The Barefoot Contessa (1954) - Old Hollywood sophistication with Bogart, Gardner

♥♥♥♥♥

 

Spry, full colors and sensual life stirs from this elegant poster for Joseph L. Mankiewicz's The Barefoot Contessa

Humphrey Bogart (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)) is Hollywood director Harry Dawes, and Ava Gardner (The Killers (1946)) is the stunning Spanish beauty Maria Vargas, who gets discovered by him. Her life as the 'barefoot contessa' is a life of fairy tale complexes and solid baggage, leading up to her premature death, which we know about right from the beginning of the film.

 

The Barefoot Contessa is written, produced and directed by great Pennsylvanian filmmaker Joseph L. Mankiewicz (Dragonwyck (1946)).

If you haven't seen The Barefoot Contessa, oh, do you have a wonderful and sad movie waiting for you here. It is a story about a lot of jet-set characters, who struggle with life's dark sides just as every other person. Mankiewicz's dialog is especially sharp and incredible. The Barefoot Contessa is one of the Hollywood giant's most splendid works.
Bogart and in even more so Edmond O'Brien (White Heat (1949)), who plays the perspiring PR-agent, are great in the film.
The Barefoot Contessa is a sophisticated, enchanting and deeply melancholic tragic drama.

 

Watch the lovely trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown, projected 2 mil. $
Box office: In excess of 3.25 mil. $ (North-American rentals alone)
= Uncertain but likely a box office success (projected return of 2.5 times its cost)

[The Barefoot Contessa premiered 29 September (New York) and runs 130 minutes. Shooting took place in Italy, including in Rome, from January - March 1954. A 1955 Variety article lists its North-American rentals as 3.25 mil. $. The projected cost of 2 mil. $ and world gross of 5 mil. $ would make it a box office success. It was nominated for 2 Oscars: It won Best Supporting Actor (O'Brien) and lost Best Writing, Story and Screenplay to Budd Schulberg for On the Waterfront. It also won a Golden Globe, among other honors. Mankiewicz returned with Guys and Dolls (1955). Bogart returned in Producer's Showcase (1955, TV-series) and theatrically in We're No Angels (1955); Gardner in Bhowani Junction (1956). The Barefoot Contessa is fresh at 100 % with a 7.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Barefoot Contessa?

55 Days at Peking (1963) or, Peking anno 1900

♥♥♥♥♥

The gorgeously painted poster in booming colors for Nicholas Ray, Andrew Marton and Guy Green's 55 Days at Peking

American Marine Major Lewis has to get his Western counterparts to stand shoulder by shoulder in Peking around 1900 in the bloody 'Boxer Rebellion'.
 
Charlton Heston (Planet of the Apes (1968)) is the angular strong-man, who falls for a stoic beauty from Russia (Ava Gardner (The Barefoot Contessa (1954))). David Niven (The Guns of Navarone (1961)) beautifully portrays the over-courteous and feeble-minded Brit, a character who grows in the course of the film.
Dmitri Tiomkin's (Rio Bravo (1959)) music is grand. He was both Oscar-nominated for his score and for the song So Little Time, with Paul Francis Webster (Paytonn Place (1957), lyrics). 55 Days is also the kind of epic where its sets are so big and detailed that one feels compelled to watch without blinking.
Wisconsinite Nicholas Ray (Rebel without a Cause (1955)) was a great director, and he was hired to direct: However, somewhere in the course of doing this, he became so overworked that he collapsed on the set, and Guy Green (A Patch of Blue (1965)) and Andrew Marton (The Longest Day (1962)) finished the job uncredited. Save for a lost horror film and an experimental film, We Can't Go Home Again (1973) and some shorts, this became Ray's last film. 55 Days is written by Philip Yordan (The Bravados (1958)), Bernard Gordon (Crime Wave (1954)) and an uncredited Ben Barzman (The Heroes of Telemark (1965)), with Robert Hamer (They All Died Laughing (1964)) supplying some dialogue.
The film contains both suspense, glamour, destitution and tragedy, SPOILER although the latter is ultimately lightened some by a humane decision committed by Heston's wonderful character. - Epic historical dramas rarely get finer than 55 Days at Peking.

The marvelous water color title still, created by Chinese-American artist Dong Kingman for Nicholas Ray, Guy Green and Andrew Marton's 55 Days at Peking

Here is a short trailer for the film

Cost: 17 mil. $
Box office: 10 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertainty (likely at least a big flop)
[55 Days at Peking premiered 4 May (UK) and runs 153 minutes. The period in Chinese history that the film portrays, influenced, naturally, by its own time, is still controversial today. Ray was reportedly paid a very high salary for directing the film, which made him uneasy that it should become his last, which it sort of did. Filming took place near Madrid in Spain, and 4,000 extras were employed, including many Chinese, who were recruited from restaurants and laundries across Europe, as Spain didn't have enough Chinese people for the mass scenes. The film became the 20th highest grossing in North America for the year, but with its massive budget, it was still a financial disaster, although it was reportedly more successful internationally. - Without those figures, however, it is impossible to make out its precise status, although it was likely at least a big flop. The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: It lost Best Score to John Addison for Tom Jones and Best Song to Call Me Irresponsible from Papa's Delicate Condition. Ray returned with now lost horror, The Doctor and the Devil (1965). Green returned with A Patch of Blue (1965). Marton returned with The Thin Red Line (1964). Heston returned in Kraft Mystery Theater (1963, TV-series), The Patriots (1963, TV movie) and theatrically in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965); Gardner in Seven Days in May (1964); and Niven in Burke's Law (1963, TV-series) and theatrically in The Pink Panther (1963).  5,288 IMDb-users have given 55 Days at Peking an average rating of 6.8/10.]

What do you think of 55 Days at Peking?