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The Barefoot Contessa

  • 1954
  • Approved
  • 2h 8m
IMDb RATING
6.9/10
14K
YOUR RATING
Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner in The Barefoot Contessa (1954)
Watch Trailer [OV]
Play trailer1:52
1 Video
71 Photos
TragedyCrimeDramaMysteryRomance

This is the life of a Hollywood movie star named Maria, as told by writer/director Harry Dawes, from being discovered in Madrid, Spain, until her funeral in Italy.This is the life of a Hollywood movie star named Maria, as told by writer/director Harry Dawes, from being discovered in Madrid, Spain, until her funeral in Italy.This is the life of a Hollywood movie star named Maria, as told by writer/director Harry Dawes, from being discovered in Madrid, Spain, until her funeral in Italy.

  • Director
    • Joseph L. Mankiewicz
  • Writer
    • Joseph L. Mankiewicz
  • Stars
    • Humphrey Bogart
    • Ava Gardner
    • Edmond O'Brien
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.9/10
    14K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Joseph L. Mankiewicz
    • Writer
      • Joseph L. Mankiewicz
    • Stars
      • Humphrey Bogart
      • Ava Gardner
      • Edmond O'Brien
    • 136User reviews
    • 59Critic reviews
    • 70Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Won 1 Oscar
      • 2 wins & 5 nominations total

    Videos1

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    Trailer 1:52
    Trailer [OV]

    Photos71

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    Top cast33

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    Humphrey Bogart
    Humphrey Bogart
    • Harry Dawes
    Ava Gardner
    Ava Gardner
    • Maria Vargas
    Edmond O'Brien
    Edmond O'Brien
    • Oscar Muldoon
    Marius Goring
    Marius Goring
    • Alberto Bravano
    Valentina Cortese
    Valentina Cortese
    • Eleanora Torlato-Favrini
    • (as Valentina Cortesa)
    Rossano Brazzi
    Rossano Brazzi
    • Count Vincenzo Torlato-Favrini
    Elizabeth Sellars
    Elizabeth Sellars
    • Jerry
    Warren Stevens
    Warren Stevens
    • Kirk Edwards
    Franco Interlenghi
    Franco Interlenghi
    • Pedro Vargas
    Mari Aldon
    Mari Aldon
    • Myrna
    Alberto Rabagliati
    • Proprietor
    Enzo Staiola
    Enzo Staiola
    • Busboy
    Maria Zanoli
    Maria Zanoli
    • Maria's Mother
    Renato Chiantoni
    • Maria's Father
    Bill Fraser
    • J. Montague Brown
    John Parrish
    • Mr. Max Black
    Jim Gérald
    • Mr. Blue
    • (as Jim Gerald)
    Diana Decker
    Diana Decker
    • Drunken Blonde
    • Director
      • Joseph L. Mankiewicz
    • Writer
      • Joseph L. Mankiewicz
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews136

    6.913.9K
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    Featured reviews

    7ptmcq05

    All About Maria

    Four years after the phenomenal All About Eve, Joseph L Manckiewicz moves away from Broadway and lands in Hollywood. Naturally, everything in Hollywood is bound to be louder, more vulgar, more shallow and more expensive and surprisingly less relatable, less credible. Ava Gardner is breathtakingly beautiful and Jack Cardiff photographs her like a goddess but that's no match for any of the exchanges between Bette Davis and Thelma Ritter in All About Eve. Here the soap opera elements dominate the tale. The Italian aristocrats as played by Rossano Brazzi and Valentina Cortese take the story for a ludicrous spin. Josseph L Manckiewicz as a writer and director makes sure the film doesn't become "The Legend Of Lylah Clare" for instance. Humphery Bogart plays the lead and I forgot to mention it. I wonder why. He's wonderful in it but the Oscar went to Edmond O'Brian for his unbearable press agent. Ava Gardner presence transformed this lurid tale into a classic and it's bound to remain so for ever.
    8BuddyBoy1961

    Bittersweet tale of success leading to tragedy

    Scouting talent for an upcoming film to be shot in Italy, a trio from Hollywood (writer/director Bogart, producer Stevens and publicist O'Brien) travel to Spain to scope renowned local dancing sensation Maria Vargas (Gardner). Immediately, they are struck by her beauty and presence. In fact, Gardner has a profound effect on every man she meets...though the effect is as unique as each man she encounters. Stevens sees a talent to be exploited for all it's worth and O'Brien sees only huge marquees and dollar signs. But Bogart, after a couple of brief but revealing conversations with Maria, sees so much more. Expecting a naive Spanish peasant eager to grab at the brass ring, he finds instead a woman as smart as she is beautiful, whose main motivation is to enjoy the challenge and escape that a Hollywood career might offer a woman who will nevertheless always value the simpler things in life. Even with her inate beauty and uncommon savvy, to Maria's detriment she does not have eyes in the back of her head. Told in flashback the viewer experiences her success in Hollywood and her quest to find the true love of a man (Brazzi) that has always eluded her.

