Bitter Rice

Bitter Rice is a crime drama set in the rice fields of northern Italy. Francesca is a hotel worker who becomes involved with Walter, a small-time criminal. After a theft goes wrong, she hides among the seasonal labourers travelling to the rice harvest, where she meets Silvana, a fellow worker, and Marco, a soldier nearing the end of his service. Walter tracks her down and draws the women into his plans, and the four characters are pulled into a tangle of theft, desire and violence.

Giuseppe De Santis directed the film from a screenplay he wrote with Corrado Alvaro and Carlo Musso, with Dino De Laurentiis producing. It was De Santis's first film as director, followed a year later by Under the Olive Tree, and it helped establish Silvana Mangano as a screen presence alongside Doris Dowling, Vittorio Gassman and Raf Vallone. The credited cast runs to twenty-one performers.

The film has held up well with viewers in the decades since its release, scoring 7.6 out of 10 on IMDb from around 5,500 votes and 7.5 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller base of 234. The narrow gap between the two suggests a reputation that has remained steady rather than fading.