La Moglie Piu Bella (The Most Beautiful Wife)

Released by: Twilight Time Releasing
Released on: August 16th, 2016.
Director: Damiano Damiani
Cast: Ornella Muti, Alessio Orano, Tano Cimarosa, Joe Sentieri, Enzo Andronico, Amerigo Tot
Year: 1970
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The Movie:

Fourteen year old Francesca (Ornella Muti of Flash Gordon and Umberto Lenzi's Dirty Pictures) lives a quiet and humble life and while she doesn't have much in the way of wealth or material possessions, things could be a lot worse for her. Unfortunately, 'worse' is exactly what happens when a man named Vito (Alessio Orano from The Killer Must Kill Again), who has been obsessing over her for a while now, snaps and forces himself on her. While normally this would land Vito in prison, his uncle just happens to be one of the most powerful mafia bosses in the area and so when Francesca goes to the police as most women would do in her shoes, she finds that they're unwilling to help her. Even her own family members turn a blind eye to what she has been subjected to for fear of being taken down by the mobsters who have Vito's back.

Francesca is frustrated and understandably so as not one person in town will back up her story resulting in the cops just letting Vito walk and soon enough, Vito finds himself the man in charge when his uncle and some of his mafia generals are put away. To make matter worse, since she went against tradition and actually reported what happened to the police, her a lowly peasant girl and her victimizer a well to do socialite, the town has more or less blacklisted Francesca. Eventually, one man who opposes Vito steps forward and gives Francesca a chance at getting revenge but the cost is high, possibly more than she's willing to pay.

An interesting film that mixes up crime, drama and human interest La Moglie Piu Bella (The Most Beautiful Wife) really centers around its female lead, Ornella Muti. Not only is she completely gorgeous in this film but her performance is excellent as well making her the perfect choice for the part. We can see quite easily why Vito obsesses over her and while that hardly forgives his reprehensible actions the audience is at least able to understand why he wants her so much. Alessio Orano is also quite good as Vito, playing the role of the rather reprehensible spoiled brat quite well. We know he's been raised in and around the mob so it makes sense that he's turned out the way he has but he's still a dirtbag and Orano's performance ensures that this is never too far from our minds.

Damiano Damiani's direction is strong and the pacing is pretty tight. While he seemed to have made a career out of making more politically tinged thrillers such as How To Kill A Judge or socialist leaning westerns like A Bullet For The General his work could sometimes come close to but not quite hit the mark. Here, he nails it dead on in terms of what he's saying and how he is saying it, proving that when done well politics and entertainment can make for good bedfellows. The film is as much a critique of the permissiveness of the 'system' as it is anything else but what makes it work is that you're not necessarily conscious of that fact until it's over with. We're not beat over the head with his message, instead we're left to think things over for ourselves. On top of that, the film is beautifully shot and features some great location photography. Throw in an excellent score from the one and only Ennio Morricone and this shapes up to be a picture that is both engaging and appealing.

Video/Audio/Extras:

The Beautiful Wife arrives on Blu-ray from Twilight Time framed in its proper 2.35.1 widescreen aspect ratio in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition presentation. There is some softness here and there that looks like it's inherent in the source and maybe a bit of scanner noise but detail is generally decent enough. The colors are very nicely reproduced, especially the primaries. We get solid black levels and nice skin tones here too. The image clean, showing very little in the way of any print damage, and there are no issues with compression artifacts to note.

DTS-HD 2.0 Mono tracks are offered in both Italian and English language options with subtitles provided in English only. Regardless of which track you opt for, the quality here is fine. Levels are properly balanced and the track is free of any audible hiss or distortion. Range is understandably limited by the origins of the single channel mix but everything sounds fine here and Morricone's score gets a nice boost when compared to the older DVD release.

The main supplement on this release is a forty-five minute long documentary entitled Sicily, Ornella, The Mafia and Beyond which originally appeared on the No Shame Films DVD release some years back. This is made up of interviews many of the key people involved with making this film (save for, unfortunately, Morricone and Ornella Muti herself) with a lot of emphasis give to Damiano Damiani himself. There are some interesting stories in here about some of the troubles that plagued the production. Everyone seems to have come away with a fairly distinct impression of the enigmatic Ms. Muti as there are plenty of stories about her in this piece. The interviews are spruced up a bit with some clips and photographs and it's a very well put together piece that covers not only the director and the star but also the editing and cinematography and location shooting as well.

Ennio Morricone's excellent score is included as a separate audio track in DTS-HD format, which is absolutely worth checking out for anyone with even a passing interest in the composer. Rounding out the extra features on the disc is the original Italian theatrical trailer for the film, a brief video introduction to the film from Damiano Damiani, static menus and chapter selection. A booklet of liner notes from Julie Kirgo is included inside the case. She writes about the politics that influenced the film, as well as the influence of the Roman Catholic church on the proceedings, and makes some interesting observations about the cast and production values.

The Final Word:

A dark and tense thriller with plenty of great drama and a fantastic lead performance from the completely enchanting Ornella Muti, The Most Beautiful Wife receives a nice Blu-ray update from Twilight Time that carries over the extras from the DVD release, adds the isolated score and offers quite a nice improvement in the presentation.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!