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Created Jul 05, 2015 08:49PM PST • Edited Nov 25, 2018 09:43AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Ava Gardner plays a moviestar inspired by Rita Hayworth and Humphrey Bogart a writer-director inspired by Joseph L. Mankiewicz in The Barefoot Contessa, Mankiewicz’s takedown of movie business amorality. A glamorous movie about showbiz mendacity, it is both brilliantly self-aware and gorgeous to behold.

   Hayworth was a Spanish dancer as a child before becoming the bombshell moviestar who married Prince Aly Khan. The brilliant Mankiewicz fictionalized her life, adding a doppelgänger of himself as a cynical writer-director who befriends her. Throw in a soupçon of Ava Gardner’s real-life dalliance with Howard Hughes and you’ve got more than enough for a through-the-lookinglass take on movie business glamour.

   Mankiewicz took down Broadway four years earlier with All About Eve, one of the greatest movies ever. He looked to Hollywood in ‘54, albeit The Barefoot Contessa doesn’t measure up to All About Eve.

   Bogie plays a man with regrets better than anyone, especially three years before he died of throat cancer in ‘57. As Mankiewicz’s alter ego, he’s perfect to narrate a sordid tale of cinematic success and downfall.

   A star is born in Ava Gardner’s flamenco dancer turned international movie queen. She looks like a goddess in gowns by Fontana and speaks delphically in lines by Mankiewicz, who got an Oscar nom for them.

   Watch The Barefoot Contessa for Ava Gardner, even more for Humphrey Bogart, just never forget it’s Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s movie – written & directed. It’s a Golden Age Classic, one of dozens he wrought.

4. Acting

   Really Great 4.5

   Humphrey Bogart is verbally adept as Hollywood writer-director Harry Dawes, a shrewd man who now drinks only water. Bogie is the best actor in the movie, even if he wasn’t the one to get Oscar attention.

   Ava Gardner plays an exotic dream-girl who dances barefoot in Madrid and rises to be queen of Cannes. A moviestar for eight years, ever since The Killers, Ava G. was ready to handle the role. The looks she had.

   Edmond O’Brien won an Oscar as abrasive PR flack Oscar Muldoon. O’Brien has 119 acting credits on IMDb and The Barefoot Contessa isn’t even one of his Known Fors, yet it yielded his only Oscar.

   Others

   • Warren Stevens as a Juicy Fruit chewing Texas millionaire loosely based on Howard Hughes
   • Marius Goring as the richest man in South America
   • Rossano Brazzi as an Italian Count, a Christian stand-in for the Nizari Muslim Prince Aly Khan: That’s him driving up on Ava Gardner dancing in the nearby clip.
   • Valentina Cortese as his noble sister
   • Elizabeth Sellars as Bogie’s young, understanding wife
   • Diana Decker as a drunken blonde who has a tough night in Hollywood

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Really Great 4.5

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    Joseph L. Mankiewicz glamorously savages the movie business in The Barefoot Contessa, as he’d done to the theater world four years earlier in All About Eve. So what if Contessa isn’t the perfect film Eve was.

11. Direction Great 4.0

    Mankiewicz’s camera pans around a nightclub in the opening scene. Every face tells a story.
    It’s a directorial accomplishment of nearly Hitchcockian proportions.

12. Play Great 4.0

    The plotting becomes delightfully more complex in the final reel, repeating itself from another angle.

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Really Great 4.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.0

    A man and a woman who are just friends, in 1954. Imagine that.

17. Sex Innocent 1.0

18. Violence Gentle 1.0

19. Rudeness Polite 1.0

21. Reality

    Glib 1.3

    Mashup Rita Hayworth’s girlhood – star Spanish dancer – with her moviestar celebrity when she married a rich Prince. Add in a superrich Texan who wants to make movies, channeling Ava Gardner’s relationship with Howard Hughes. Loosen reality and mix vigorously. Out comes the very glib Barefoot Contessa.

    Here’s the funny thing: An opening disclaimer swore that none of the characters are based on any person living or dead. Right. What did Rita Hayworth and Howard Hughes think about that?

22. Circumstantial Glib 2.0

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0