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The Barefoot Contessa on DVD (1954)

The Barefoot Contessa cover art
Average rating: 65%
113920101216
3.0
from 146 members
 
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, Edmund O'Brien, Marius Goring, Rossano Brazzi, Elizabeth Sellars, Valentina Cortese, Warren Stevens, Franco Interlenghi, Mari Aldon
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Studio: MGM ENTERTAINMENT
Run time: 125 mins
Certificate: PG
Genres: Drama
Languages: English
Dubbed: French, German, Spanish
Hearing-impaired: English
Subtitles: Danish, Dutch, English, French, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish
Released: 15/04/2002

Brief synopsis of The Barefoot Contessa

In one of the last films before his death in 1957, Humphrey Bogart plays washed-up film director Harry Dawes, who sees another chance at success when he meets Spanish dancer Maria Vargas (Ava Gardner) and recognizes her star potential. Harry's willingness to let Maria keep her independence, and his steadfast character, wins him her undying friendship; the two weather the Hollywood seas, made stormy by Maria's own tempestuous spirit and the greedy nature of the film business. Maria's final break from Hollywood throws her into the arms of a Prince Charming whose secrets lead her down a destructive path. Impatience with Hollywood is evident in every line of director-writer Joseph L. Mankiewicz's dialogue (as in the unforgettable ALL ABOUT EVE), but he carefully plants the seeds of Maria's decline in her character rather than simplistically painting her fate as a reaction to fame. Bogart, in an role atypical for him of platonic friend to his female costar, is the touchstone of the movie and its most sympathetic character, while Gardner's eyes snap with passion as she searches for her fairy-tale ending.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 4 stars out of 5 Radio Times

“The world's most beautiful animal,” shrieked the ads for this mordant satire on the movie business. Unsurprisingly, nobody disputed the fact, for “the animal” was none other than Ava Gardner in her prime, playing a character based on her glamorous predecessor Rita Hayworth, while Humphrey Bogart plays her cynical director, Harry Dawes: “I made her,” he snarls witheringly, and you believe him. Director/writer Joseph Mankiewicz had previously satirised Broadway in the multi-Oscar-winning All about Eve, and this is similar, but far less theatrical. Edmond O'Brien collected an Oscar here as the sweaty publicist, and there's a star-making performance from Rossano Brazzi. By the way, the bare feet belonged not to Gardner but to Margo Lorenz, who was also the foot-double for Gardner in The Little Hut, and went on to star in some British B-movies.

Rating of 1 stars out of 4 Halliwell's Film Guide

A fascinating farrago of addled philosophy and lame wisecracks, very typical of a writer-director here not at his best, decorated by a splendid gallery of actors and some attractive settings.

Time Out

Like The Bad and the Beautiful, this starts with a funeral, then moves into flashback with three different guides to... Read more on www.timeout.com

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Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 5 starsExcellent!

A customer from London, England , 18/03/2005

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.....a very good film

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
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Rated - 3 starsNothing special, but a solid film

Julianna from Oxford , 09/09/2006

This film isn't very memorable, and didn't affect me in any way, but was by no means a bad film, just an uneventful one. The story is concerned with the rise of a young Spanish girl (Ava Gardner) to movie stardom, and her subsequent fall from fame. The same plot has been dealt with so much more effectively in superior films, such as 'A Star Is Born', 'Sunset Blvd.' etc... but Gardner is beguiling as always, and I enjoyed the Oscar-winning performance of Edmond O'Brien as one of the producers who discovers her.

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Rated - 3 starsFine Bogart and Gardner outing

milnerv from Dorset , 09/10/2005

This film has always been a favourite of mine, very much of its period (1954) in lush Technicolor told in flashbacks with a lot of wonderful Bogart voice over.

Bogart dominates the film as the cynical director Harry Dawes who makes Maria Vargas (Gardner) into a super star. Gardner’s part plays to her cool screen goddess type persona and is well partnered by Bogart who is cynical but caring.

I find Brazzi’s admired performance as the Count somewhat cool. Good acting all round particularly Edmund O’Brien won an Oscar for his role as the sweaty publicist.

Oh, the bare feet, they belong to a double Margo Lorenze who did a similar service for Gardner in “The Little Hut”.

Mankiewicz directed and wrote this cautious expose of the film industry possibly inhibited by the rigid censorship of the time.

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Rated - 3 starsInteresting ending

A customer from England, London , 01/08/2007

I found this film a bit boring but the ending surprised me. I would also expect the Contessa's character to be more colorful.

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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 5 starsCustomer Review

A customer from UK , 23/06/2008

The Barefoot Contessa is one of the best films of the 1950's.Ava Gardner gives a magnificent performance as a beautiful Spanish nightclub dancer Maria Vargas who is catapulted to instant stardom in Hollywood from a poverty stricken background in Spain.Humphrey Bogart is superb as Harry Dawes the producer who discovers Gardner and becomes her friend and confidante.The film explores the darker side of fame in spite of Maria's fame, celebrity and desirability as a woman she craves a quieter simpler life with 'real ordinary,' people instead of the fake people she meets in showbiz and high society circles. Marriage to an Italian counts provides Maria with the escape she needs but with tragic consequences.

I really adored this film. When I watched it and I saw how Ava Gardner's character looked sad and lonely at the height of her fame even though she was popular and desired by so many men I realised that fame is not all that it's supposed to be. If you want to discover the magic behind Ava Gardner and Hollywood of a by-gone era then I recommend that you see this film.

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Rated - 3 starsLong and ambitious

Rich from London , 02/01/2008

This is a fairly enjoyable attempt to tell the story of a movie star's life in an epic flashback style. The film is ambitious and long with exotic and luxurious locations and several different phases. There are some good performances from most of the main characters and the always watchable Bogart anchors the movie. The film is unusual in the way that the emphasis and viewpoint seems to switch at several times and it is worth seeing although there is not really enough to it to make it essential.

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