Manina, la fille sans voiles

Manina may have been sold as a Bardot film but she is merely the love interest of lead Jean-Francois Calve, and she does not make an appearance until 40 minutes into the film. Calve gives an interesting, unique, and slightly mannered performance, yet does hold your attention when he is on-screen. Bardot is lovely to look at but the sections where she is supposed to be singing are poorly executed. There are a couple bits of nice dialogue, but overall most of the film isn't really all that engaging. The final section does however pick up and captivates, but by then it's a matter of a too little too late. If you're a Bardot or Calve fan than you will want to check Manina out, but for everyone else maybe not.

On the face of it an unremarkable film concerning a young man's search for treasure with much murky underwater cinematography. However the young man is Jean-Francois Calve who is convincing and handsome enough to go on to considerable success in many albeit minor French films and the older guy looking to outwit him is played by Howard Vernon. Here, the much loved Vernon, is fine as he would be in many of his supporting roles including Wages of Fear (1953) but it is his work with Jess Franco for which he is probably best known and the poor man's quality of output tended to drift downward with that of his master, helped no doubt with a tipple or two. The main reason though for watching this is for the early cinema appearance of Brigitte Bardot, then seventeen. And even though the youngster does well enough it is probably the bikini wearing aspect that really caught the attention. Apparently one of the very first times a bikini would be seen on the screen and sufficiently scandalous, apparently, for the British censors to cut the film by almost half an hour, which must be all of poor Brigitte's screen time. As I say, there is nothing very special about the film apart from its participants and the place in history of an article of female swimwear but it is jolly enough and probably what used to be referred to as suitable Sunday afternoon fare, except for those 29 minutes, of course.

Jean-François Calvé receives an amphora from a young girl while vacationing in Sardinia. A few years later, he learns that there was an almost legendary shipwreck with Phoenician amphorae filled with gold coins a couple of thousand years ago. He takes the amphora to the lecturer, who confirms it is a Phoenician one. Calvé decides that there are other amphorae down there, with hundreds of millions of francs worth of gold. He raises enough money to hire cigarette smuggler Howard Vernon and his boat for half the loot. When they arrive at Sardinia, he discovers that the girl has grown up to be Brigitte Bardot in her second movie. Eventually he will find out who he can trust.

Willy Rozier wrote and directed this as a straight adventure story, with Calvé exceedingly naive, and Mlle Bardot extremely fetching in her itsy-bitsy bikini. Cinematographer Michel Rocca shoots Miss Bardot and the ancient-looking rocks of Sardinia with equal verve, which should keep the audience distracted from the lack of novelty in the story, even though they'll have to wait for more than half the movie before seeing La Bardot.

Admittedly, Miss Bardot had not yet honed her acting skills, but what an enchanting creature, even at this young age (her 2nd film, I believe). Her dancing work as a teenager must have helped her incredible physique - perfectly proportioned with a nice voice, screen presence and youthful spirit. She would develop over the years (talent), but his film has an appropriate soundtrack and beautiful b/w cinematography.

A 5 out of 10. Best performance = Bardot. Beautiful locale off island with nice forest setting hidden from a rocky beach (what a great place to film).

A teenage Brigitte Bardot in a 1952 style bikini is the only reason to sit through this 85-minute attempt of a movie. More time is spent on scuba diving than Bardot, and I am sure the Producers of this movie knew that. Release multiple times with multiple different titles to make as much money as possible, the only sane reason this movie had any audience was the eye candy of all cinema candys, Brigitte Bardot.

Even though the Tangiers landscape is beautiful with wonderful scenes deep in the Mediterranean Ocean, nobody notices. The only time your eyes are wide open is when Brigitte Bardot appears on camera. When she is not on screen, the film is not worth the price of admission.

The entire cast outside of Bardot is not interesting. The plot, the backstory, and all the characters suck. The main protagonist is unlikeable, and we don't care about what is happening to any of them. Is it worth sitting through all this to see Bardot prance around in a bikini? The answer is yes. Still, it is sad that there is not a single positive male character in the story. Everybody is out to lie or manipulate if not downright take advantage or rape someone in this movie.

The movie falls under no genre. It's not quite a boy meets girl story let alone a comedy or a drama. The movie tries to be everything, including a musical in a few scenes. You could tell it was hard for the filmmakers to find enough of a story to have 85 minutes of a beginning, middle and an end.

In the end, it's a poetic introduction of Brigitte Bardot who right from the get to was exploited for a piece of flesh and nothing else. Kowing this, you would never question why she would leave the industry on her own term before it was too late.