    In the hands of Joseph Mankiewicz, "The Barefoot Contessa" frequently bristles with crackling dialogue (would you have expected less?). Unique to this contribution from Mankiewicz is the portent that hangs over the film. As the details of Maria's life are expounded, empathy for her fate increases accordingly. Impeccably well-cast, this is actually an ensemble film. Gardner is luminous as Maria, though she is not solely dependent on her looks to carry the film--she gives a real performance. Bogart is stalwart and sympathetic as Maria's protector. And O'Brien, in an Academy Award-winning turn, is sly and oily as the single-minded publicist who changes allegiances as often as his sweat-soaked shirts. Lensed by the great Jack Cardiff and shot largely in Italy, the European ambiance, as well as the snappy dialogue, push the credibility of the premise a notch or two above so many other so-called exposés of Hollywood excess and pretense.
    7bkoganbing

    Waiting for that perfect romance

    If there were any more beautiful women ever walked this planet of our's than Ava Gardner, they must have existed long before Thomas Edison invented the movies. Else they would have been film stars.

    Maris Vargas is so different from the real life Ava. She's a silly girl filled with romantic notions and isn't about to give in to anyone unless it's for love.

    When we meet her, she's dancing in a Spanish cafe and being eyed by Warren Stevens who's playing Kirk Edwards a not so veiled portrait of Howard Hughes who did in fact have the real Ava on his short list of desirable conquests. Stevens wants to sign her, but also to bed her. One doesn't go without the other.

    Screenwriter Harry Dawes played by Humphrey Bogart foils Stevens's plan by having other producers view her test. With a bidding war on, Stevens has to sign Ava on her terms.

    Ava doesn't give it up for Stevens and later neither to international playboy Marius Goring. Goring's character is based on Dominican diplomat and legendary lover, Porfirio Rubirosa. That's a story that would rate a film. I can see Antonio Banderas in the part.

    She finds herself finally with Italian count Rossano Brazzi and she's sure this is it. But Brazzi has a terrible secret and Ava's efforts to deal with it bring nothing but tragedy.

    Humphrey Bogart is top billed, probably as per his contract. But the film is really Ava's show. You won't easily forget her as Maria Vargas.

    Edmond O'Brien won a Best Supporting Actor that year as sweaty press agent Oscar Muldoon. His is a profession that inspires cynicism by nature, yet O'Brien proves to have a lot more character than originally thought. O'Brien was up that year against Tom Tully from The Caine Mutiny and Karl Malden, Rod Steiger, and Lee J. Cobb from On the Waterfront. Of course those three split the vote and O'Brien was the lucky beneficiary.

    Warren Stevens got his first real notice in The Barefoot Contessa and Marius Goring probably has his best film role of his career as Alberto Bravano the thinly disguised Rubirosa.

    It's a sad tale and a cautionary one against silly romantic notions.
    7blanche-2

    Interesting depiction of a Hollywood goddess

    Ava Gardner is beautiful Spanish dancer Maria Vargas who is discovered and given a Hollywood contract in "The Barefoot Contessa," also starring Humphrey Bogart, Edmund O'Brien, Rossanno Brazzi, Marius Goring, and Valentina Cortese. Written and directed by Joseph Mankiewicz, the story is supposedly based on Rita Hayworth, who turned down the role. There are some similarities - the Spanish roots, the dancing angle, the studio head who desires her but doesn't get her, a la Harry Cohn, and the great sadness of her life. The famous story about Rita is that her first husband, Edward Judson, was nothing more than a pimp, though he is the man who turned her into a movie star. He demanded that she have sex with Harry Cohn, and Rita refused time and time again. Finally, Judson made a date for himself and Rita to go on a boat trip with Cohn, and Judson cancelled at the last minute, leaving Rita alone with the studio head. She still didn't go to bed with him.

    The story begins at Maria's funeral and is told in flashback by the various men who were in her life. Most of the narration is provided by the Bogart character, writer-director Harry Dawes, who had a unique relationship with Maria - he cared for her deeply and was always there to listen to her and advise her. Maria was a woman whose life was lived as a barefoot Cinderella looking for her prince. Harry has a sixth sense about things, and when Maria is about to marry the man she believes to be her prince, Count Torlati-Favrini, Harry starts to worry. He knows that, as is often pointed out in the film, real life is much more erratic than a movie script.

    Edmund O'Brien gives a terrific, Oscar-winning performance as a yes man/publicist who does all the talking for the studio head, Kirk Edwards (Warren Stevens). Bogart is excellent, but he does not have a great role; although he has top billing, he doesn't even have the starring role. One suspects he's there for box office pull.

