The Most Beautiful Wife (La moglie più bella) - Twilight Time (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1969
Director: Damiano Damiani
Writers: Damiano Damiani, Enrico Ribulsi, Sofia Scandurra
Cast: Alessio Orano, Ornella Muti, Tano Cimarosa, Joe Sentieri, Enzo Andronico, Amerigo Tot, Pierluigi Aprà, Salvatore Baccaro

Release Date: August 16th, 2016
Approximate running time: 108 Minutes 40 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Italian, DTS-HD Mono English
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: OOP

"Director Damiano Damiani’s The Most Beautiful Wife (La Moglie Più Bella, 1970) stars the then 14-year-old beauty, Ornella Muti, as a real-life Sicilian girl who dared to challenge the local Mafia. Instead of acceding to a malignant old custom allowing a young Don to kidnap and rape a prospective bride, she puts her foot down and goes to the police, unleashing the rage of the mobsters, but also the disapproval of her family and neighbors." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 3.75/5

The Most Beautiful Wife (La moglie più bella) comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 34.3 GB

Feature: 28.6 GB

No information has been provided about this transfer, which leads me to believe that it was sourced from an existing source that might date back to the one used for NoShame’s DVD. That said, the source is in great shape, free of source-related damage. Flesh tones look correct, colors are very good, the image looks crisp, black levels fare well, and compression is very good.

Audio: 3.75/5 (DTS-HD Mono Italian, DTS-HD Mono English)

This release comes with two audio options, a DTS-HD mono mix in Italian and a DTS-HD mono mix in English. Though both audio mixes are in very good shape, range-wise, they can be limited. That said, dialog comes through clearly, and Ennio Morricone’s score sounds appropriately robust. Included are removable English subtitles for the Italian-language track.

Extras:

Extras for this release include, an option to view the Twilight Time catalog, an eight-page booklet with an essay about the film written by Julie Kirgo, an option to listen to an Isolated music track, a trailer for the film (3 minutes 37 seconds, DTS-HD mono Italian with removable English subtitles), an introduction by director Damiano Damiani (1 minute, DTS-HD stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), and a documentary titled Sicily, Ornella, The Mafia and Beyond (45 minutes 42 seconds, DTS-HD stereo Italian with removable English subtitles).

Summary:

Directed by Damiano Damiani, whose other notable films include The Witch (La strega in amore), A Bullet for the General, The Day of the Owl, A Complicated Girl, Confessions of a Police Captain, The Case Is Closed, Forget It, and How to Kill a Judge.

The narrative revolves around a young peasant girl who is kidnapped and raped by a mafia Don’s nephew. When she reports the incident to the police, her family and everyone in town turn their backs on her out of fear of the mafia.

The Most Beautiful Wife (La moglie più bella) is a movie about power and one man’s struggle to obtain control over the one thing he can’t control. Early on in the film, we are introduced to Vito, the nephew of Don, and Vito is quickly thrown into a position of power when Don and the rest of the bosses are carted off to jail. The last words Don tells him before leaving set up the main plot point that drives the rest of the film. He tells Vito, "Marry a good woman with high moral values; if she is poor, even better." From that moment on, Vito makes it his main goal to find such a woman, and one day he finds a fourteen-year-old peasant girl who fits the type of woman he is looking for to be his wife.

Francesca is played with youthful exuberance by actress Ornella Muti (Oasis of Fear), who had no prior acting experience before accepting this role. Looking back years later on The Most Beautiful Wife (La moglie più bella), the casting of Ornella Muti in the lead role of Francesca would appear to be a no-brainer since her bewitching beauty, even at this early stage of her career, was evident. Alessio Orano (Lisa and the Devil) does a wonderful job showing off the cruel side of Vito, and he is equally impressive when showing that even someone as bold and vulgar as Vito has weaknesses. It is Vito’s pursuit of Francesca that really drives the whole story. Vito starts out as the stronger of the two, and by the end of The Most Beautiful Wife (La moglie più bella), Francesca has clearly become the more dominant of the two.

Damiano Damiani has always been a director who chooses interesting and, at times, daring subject matter. And The Most Beautiful Wife (La moglie più bella) is yet another remarkable film from Damiano Damiani. The visuals perfectly frame faces and landscapes, and the ever-dependable composer Ennio Morricone delivers another extraordinary score.

From a production standpoint, there is not an area where The Most Beautiful Wife (La moglie più bella) is lacking. The well-constructed narrative does a phenomenal job building momentum towards a gut-wrenching conclusion. Ultimately, The Most Beautiful Wife (La moglie più bella) is a grueling tale about loss of innocence and betrayal that is a deeply rewarding cinematic experience.

The Most Beautiful Wife (La moglie più bella) gets a good release from Twilight Time that comes with a strong audio/video presentation and an informative documentary, recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer