The Barefoot Contessa

This sometimes slow, but interesting, movie has a number of strengths, most notably its characters, writing, and settings. The cast also features some fine performances from Ava Gardner, Humphrey Bogart, and Edmund O'Brien. The 'contessa' herself is undeniably the center of attention, but there is also much more to appreciate. Gardner does well in personifying Maria, a character with an unusual mix of earthiness and innocence. The symbolic contrast between wearing shoes and going barefoot seems at first to be a rather obvious device, but as the character is developed, it gradually takes on more meaning. Gardner, with a lot of help from the Joseph Mankiewicz script, is convincing amidst Maria's changing fortunes in love and in her career. Bogart is an ideal choice to play the director, whose own nature has an unexpected combination of world-weariness and integrity. And O'Brien gets one of his very best roles, as a press agent who is largely a parasite, but who turns out to have a couple of interesting things inside of him. On the surface, the story is a relatively simple tale of a young 'discovery' and of what happens to her after she finds sudden fame. Yet the contrasts and conflicts among the characters, and the contrasts between them and their surroundings, make for plenty of good material. The multiple narratives and the dialogue help considerably in bringing out many of these possibilities. It's an interesting and effective movie that makes its characters come alive, and allows you to spend a couple of hours in their world.

Jo Mankiewicz wrote and directed some beautiful and clever scripts. The Barefoot Contessa is simply the worst example of what his talent could give us. You can easily sum up the flaws here: it's overscripted. And visually Mankiewicz fails to build up this celluloid character from Ava Gardner's feet. She's hardly touching and appealing. Modern Cinderella... Mankiewicz must have had enough of Tinseltown by then. He pieces together a bunch of colourful characters saying their lines alone in an artificial structure made of recurring flashbacks with annoying changes of narrator. In this 128 min doomed fairy tale Bogart is just ok but the rest of the cast is wooden. All About Eve, for one, was cleverly scripted with witty dialogue and engaging characters.

1950's tale of a Spanish dancer who becomes a leading lady in Hollywood. Ava Gardner plays the sultry lead brilliantly and Humphrey Bogart as her friend and director is great. This is not a happy film, but shows Hollywood for what it was, and probably still is. Really enjoyable old colour movie.

Jo Mankiewicz wrote and directed some beautiful and clever scripts. The Barefoot Contessa is simply the worst example of what his talent could give us. You can easily sum up the flaws here: it's overscripted. And visually Mankiewicz fails to build up this celluloid character from Ava Gardner's feet. She's hardly touching and appealing. Modern Cinderella... Mankiewicz must have had enough of Tinseltown by then. He pieces together a bunch of colourful characters saying their lines alone in an artificial structure made of recurring flashbacks with annoying changes of narrator. In this 128 min doomed fairy tale Bogart is just ok but the rest of the cast is wooden. All About Eve, for one, was cleverly scripted with witty dialogue and engaging characters.

Spanish dancer in Madrid, discovered by Hollywood executives, is groomed into stardom before her untimely demise. Bitter soap opera is more about ill-fated love than a look at movie business, and that's part of the problem: Rossano Brazzi, playing yet another in his series of spineless Prince Charmings, never connects with Ava Gardner, who is lovely but vacuous (and sounds dubbed). Cast as an alcoholic film director, Humphrey Bogart coasts through on auto-pilot, never so much as cracking a smile. Edmond O'Brien won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his flashy role as a press agent; otherwise, "The Barefoot Contessa" does too much tiptoeing and never gets down to real business. ** from ****