Martin Ritt later to make Hud, The Molly Maguires and Sounder, directed this film about five girl guerillas in Yugoslavia during World War Two. The star line-up of actresses all give strong performances, almost eclipsing their male co-stars. The quintet of branded women (they actually have their hair shaved off for having had relations with Nazi soldiers: and the actresses really had to undergo just that indignity, although they all look rather striking) is completed by Carla Gravina, then only 20, who has, in the years that followed, become a major star in her native Italy. Also from Italy is the fabulous Silvana Mangano, whose international fame dates from 1951. It was then that she created something of a sensation, wearing black stockings, as a sultry siren of the paddy fields in the film Bitter Rice.

©ipc tx. Film content from TVTimes