The Law (1959 film)

The Law is a 1959 French-Italian film directed by Jules Dassin.

Plot

Beautiful Marietta 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. An engineer, Enrico Tosso comes into town to drain the marshes, and helps the villagers to take back their town.

Cast

Gina Lollobrigida as Marietta
Pierre Brasseur as Don Cesare
Marcello Mastroianni as Enrico Tosso, the Engineer
Melina Mercouri as Donna Lucrezia
Yves Montand as Matteo Brigante
Raf Mattioli as Francesco Brigante
Vittorio Caprioli as Attilio, the Inspector
Lydia Alfonsi as Giuseppina
Gianrico Tedeschi as First Loafer
Nino Vingelli as Pizzaccio
Bruno Carotenuto as Balbo
Luisa Rivelli as Elvira
Anna Maria Bottini as Maria
Anna Arena as Anna, Attilio's wife
Edda Soligo as Giulia
Joe Dassin as 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.