The Barefoot Contessa

Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

1954

***

Marlon Brando famously turned down the leading role in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s now classic The Barefoot Contessa, telling the director "I'm not making pictures about movie stars this year. I'm not even into being a movie star, myself." While Barefoot Contessa is now seen as a classic Hollywood picture, a piece of fantastical glamour and a celebration of extravagance from the golden age, it is actually a lot closer to reality than many people realise. The lead character of Maria Vargas is based on Rita Hayworth, who was actually offered the part. Hayworth was a Latina who later married a prince, Prince Aly Khan. Other elements were taken from Ava Gardner's life as well, particularly the stormy relationship between Maria and tycoon movie producer Kirk Edwards (Warren Stevens) which was based on Gardner's own relationship with billionaire film producer Howard Hughes. It’s not without its issues but it is hard not to love and indulge oneself in the glamour and decadence of the bygone era, but in many respects it is a shame Humphrey Bogart was cast, given that the film really was about Ava Gardner’s Maria, and not about him or his character. It begins as we find washed-up movie director and writer Harry Dawes (Humphrey Bogart) who is down on his luck and reduced to working for abusive, emotionally stunted business tycoon Kirk Edwards (Warren Stevens), who has decided that he wants to produce a film to stroke his monumental ego. Looking for a glamorous leading lady, they go to a Madrid night club to see a dancer named Maria Vargas (Ava Gardner), whom Kirk had already been told about. Maria is a proud spirit who likes to walk barefoot and who always refuses an audience backstage but makes an exception for Harry. Maria immediately likes Harry, whose work she knows, but takes an instant dislike of Kirk. Although she flees during their meeting, Harry tracks her down to her family home and convinces her to fly away with them to America to make her first film. Thanks to his expertise and the help of sweaty, insincere publicist Oscar Muldoon (Edmond O'Brien), her film debut is a sensation. With subsequent films by this team, Maria becomes a respected actress, Harry's career is resurrected, and they become friends. During a party at Maria's house, Kirk and wealthy Latin American playboy Alberto Bravano (Marius Goring) become involved in an argument over Maria. Alberto had conspicuously admired Maria during the evening. When Alberto invites her to join him on his yacht in the Riviera, Kirk orders her to stay away from him. Offended by Kirk's attempted domineering, she accepts Alberto's invitation. Also seeing an opportunity, Oscar, tired of being Kirk's lackey, switches his allegiance to Alberto. Soon Maria becomes a big star, but she is not satisfied. She envies the happiness her friend Harry has found with his wife Jerry (Elizabeth Sellars). Alberto is too frivolous and shallow for her. One evening at a casino, while Alberto is gambling, Maria takes some of his chips and cashes them, throwing the money to her gypsy lover from a window. When Alberto goes on a losing streak, he berates Maria in public for ruining his luck. Subsequently, he receives a slap in the face from Count Vincenzo Torlato-Favrini (Rossano Brazzi), who escorts Maria from the casino. Maria stays with Vincenzo and his widowed sister, Eleanora (Valentina Cortesa), at the count's palazzo. She has found the great love of her life, and they wed in a lavish ceremony, in which Harry gives away the bride. But there is a problem. The count and his sister are the last of the Torlato-Favrinis; without offspring, the noble line will die out. The count has a secret. Due to a war injury, he is impotent. He does not tell Maria about this until their wedding night. On a rainy night months later, with Harry in Italy, an unhappy Maria arrives at his hotel room, telling him about her husband's impotence, but confessing that she is pregnant. She believes Vincenzo will want this child in order to perpetuate the family lineage. Harry warns her Vincenzo is too proud to accept this, but Maria feels otherwise and plans to tell him about her pregnancy that night. As Maria leaves his hotel room, Harry notices Vincenzo's car trailing hers and follows them. Back at the palazzo in the servants' quarters, Vincenzo shoots to death both Maria and her lover before she can tell him about the child. Harry arrives just as the shots are fired but he does not tell Vincenzo about the pregnancy. The story ends, as it began, with flashbacks at her funeral. While the story needs a narrator, someones eyes for the audience to see maria’s life through, I’ve always found the clear career determination of Bogart above Harry the down on his luck director. The studio was about to release the film's poster without an image of Bogart, which was a contractual violation but Bogart had the matter rectified with the addition of a line drawing of his face. That is what makes the film authentically Hollywood. I adore Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s films and I love the script in Barefoot Contessa, but I’ve always thought it would have been a much richer film if it had been made by a French or Italian director and their native country. It was indeed filmed in Rome, making it one of the films referred to as ‘Hollywood on the Tiber’, a short lived phenomenon that included films such as Roman Holiday and Three Coins in the Fountain, but it is 100% Hollywood at its core. While Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner had good chemistry on screen, off screen Bogart wasn't particularly impressed with her as an actress. He commented that Gardner gave him nothing to work with when they were performing together. Some believe Bogart's unfavourable feelings towards Gardner was due to the divorce between Gardner and his close friend Frank Sinatra but when you hear about how Bogart acted in other pictures, I believe it was just the way he was. It’s one of those films where its best to enjoy it for what it is, without learning too much about the reality of the production. For me it wins due to its amazing script but I find it hard to ignore the brattish Hollywood behaviour that has had negative repercussions ever since within the industry. Like I say, I love the film, but pioneering films such as Rear Window, Seven Samurai, La Strada, On the Waterfront and Godzilla were released at the same time and I have far more time for them.