The Barefoot Contessa (1954) - film review

At the funeral of Maria Vargas, the men who fashioned her into a myth remember their part in her tragic life.  Burned out film director Harry Dawes recalls how he went to Spain with his rich but artistically ignorant film producer Kirk Edwards to persuade the unknown Maria, a cabaret dancer, to take up a career in the movie business.  Three films was all it took to make Maria a screen goddess but, at the height of her success, she decided to give it all up and marry an Italian count.  After a lifetime looking for happiness, she finally found it – or so it seemed...

Joseph L. Mankiewicz followed his magnificent satire on Broadway All About Eve (1950) with this equally scathing depiction of Hollywood.  A twisted reinterpretation of the fairy tale Cinderella, the film shows how a good woman of humble origins and romantic ideals falls prey to the machinations of film directors, producers and playboys who cynically exploit her whilst seeming to fulfil her emotional needs.   The film is stylishly shot in Technicolor (by the great cinematographer Jack Cardiff) and is effective at conveying the brutality and shallowness of the moviemaking industry, but also has some noticeable flaws.  

The quality of the performances not withstanding – Bogart makes a very convincing jaded filmmaker and Gardner is simply stunning – most of the characters in the film are highly caricatured.  It could be argued that this is inevitable in a satirical drama, but the predictable way in which the characters act and speak does jar somewhat.   The intensely lyrical last third of the film makes up for the emotional stiltedness and excessive verbosity of the first two-thirds, and the understated poignancy of the tragic ending has a much greater impact than expected.

© James Travers 2008

Write a review for this film...

Not a great movie. Ava gardner may have been very beautiful, but she can’t act. She can’t convey any emotion... Imagine if it were Audrey Hepburn or Meryl Streep. Bogart and O’Brien were, on the other hand, worthy of praise.
Ev Rivla (USA)  

What do you think of this film?