The Barefoot Contessa
The world's most beautiful animal!
A washed-up filmmaker gets a second chance at stardom when he discovers stunning peasant Maria Vargas dancing in a Madrid nightclub. Goaded by his producer, the director convinces Maria to screen test for, and then star in, his next big picture. But as the producer's possessive nature and the realities of stardom weigh on Maria, she seeks a genuine lover with whom she can escape.
Drama
6.8
265 reviewsRuntime: 128 min.
Budget: N/A
Revenue: $6,600,000
Release Date: 1954-09-29
Director(s): Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Production: Figaro Incorporated Production, Transoceanic Film, United Artists
Languages: English, Spanish, Italian
IMDB: tt0046754
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CinemaSerf★ 7/101/11/2024
Occasionally narrated by Humphrey Bogart, he regales us with his story as the down on his luck Hollywood writer/director "Dawes" who alights on a tavern dancer in Madrid. "Maria Vargas" (Ava Gardner) is a woman with striking good looks and an aloofness that he immediately sees stardom in. Luckily his spoilt rich-kid backer "Edwards" (Warren Stevens) agrees to give her a screen test, but a combination of his own fecklessness and some competitive manoeuvring from "Dawes" creates quite an interest, an interest well fanned by PR man "Muldoon" (Edmond O'Brien). We know right from the start that she has died - we turn up at her funeral - and this film has something of a piece of musical vinyl to it. The first half side illustrates her rise to fame and fortune, her marriage and her death. Flip it over and we get a tale of just how she fell in love with "Count Torlato-Favrini" (Rossano Brazzi) and ultimately came a cropper. The constant being the increasing affection "Dawes" and "Vargas" share as their professional paths diverge and their friendship - entirely platonic - solidifies. Gardner could look quite cold sometimes on screen, but here she and Bogart exude a certain warmth through their characters, goaded nicely by the increasingly exasperating and brattish "Edwards" and also by the rather cruel and bullying "Bravano" - another solid effort from Marius Goring. It takes quite a swipe at the film industry - people obsessed with finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow - regardless of whether there's any gold or any rainbow, and the threads tie rather poignantly, if a little sadly, at the conclusion. It's a stylishly photographed production that looms great and showcases a strong ensemble of talent.