A quietly moving film about the short life of a curiously indescribable woman, Maria Vargas (Ava Gardner), and the men who knew her. Joseph L. Mankiewicz is probably most famous for his film All About Eve, which he both wrote and directed, as he did with The Barefoot Contessa. He structures Contessa much the same as he does Eve, starting the film at the end of the story and then working backward through flashbacks. This time we begin at Maria's funeral, and three men who are attending it narrate her strange and melancholy story. Humphrey Bogart is arguably the lead actor, as he narrates the majority of the film, probably about half. He plays Harry Dawes, a washed-up movie writer/director who is carried along to Madrid by his producer, Kirk Edwards (Warren Stevens) and his producer's assistant, Oscar (Edmond O'Brien, who won a much-deserved Best Supporting Actor Oscar; Oscar is the second narrator). They go to Madrid to pursue Maria, whose name has started to become famous in Europe. While Maria at first refuses, Harry is able to convince her to come where others have failed. Where one might expect Mankiewicz to make The Barefoot Contessa about Hollywood what All About Eve was to Broadway, the film has little to do with Hollywood. We do experience a couple of Hollywood parties, but the film is more concerned with the world of the fabulously wealthy. Maria has grown up poor and rather wretched - she has many sad stories about her life during the Spanish Civil War - and she can hardly relate to anyone around her. Harry comes the closest; he's more down to earth. Maria is such a fascinating character. We know a lot about her - but, then again, we know so little. The film never really does define or understand her, but that is the point. Mankiewicz almost tops All About Eve with his dialogue here; sometimes it's almost too good. The story and its structure work perfectly, and Mankiewicz does not repeat his one mistake from All About Eve, that is, he doesn't shove our faces in the film's point. We're left to ponder, which I think is going to make me remember this one a lot longer than I will All About Eve. 10/10.
Review of The Barefoot Contessa
