"The Barefoot Contessa" Review

 

by Daniel White

As preposterous as a peacock piloting a hot air balloon, Joseph L. Mankeiwicz's The Barefoot Contessa (1954) is a tribute to the inanity as well as the glory of Hollywood during its Golden Age (though the film itself was shot in Rome). The weary-looking Humphrey Bogart gets top-billing (a clause in his contract demanded it) but Ava Gardner is our shoeless heroine.

A nightclub dancer from a barrio in Madrid (for an impoverished guttersnipe, her English is near perfect), she is discovered by Hollywood director Harry Dawes (Bogart) and his pals and turned into an international film star. Despite her new-found fame, Maria Vargas (Gardner) is restless and dispirited, drifting from one unsatisfying situation to the next. With about 45 minutes left of running time, our discontented diva finally finds happiness in the arms of a wealthy, handsome Italian count (Rossano Brazzi). Alas, it's not meant to be, for on their wedding night he reveals his cock was blown off during the war (ya think he would have shared this BEFORE the nuptials).

Ludicrous, improbable and ineptly-acted by our leading lady, the flick is also lushly-made, gorgeous to the eye, and always worth watching (as is our star). With his multiple Oscar wins and highly regarded films (A Letter to Three Wives, All About Eve), Mankiewicz carries with him a lofty reputation. Personally, I think he's overrated. Perversely verbose, his neverending "clever" chit-chat can numb the viewer into a somnambulistic state. However, in The Barefoot Contessa, Mankiewicz has hired a couple of talented craftsmen (and women) to prettify everything and render it too beautiful for even his tiresome dialogue to ruin. Cinematographer Jack Cardiff, set designer Arrigo Equini and gowns by the Fontana sisters are utterly breathtaking.

Inexplicably, Edmond O'Brien won the movie's only Oscar for his supporting role as a sycophantic publicist. Unlike Ava, who can't act, O'Brien can, only here he does it badly. In researching this exquisite-looking Technicolor piece of over-preened fluff, I discovered it was released on September 29, 1954. The Barefoot Contessa gives us the ravishing Ava Gardner. Beauty fades, talent is forever. The Barefoot Contessa is currently streaming on Tubi.