodrammatici in Milan, where she graduated in 1936, beginning her acting career at the end of World War II. A character ac ...
- Maria
*
Anna Arena
Anna Arena (June 21, 1919 – August 19, 1974) was an Italian film actress.Smith p.116
Selected filmography
* ''Jealousy'' (1942)
* ''Vacation with a Gangster'' (1951)
* ''The Piano Tuner Has Arrived'' (1952)
* ''Beauties in Capri'' (1952)
* ''Th ...
- Anna, Attilio's wife
*
Edda Soligo
Edda Soligo (1905–1984) was an Italian film and television actress.Verdone p.111
Selected filmography
* ''Adam's Tree'' (1936)
* '' The Man from Nowhere'' (1937)
* ''The Former Mattia Pascal'' (1937)
* ''Il signor Max'' (1937)
* '' To Live'' (1 ...
- Giulia
*
Joe Dassin
Joseph Ira Dassin (; 5 November 1938 – 20 August 1980) was an American–French singer-songwriter and actor. He was the son of film director Jules Dassin.
Early life
Dassin was born in New York City to American film director Jules Dassin (1911 ...
- Nico
Production
The shooting took place in particular in the Gargano: precisely in Carpino, while some scenes were shot in Rodi Garganico, Ischitella, Peschici and San Menaio. The locality "Baia di Manacore" really exists a short distance from Peschici. It is one of the first films shot on the Gargano promontory. If in the novel and in the French version the story is set in the Gargano, in the Italian version the setting of the story is moved to Corsica.
Box office
According to MGM records the film earned $750,000 in the US and Canada and $325,000 elsewhere, resulting in a net loss to the studio of $39,000.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Law, The
1959 films
1959 drama films
French drama films
Italian drama films
English-language French films
English-language Italian films
1950s French-language films
1950s Italian-language films
French black-and-white films
Italian black-and-white films
Films directed by Jules Dassin
Films shot in Corsica
Films set in Italy
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
1950s Italian films
1950s French films