Barefoot Countess

The picture is built as memories of director Harry Dawes at the funeral of dancer and actress Maria Vargas. About three years before this, Daws was attracted to the filming of the film by millionaire Kirk Edwards. The eccentric rich man is looking for new names, and in one of Madrid's nightclubs, his company finds the dancer Maria Vargas. In a difficult childhood in the slums, even having shoes was a blessing for her, and since then Maria has not favored shoes, preferring to walk and dance barefoot. The wayward girl at first refuses, but Daws manages to persuade her.

From that moment, the brilliant career of the actress begins. The debut picture, thanks to the innate talent and PR specialist Oscar Muldron, brings excellent fees. The girl enters the high society and travels around the world. She meets the eccentric Latin American rich and playboy Alberto Bravano. Once, during a game in a casino, he quarrels with Maria, believing that it was because of her that luck turned away from him. Count Vincenzo Torlato Favrini saves the girl from scandal. An intelligent and courteous aristocrat offers Mary patronage, which turns into a romance and a wedding. However, they did not have intimacy until the first wedding night. It turns out that the count suffers from impotence due to the effects of a wound in the war. During all these ups and downs, Daws remains a friend of Mary, whom she trusts the most secret.

After some time, Daws and Maria meet, and she says that she is unhappy in marriage. Mary is expecting a baby from an extramarital affair. She is going to tell her husband about the pregnancy, but Vincenzo preempts the proceedings and starts the conversation first. Having convicted his wife of infidelity, he loses his temper and shoots at Mary. She does not have time to tell about the unborn child. The funeral scene of Maria Vargas returns to the beginning of the picture.

• Humphrey Bogart - Harry Dawes
• Ava Gardner - Maria Vargas
• Edmond O'Brien - Oscar Muldrun
• Marius Goring - Alberto Bravano
• Valentina Cortese - Eleanor Torlato Favrini
• Rossano Brazzi - Vincenzo Torlato Favrini
• Warren Stevens - Kirk Edwards
• Elizabeth Sellars - Jerry
• Bessie Love - Mrs. Eubanks

In the early 1950s, Joseph Mankevich became one of the most sought-after directors and screenwriters in Hollywood. In 1950 and 1951, Mankevich’s films “ A Letter to Three Wives ” and “ All About Eve ” in a row won an Oscar for best directing . In 1952, while in New York, Joseph wrote the script for a new painting. It was supposed to be the first picture for Joseph Mankevich as an independent agent: producer and director of his own company Figaro Inc ^[1] . Joseph conceived a drama, a kind of paraphrase of the Cinderella story, but with a negative denouement and a reference to the shadow side of the film business ^[2] .

To some extent, facts from a real biography of Rita Hayworth were used in developing the script for the picture. The famous dancer, Aster’s partner in musicals of the 1940s, came from Spain, from a poor family of flamenco performers ^[3] . The hero of the picture of Kirk Edwards has much in common with the image of Howard Hughes . Before the war, Mankevich was quite closely acquainted with the eccentric millionaire. Hughes' tragic romance with Ava Gardner also greatly influenced the scriptwriter's plan. It is known that Hughes and Mankevich discussed the script and Howard approved it ^[4] .

I wanted to create a bitter Cinderella story. The prince was supposed to be homosexual, although I could not go that far. Some, however, think that I have gone even further!

Original text

I tried to do a bitter Cinderella story. The Prince should have turned out to be homosexual but 1 couldn't go quite that far. Some people think I went farther!

- Joseph Mankevich ^[2]

The stars of the silver screen tried to get the main female role in a promising project ^[5] . Elizabeth Taylor , who then considered herself underrated, was looking for herself. She sent a telegram to Mankevich, in which she begged to take her for the role of Maria Vargas ^[6] . Linda Darnell believed that the role of "deducted" from her and is suitable for her as well as possible. Subsequently, she was deeply worried that she never managed to appear in the film, and attributed this to personal accounts with Mankevich ^[7] .

Initially, Mankevich wanted to select a not-so-familiar, little-known actress, corresponding to the image, for the main female role. He considered the candidatures of Joan Collins and Rossana Podesta ^[8] . Ava Gardner had a reputation as a character actress who specialized in the femme fatale look in 1940s noir films . Nevertheless, the biography of Ava, who came from a poor family and achieved everything herself, as it seemed to the director, could help the actress enter the image ^[9] . Gardner at that time had problems in her personal life, she recently divorced Frank Sinatra ^[10] . In October 1952, the actress asked MGM, with whom she had a contract, to temporarily suspend him in order to take part in the filming of Mankevich. The studio was extremely reluctant to let Gardner go, which she had her views on. After lengthy negotiations, Figaro Inc. paid $ 200,000 compensation. Ava Gardner agreed to appear for a fee of $ 60 thousand, which was much lower than her usual requests - however, an interesting scenario and the ability to appear in a good ensemble were more important ^[11] .

