From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Visit
Original film poster
Directed by	Bernhard Wicki
Produced by	Darryl F. Zanuck Julien Derode Ingrid Bergman Anthony Quinn
Written by	Ben Barzman Maurice Valency (adaptation) Friedrich Dürrenmatt (play)
Starring	Ingrid Bergman Anthony Quinn Irina Demick Paolo Stoppa
Music by	Richard Arnell Hans-Martin Majewski
Cinematography	Armando Nannuzzi
Editing by	Samuel E. Beetley Françoise Diot
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	4 October 1964 4 October 1964
Running time	100 min
Language	English French
IMDb profile

The Visit (1964) is a film co-production from France, Italy, Germany and the USA, distributed by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Bernhard Wicki and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and Julien Derode with Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Quinn as co-producers. The screenplay was by Ben Barzman, adapted by Maurice Valency from Friedrich Dürrenmatt's 1956 play Der Besuch der alten Dame (literally, The Visit of the Old Lady).

The film stars Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Quinn with Irina Demick, Paolo Stoppa, Hans Christian Blech, Romolo Valli, Valentina Cortese, Claude Dauphin, and Eduardo Ciannelli.

Karla Zachanassian (Bergman), a fabulously wealthy woman returns to the decaying village which she had been forced to leave years earlier in disgrace. She had had a child by Serge Miller (Quinn) who denied paternity. Her purpose in this "visit" is to make a deal with the inhabitants — in exchange for a vast sum of money, she wants Miller killed. At first reluctant, they eventually accept the arrangement and Miller is condemned to death. At the last moment, Karla stops the execution and tells the citizens that they will have to live with the guilt of what they might have done for the rest of their lives.

Dürrenmatt stresses that The Visit is a comedy. However, it is a study of the darker elements of human nature. The themes of the film, as with the play, are greed, revenge and corruption and the fact that money can buy anything, even justice. Power that comes from money can lead to hate and even murder and to the collapse of ordinary morality.

• Ingrid Bergman — Karla Zachanassian
• Anthony Quinn — Serge Miller
• Irina Demick — Anya
• Claude Dauphin — Bardick
• Paolo Stoppa — Doctor
• Romolo Valli — Town Painter
• Valentina Cortese — Mathilda Miller
• Eduardo Ciannelli — Innkeeper
• Jacques Dufilho — Fisch
• Leonard Steckel — Priest
• Ernst Schroeder — Mayor
• Fausto Tozzi — Darvis
• Hans-Christian Blech — Captain Dobrik
• Lelio Luttazzi — First Idler
• Marco Guglielmi — Chesco
• Renzo Palmer — Conductor
• Dante Maggio — Cadek
• Richard Münch — Teacher

• In the stage play, the character of Serge Miller (called Alfred Ill in the original text of the drama) is killed at the end. In the film, the execution is halted.
• Bergman and Quinn co-starred again six years later in the romantic melodrama A Walk in the Spring Rain (1970).

• Bernhard Wicki was nominated for the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival
• The film received a nomination for Best Costume design at the Academy Awards

• The Visit at the Internet Movie Database
• The Visit at the TCM Movie Database