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Rating: 5 out of 5
Honest question for anyone. Who likes wearing shoes? Don’t your feet hurt all the time when you have your shoes on? If anyone ever knows me, they know I really don’t like wearing shoes. I definitely don’t wear shoes at my house and at work. I take them bad boys off the second I am in my office and walk around with just my socks. As I heard many times in life, “You just gotta let your feet breath.”
According to Turner Classic Movies, Mankiewicz based the film’s central character of Maria Vargas on American movie star and dancer Rita Hayworth, who had been married to Prince Aly Khan. Written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the Barefoot Contessa tells the story about the life and loves of the fictional Spanish sex symbol Maria Vargas. According to Turner Classic Movies, Mankiewicz based the film’s central character of Maria Vargas on American movie star and dancer Rita Hayworth, who had been married to Prince Aly Khan. The film begins at the once famous and beautiful Maria Vargas’ (Gardner) funeral. It is a sad day as the rain is pouring from the sky. Several people at the funeral recall who she was and the impact she had on them. One of the guests is Harry Dawes (Bogart), a down on his luck writer/director, who accompanied movie producer Kirk Edwards (Stevens) to scout Maria at a nightclub where she worked as a flamenco dancer. Maria goes on to meet Alberto Bravano, one of the richest men in South America, who had a crush on her, but things ended badly. After Albert, Maria moves on to Count Vincenzo Torlato-Favrini. They fall deeply in love and marry, but theirs is not to be a happy life.
I really didn’t know anything about this film. I thought it would be about a woman who just likes dancing barefoot. Who wants to watch a movie like that? Actually, many people would probably watch a movie, but that is beside the point. The Barefoot Contessa was actually an entertaining, drama-filled movie that even amazed me. I’m telling you that those old-school movies are where it’s at. If you want to know Hollywood gets most of their ideas, just watch some old-school movies, and you see where they get 90% of their ideas.
Now that I got my little old-school soliloquy out the way, the plot or story of this film is pretty standard. A classic Hollywood tale, to say the least. A girl from some town and is destitute is seen by some Hollywood person, and they go on to become a big star. Yet on the way, they meet people who they think they love and bounce around only to be met with tragedy. What is interesting about this one is that it’s more of a flashback story and is told at the person’s funeral. That is precisely why this movie works. It’s told through two different perspectives to get the entire idea of a person’s life from the point they met to their untimely demise.
From Harry Dawes’s perspective, he tells the side of meeting Maria and how she got started in the movie industry. From his view, it is more on their friendship. Even though Harry was the one to convince Maria to leave her home to pursue acting, this helps him make her into an international star and resurrects his career. His wife was very supportive. Harry told his story from the perspective of being a friend and giving out advice during Maria’s life. No scene told this when they were at the party and his wife backtalked some jealous woman. Another scene was when Harry was filming in some location and runs into Maria after some time. She talks about how she met this dude and is delighted, but also she was pregnant with another man’s baby (dun dun dunnnnnnnnn). From Oscar’s perspective, it mostly told how he left with Maria and the “adventure” she had with Alberto before dropping his ass and moving on to another person and another. It’s entertaining and makes the movie go with some added substance.
Now you want to talk about drama in this film, it sure does have it. I don’t know where men think if they found someone and made them famous, they have complete and total control over them. Try that today, and it might get you put in the ground and cut. Well, this film showed PLENTY of drama that revolved around Maria’s life. A scene that said it all was when Maria was in court supporting her father, who was accused of murdering her mother. It was Maria’s testimony that got him off. The first one was at her own home when Kirk and wealthy Latin American playboy Alberto Bravano became involved in an argument over Maria. Alberto asks her to stay with him on his yacht, and Kirk wasn’t having it and orders her to stay away. What happened? She dropped his ass and accepted Alberto’s invite.
You would think she would be happy, but nope, even as a massive star, Maria is sad, like in the classic Hollywood movies. She wants what Al Green sings about, “Love and Happiness,” which continues with that drama. Alberto isn’t working out and gets mad when she takes some gambling chips and throws them to her lover. Alberto states she is ruining her luck. What does homegirl do? Bounce and runs into Count Vincenzo Torlato-Favrini, who also gives Alberto a nice slap across the face. This is where more drama happens. Maria states she has found the great love of her life, and they have a fantastic wedding. Life should be good, but Vincenzo can’t produce those kids from a war injury. Do you find it ironic that the dude always has a war injury? Well, she tells Harry that she is pregnant and wants to tell Vincenzo. This is where the drama comes to an end.
Also, this film must be talked about with the extravagant locations. They seemed to travel all over the world to make this film, and the cinematography showed it. This was like a James Bond film in terms of location. They seemed to find some of the most beautiful locations and made you want to travel to them.
As far as the stars go, they each do a great job in the film and make you really invested in Maria and her life. Humphrey Bogart as Harry Dawes was as cool as the other side of the pillow. Bogart seemed to always just have that calm and cool appeal about himself when he is in a film. This one was no different. He gave off that vibe of being that calm friend that seemed to never get mad or in the way. He told it how it was and moved on.
Edmond O’Brien as Oscar Muldoon was one of the funniest characters, and I enjoyed his performance, even if it was only for a few scenes. The dude sweated like no one’s business. You could just see the globs of sweat roll off his head, and he always had this stressed outlook about him. He isn’t the comic relief but just a calming/funny effect to the film.
The BEAUTIFUL Ava Gardner as Maria Vargas. Gardner was straight-up great in this film, but damn, did homegirl look oh so fine. That sailboat scene was a cherry on top of the whole film. Forget everything else, it was that scene and her dancing scene that did it for me. She brought that passion to Maria and had her as a person who didn’t back down and wanted to find happiness.
The Barefoot Contessa is an excellent film that is that classic Hollywood tale. Girl goes from rags to riches to straight-up pain or downfall. The locations that are shown are beautiful and makes you want to go there. Bogart is his usual cool self, but Gardner is gorgeous as ever. This is a surprise movie for me, and I hope you enjoy it like I did.
