The Barefoot Contessa (1954)

The Barefoot Contessa
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
1954/USA
Figaro/Transoceanic Film
First viewing/Amazon Instant
#288 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Maria Vargas: In Hollywood, it is not easy to become a star.

Harry Dawes: Ah, where is it easy?[/box]

Mankiewicz takes a melodramatic look behind the “glamour” of show business through a cynical Cinderella story of a Spanish beauty who becomes a Hollywood star.  It’s watchable enough.

Writer-Director Harry Dawes (Humphrey Bogart) has fallen on hard times and has taken to working for egomaniac producer Kirk Edwards.  The two are in Europe scouting for a fresh face to star as leading lady in their new film.  They find her in gorgeous nightclub dancer Maria Vargas.  Despite her bearing and beauty, Maria is a simple sort who prefers going barefoot and has a turbulent home life.  With the help of Dawes and PR man Oscar Muldoon (Edmund O’Brien),  Maria’s film debut is a sensation and she is a star.

All Maria’s fame and beauty seem to do for her, however, is make her the prize in a tug-of-war between the men in her life.   Finally, it seems she may have found her Prince Charming in the form of handsome, wealthy Count Vincenzo Torlato-Favrini (Rossano Brazzi).  But life is not a fairy tale even for the rich and famous.  With Valentina Cortese, Warren Stevens, Elizabeth Sellars, and Marius Goring.

I thought this film dragged and could not really get too excited about Gardner’s fate.  The actors all seemed tired.  I might not have been in the right mood.

Edmund O’Brien won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor beating out three far superior performances in On the Waterfront.  Mankiewicz was nominated for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay.

Trailer