Five Branded Women

Five Branded Women (1960)

All The Savage Ravishing Passions of War!

Five Yugoslav women who consorted with the German occupiers are publicly humiliated and banished by the Yugoslav partisans but they take up arms to fend for themselves.

Date of release
1960-03-15
TMDB
6.1 / 10 (21)
Runtime
1h 55m
Genres
Drama, War
Director
Martin Ritt

Casting

Interesting facts

Five Branded Women is a 1960 war film directed by Martin Ritt and starring Silvana Mangano, Barbara Bel Geddes, Jeanne Moreau, Vera Miles, Carla Gravina, Richard Basehart and Van Heflin. The film centers on five women in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia who are banished from their village after being accused of consorting with the German forces. They flee into the mountains, where they join the local Partisans.

Production

The film is based on the novel Jovanka e le altre (English: "Jovanka and the others") by Italian author Ugo Pirro. In the original novel, the occupying army was Italian instead of German. The nationality was changed by the producers, who feared a backlash from the Italian government. Dino De Laurentiis says when he heard the story he instantly decided on a poster of five women with shaved heads.

Screenwriters Paul Jarrico and Michael Wilson had both been subject to the Hollywood blacklist. Consequently, they were both uncredited on the original release, which credited Ivo Perilli as the sole author. In 1998, the Writers Guild of America restored Jarrico and Wilson's credits.

Gina Lollobrigida was initially cast as Jovanka. However, in mid-July 1959, she left the production. Various sources gave conflicting reasons for her departure: that she did not want to shave her head, that she objected to blacklisted screenwriters Wilson and Jarrico. Another source claimed that director Ritt got her removed. She was replaced by Mangano.

This was Jeanne Moreau's American film debut. She said,I accepted the film only to pay my taxes and not because I liked it. I was justly punished for it. But I'm pleased I did it. I became friends with Silvana [Mangano] and it was fun to work with Martin and I learned Italian."Shirley MacLaine, Sophia Loren, Barbara Nichols, Julie Harris, Claire Bloom and Ava Gardner were considered for roles, and Lee Remick was offered a part but turned it down.

It was reported that four of the five main actresses really had their heads shaved, the exception being Bel Geddes, who was to perform in a Broadway play immediately after the film ended production. A modern source stated, however, that Moreau wore a skullcap.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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