This World War II melodrama – approached from the distaff side – is set in Nazi-menaced Yugoslavia during 1943 and concerns five Yugoslav women who are punished by partisans for consorting with a German. They subsequently join the guerrillas but still allow their hearts to rule their heads.
ln 1943, five Yugoslav girls – Jovanka (Silvana Mangano), Daniza (Vera Miles), Marja (Barbara Bel Geddes), Ljuba (Jeanne Moreau) and Mira (Carla Gravina) – have their hair shorn by partisans for fraternising with Sergeant Keller (Steve Forrest), a member of the Nazi occupying forces.
They take to the hills and join Velko (Van Heflin), a fanatical partisan group leader, and his men – Branko (Harry Guardino), Svenko (Alex Nicol), Milko (Tiberio Mitri) and Milan (Sidney Clute).
Ljuba captures Reinhardt (Richard Basehart), a German captain, but – despite Velko’s warning that their work requires a strict moral code – Branco is attracted by Daniza. Ljuba falls for Reinhardt, and Mira discovers she is going to have Keller’s child.
Later, Branco seduces Daniza while they are on guard duty together, thus permitting a German patrol to infiltrate the encampment. The Nazis are killed, but a partisan court-martial sentences the lovers to death.
There are further shenanigans, but the partisans carry on their war against the Germans, and finally, Jovanka and Velko find romance.
The staging – like the characterisation and the dialogue – is sharp, and the combat sequences are realistic, but oh, for an occasional laugh.
Jovanka
Silvana Mangano
Daniza
Vera Miles
Marja
Barbara Bel Geddes
Ljuba
Jeanne Moreau
Mira
Carla Gravina
Captain Eric Reinhardt
Richard Basehart
Branko
Harry Guardino
Sgt. Paul Keller
Steve Forrest
Svenko
Alex Nicol
Il comandante dei partigiani
Pietro Germi
Mirko
Romolo Valli
Milan
Sidney Clute
Il partigiano della seconda brigata
Gérard Landry
Boja
Teresa Pellati
Il secondo jugoslavo coi tedeschi
Erwin Strahl
Drago
Guido Celano
La madre di Jovanka
Franca Dominici
Il generale Jaeger
Tonio Selwart
Il colonnello von Elm
Gérard Herter
Lena
Vera Fusek
Il vecchio
Aldo Silvani
Milko
Tiberio Mitri
Il fratello di Ljuba
Giacomo Rossi Stuart
Una partigiana
Nona Medici
Un partigiano
Cyrus Elias
La guardia forestale
Carlo Hintermann
Velko
Van Heflin
Director
Martin Ritt