Name: Apocalisse sul fiume giallo
Genre: Drama
Released: 1960-03-25
Duration: 1 h 35 min
Rating: 4.4
Cast: Anita Ekberg, Georges Marchal, Franca Bettoia

Topical claptrap on China's communist threat

Anita Ekberg, hot off her success as the childishly self-centered movie queen "Sylvia" in Federico Fellini's LA DOLCE VITA, is billed above the title in the kind of corn "Sylvia" might have made. The pre-credit narration tells us it's 1959 and guerrilla forces are making it tough for the Chinese but although it's never said, the rebels are obviously Communists, but only because a sickle & star painted on one of their huts tells us so. Today we know how it all turns out but things were still up in the air when this "ripped from the headlines" yarn was lensed. The topical tale proper begins on a train where Anita, a Christian missionary (!), meets a boozy newsie (Georges Marchal) who's traveling to the dam on Yellow River after getting wind of a plot to blow it up. He wants to be there with his camera when it happens and doesn't care that millions will be washed away but he has a change of heart after falling in love with Ekberg and tries to foil the rebel plot... 

The superbly stacked Glamazon may have her cascading blonde locks pinned up throughout the film but have no fear, she chucks those Clark Kent glasses and lets her hair down ...but only once, alas, all sans cleavage. Anita also performs surgery on a peasant girl who got stabbed and takes a stab at acting while she's at it in a shudder-inducing fit of hysterics. It's a WTF film for sure, ludicrous in the extreme, but widescreen and Technicolor -and the Ek, of course- make it awfully nice to look at.

Italian cinema has deeply influenced world cinema through its socially conscious realism and modernist experimentation, but it also flourished in popular genres like peplum (sword & sandal), giallo thrillers, and broad comedies. Its narratives often weave together politics, contemporary social change, class consciousness, and family dynamics, balancing artistic ambition with entertainment that resonated widely.

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The drama genre is a broad category that features stories portraying human experiences, emotions, conflicts, and relationships in a realistic and emotionally impactful way. Dramas delve into the complexities of human life, often exploring themes of love, loss, morality, societal issues, personal growth, with the aim to evoke an emotional response from the audience by presenting relatable and thought-provoking stories.

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Anti-Communist propaganda flick, in which the victory of Mao Tse-Tung's People's Liberation Army is seen through the eyes of an American journalist reporting from the Nationalists'side.

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The Dam on the Yellow River

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