Edmond O'Brien has known Mankevich since collaborating on Julius Caesar . Joseph appreciated this actor for his professionalism and ability to create a fun atmosphere on the set ^[8] . Operator Jack Cardiff, specializing in color photography, Mankevich looked after the films " Red Shoes " and " Pandora and The Flying Dutchman" "( en ). Joseph liked his manner in Technicolor technology and the way he presented Ava Gardner in the frame ^[12] .

Filming took place from January to March 1954 in Italy, in Rome and its suburbs, at the production base of the Cinnecitta studio ^{[12] [13]} . Before they began, Ava Gardner rehearsed her flamenco for about three weeks, which she was to perform in front of the camera ^[14] .

Most of the cast arrived in Italy immediately after the new year. The picture was one of the last in the filmography of Humphrey Bogart. He also agreed to work for a fee much less than his usual. The actor has already begun to experience health problems. Coughing spoils spoiled a lot of takes and delayed filming. However, the main problems of the stellar duet were that Ava and Humphrey did not find mutual understanding, dived and argued. Humphrey behaved somewhat arrogantly on the site, constantly ironic about his partner and called her “lady”. It was difficult for Ava to choose the right mood in their on-screen relationships. According to the script, Bogart was not her husband or lover - more a friend and adviser to whom the heroine confides her secrets ^{[15] [12]} .

There were difficulties in finding a common language with the director. It turned out to be difficult for Ava to play in a rather chamber and “conversational” picture. Usually her heroines were not so verbose, here she needed to win back scenes in which the viewer's attention had to be kept not only by her external data. Subsequently, critics spoke low on this component of the film. According to the plot, it remains unclear where the Spaniard from the slums mastered a language full of metaphors and allusions . In this case, the picture was one of the most glamorous for Ava. Her character appears in the frame in spectacular outfits prepared by designers of the fashion house Sorelle Fontana ( en ) ^[16] . The statue features a statue mounted above the dancer’s grave, an image to which the action returns several times. The image of Maria Vargas was sculpted by the famous Bulgarian sculptor Asen Peykov ( bg ), to whom Ava Gardner posed. The statue was subsequently acquired by Frank Sinatra and installed in his home in California ^[16] .

The premiere of the picture took place on September 29, 1954 in New York ^[12] .

The director himself was not very pleased with the film, calling it his “best of the worst films” ^[4] . The press accepted the picture contradictory. The main subject of criticism was a long, not too intelligible story, overloaded with unjustified symbolism, references to literature and philosophy ^[17] . Dave Ker found her drawn out and overly “talkative.” ^[18] Emanuel Levy called Mankevich’s work second-rate, especially in comparison with another director’s picture similar in style - “All About Eve” ^[19] . Specialists were impressed by the visual solution and the operator’s work. The work in the noir style, the exact correspondence of the choice in favor of the Technicolor color gamut (at that time the choice between the color and the still more usual black-and-white decision remained with the team) turned out to be beneficial sides of Mankevich's drama. The film was praised by the young directors of the French new wave . Francois Truffaut called her "brilliant, smart and elegant." Jean Luc Godard admitted that the painting greatly inspired him to the famous " Contempt " ^[20] .

Variety praised the cynicism and bulge of the characters corresponding to the setting and surroundings ^[21] . The acting game of Ava Gardner received a weak mark, while her male partners coped with the task at a high level ^[21] . According to Bosley Krauser , her character lacked credibility ^[17] .

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• James Kaplan. Frank: The Making of a Legend . - Hachette UK, 2010 .-- S. 21. - 480 p. - ISBN 9780748122509 .
• Kitty Kelley Elizabeth Taylor, the Last Star . - Simon and Schuster, 1981. - S. 22. - 448 p. - ISBN 9780671255435 .
• Ronald L. Davis. Hollywood Beauty: Linda Darnell and the American Dream . - University of Oklahoma Press, 2014 .-- S. 23. - ISBN 9780806186962 .
• Tom Mankiewicz, Robert Crane. My Life as a Mankiewicz: An Insider's Journey through HollywoodScreen Classics . - University Press of Kentucky, 2012 .-- S. 24. - 400 p. - ISBN 9780813140575 .
• Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Brian Dauth. Joseph L. Mankiewicz: Interviews, Conversations with filmmakers series, ISSN 1556-1593 . - Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2008 .-- S. 25 .-- 207 p. - ISBN 9781934110249 .
• Sheri Chinen Biesen. Music in the Shadows: Noir Musical Films . - JHU Press, 2014 .-- S. 26. - ISBN 9781421408385 .
• Lee Server. Ava Gardner: "Love Is Nothing . " - Macmillan, 2007.- S. 27. - ISBN 9781429908740 .