    The dialogue has been praised here - Mankiewicz was one of the great dialogue writers, but I found some of the dialogue in this a little pretentious and the pace slow. It's an interesting story, but for me it doesn't compare with "All About Eve" and "Letter to Three Wives" in script or in pace.

    The star of the film is Ava Gardner. For this writer, Gardner and Hayworth were ultimate sex symbol/movie stars - gorgeous, sexy, exciting women. Around 32 here and living the wild life she always did, Gardner is breathtaking to look at. After the beginning of the film, she drops the Spanish accent, but she more than makes up for that in presence. Like Lana Turner and Rita Hayworth, she was one of those actresses whose appearance and private life often received more publicity than her actual acting - but Ava could act. There was always something uninhibited, earthy, sexy, and inherently honest about her performances - and she was that way as a woman, too. I highly recommend her autobiography to anyone who hasn't read it.

    To see this marvelous cast and especially to see them in something written and directed by a fine artist like Mankiewicz is worth it, even if it's a little flawed. Nobody's perfect.
    6TheLittleSongbird

    This contessa is beautiful but both overblown and bland

    Was really intrigued into seeing 'The Barefoot Contessa'. Joseph L Mankiewicz was responsible for 'All About Eve', which is one of my all time favourite films, and when you have the likes of Ava Gardner, Humphrey Bogart and Edmond O'Brien one does expect a lot.

    'The Barefoot Contessa' was disappointing. It is a long way from an awful film and has several very good things, but with such a talented cast and a director who was really good when he is in his prime it could have been so much more. Can totally see the polarising reactions on both sides, while 'The Barefoot Contessa' has a good deal to admire (more so than has been given credit for) it is not going to appeal, and has not appealed, to everybody. 1954 saw some great films, 'Rear Window', 'On the Waterfront', 'A Star is Born', 'Sabrina', 'Dial M for Murder', 'White Christmas' and '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea', 'The Barefoot Contessa' to me just isn't in the same league.

    Starting with what is good about 'The Barefoot Contessa', it looks great visually with beautiful autumnal cinematography and sumptuous costumes and settings, the very meaning of extravagant. The music score from Mario Nascimbene is lush and subtly done. There are some cracking lines and there is evidence of sincerity. Was very surprised at how daring and ahead of its time it was.

    Ava Gardner lives up to her glamorous "the world's most beautiful animal" image and character and is positively luminous and graceful, she is very much in her prime here. Late-career Humphrey Bogart, rightly regarded as a cultural icon who died far too soon (only three years later), is as commanding as ever and not only the best actor in the cast but also one of the film's strongest elements. Edmond O'Brien is deliciously oily and in his best moments on dynamite form. Warren Stevens is very good too.

    Rossano Brazzi was the weak link however in the cast, his role has little if anything to it and the only thing Brazzi brings to it is handsome looks, everywhere else he's very wooden and dull. Mankiewicz really is not at his best in the directing, he delivers on the style but elsewhere it's pedestrian and uninspired.

    His writing fares even weaker, despite some moments of sincerity and cracking lines the acerbic wit that sparkled in 'All About Eve' four years earlier does not come through enough. Most of the film is too talky and rambling, as well as overwrought, flimsy and too rehearsed. The thin and sometimes muddled story does suffer from dull pacing that rarely fires on all cylinders and an overlong length, and feels both overblown as a result of being overwritten and bland due to the lack of depth to the writing and characterisation. Despite the great efforts of the cast the characters are under-explored and don't have much to allow us to connect properly with them.

    Overall, beautiful but uneven. 5.5-6/10 Bethany Cox

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    Drama
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    Mystery
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    Romance

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The statue of Ava Gardner used in the film was by Bulgarian artist Assen Peikov. After the film Frank Sinatra bought the statue and installed it in the garden of his Coldwater Canyon home.
    • Goofs
      Standing in the rain at Maria's funeral, Harry's raincoat is notably more drenched before Oscar's dissertation than afterward, when the lapels are suddenly dry.
    • Quotes

      Kirk Edwards: You've never done an honest day's work in your life!

      Alberto Bravano: I *have* never done a day's work in my life - honest OR dishonest, but neither have you... To make 100 dollars into 110 dollars, this is work. To make 100 million into 110 million, this is inevitable.

    • Connections
      Edited into Histoire(s) du cinéma: Le contrôle de l'univers (1999)

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • September 30, 1954 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • Italy
      • United States
    • Languages
      • English
      • Spanish
      • Italian
      • French
    • Also known as
      • Bosonoga kontesa
    • Filming locations
      • Portofino, Genoa, Liguria, Italy(Dawes directing a film shoot)
    • Production companies
      • Transoceanic Film
      • Figaro
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Gross worldwide
      • $18,437
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      • 2h 8m(128 min)
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.75 : 1

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