The Barefoot Contessa (1954)

Director:

Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Guionista:

Joseph L. Mankiewicz (written by)

Release Date:

29 septiembre 1954 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Crime | Mystery | Romance

Frase comercial:

A girl with many ideas . . . and a man for each !

Plot:

Has-been director Harry Dawes gets a new lease on his career when independently wealthy Kirk Edwards hires him to write and direct a film...

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Inside Joke | Film Making | Madrid Spain | Rome Italy

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 1 win & 2 nominations

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Frank Mank

Cast

Humphrey Bogart	...	Harry Dawes
Ava Gardner	...	Maria Vargas
Edmond O'Brien	...	Oscar Muldoon
Marius Goring	...	Alberto Bravano
Valentina Cortese	...	Eleanora Torlato-Favrini (as Valentina Cortesa)
Rossano Brazzi	...	Count Vincenzo Torlato-Favrini
Elizabeth Sellars	...	Jerry
Warren Stevens	...	Kirk Edwards
Franco Interlenghi	...	Pedro Vargas
Mari Aldon	...	Myrna
Bessie Love	...	Mrs. Eubanks
Diana Decker	...	Drunken blonde
Bill Fraser	...	J. Montague Brown
Alberto Rabagliati	...	Nightclub proprietor
Enzo Staiola	...	Busboy

También conocida como:

Contessa scalza, La (Italy)
Condesa descalza, La (Argentina) (Spain) [es]

Duración:

128 min | 130 min (dvd release) (TCM print)

País:

USA | Italy

Idioma:

English | Español | Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.75 : 1

Sonido:

Mono (Perspecta Sound encoding) (Western Electric Recording)

Clasificación:

Australia:PG | Argentina:16 | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | UK:PG | USA:Approved (PCA #17078, General Audience) | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Figaro

Trivialidades:

The character of Maria Vargas is said to be based on Rita Hayworth, who was actually offered the part.

Goofs:

Continuity: Harry addresses Maria's dressing room with a lit cigarette in his right hand. In the next shot the cigarette is in his mouth.

Quotes:

Alberto Bravano: [to Kirk Edwards] How many millions have you in tax-exempt bonds, and oil wells whose power of production your government so generously protects, while it denies similar benefits to the human brain?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Play It Again, Sam (1972)

Frank Mank

It's been stated - often in these very pages - that film is a visual medium. Nothing wrong with that until you start thinking about all those 'Movie-Quote' books that are gradually becoming a mini industry. Any genuine film buff worth his or her salt can quote a minimum of forty per cent of the DIALOGUE from 'Casablanca' but I've yet to hear even ONE gush over the opening montage despite the fact that it was shot by Don Siegel or talk in reverential terms about camera angles, pans, dolly shots, etc. I am, of course, speaking about the buff-in-the-street, the genuine movie buff whose only object in seeing a movie is sheer enjoyment, as opposed to the academic and/or film 'scholar' who has chosen to make a living out of writing obscurely about film rather than stack shelves at Safeways. So, here we have a dialogue-heavy movie and given that the dialogue was penned by Mank - the man who gave you 'A Letter To Three Wives' and 'All About Eve', but remains perhaps better known as the guy who had the chutzpah to rewrite Scott Fitzgerald (Mank was producer on 'Three Comrades' on which Fitzgerald received his sole 'screenplay' credit) - we know going in that it will be out of the right bottle. In fact for some, myself included, Mank's name as writer-director was the major selling point though Bogie and Ava Gardner are not exactly chopped liver. In the event it IS the dialogue that one takes away from this movie, none more pertinent that Oscar Muldoon's bitter sense of betrayal on learning that Maria has every intention of appearing at her father's murder trial ...'there WILL be a cornet solo on Wednesday night'. If the film is ultimately disappointing it is only because it promised an examination of a warts-and-all Hollywood, in the tradition of Sunset Boulevard, The Bad And The Beautiful, etc and changed course halfway through to concentrate on the eponymous character AWAY from Sunset and Vine. Of course in one way you could argue that Mank was wise to adopt this tack because after all WHO or WHAT COULD compete with Wilder and Minelli who, between them, said pretty much all there was to say about Tinseltown Behind Closed Shutters. What remains is a richly cynical look at Hollywood and the Jet Set conveyed concisely via Bogie's voice-overs (so much for a visual medium) and a virtuoso turn by Eddie O'Brien which really DID deserve its Best Supporting Actor Oscar - from one Oscar to Another, as you might say. Mank (Joe, that is) like his elder brother Herman, excelled at brittle dialogue and at his best (Wives, Eve)gave us durable masterpieces, this just misses but is still worth hearing, if not seeing. 7/10