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Cast

Ava Gardner
as Maria Vargas

Humphrey Bogart
as Harry Dawes

Edmond O'Brien
as Oscar Muldoon

Marius Goring
as Alberto Bravano

Valentina Cortese
as Eleanora Torlato-Favrini

Rossano Brazzi
as Vincenzo Torlato-Favrini

Elizabeth Sellars
as Jerry

Warren Stevens
as Kirk Edwards

Franco Interlenghi
as Pedro

Mari Aldon
as Myrna

Bessie Love
as Mrs. Eubanks

Diana Decker
as Drunken Blonde

Bill Fraser
as J. Montague Brown

Alberto Rabagliati
as Night Club Proprietor

Enzo Staiola
as Busboy

Maria Zanoli
as Maria's Mother

Renato Chiantoni
as Maria's Father

John Parrish
as Mr. Black

Jim Gerald
as Mr. Blue

Riccardo Rioli
as Gypsy Dancer

Tonio Selwart
as The Pretender

Margaret Anderson
as The Pretender's Wife

Gertrude Flynn
as Lulu McGee

John Horne
as Hector Eubanks

Robert Christopher
as Eddie Blake

Anna Maria Paduan
as Chambermaid

Carlo Dale
as Chauffeur

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Critic Reviews for The Barefoot Contessa

Audience Reviews for The Barefoot Contessa

• Oct 10, 2012

  An actress, who befriends a washed up Hollywood director, struggles to maintain her integrity in the spurious business of movie-making. Joseph L. Mankiewicz is a master story-teller. Yes, in this film, he takes the easy way out of exposition by using voice over, but the characters so are finely drawn and theme is carried with deft clarity. Humphrey Bogart proves himself to be an actor, an artist, not just a personality like many movie stars of his era. His scenes with Ava Gardner are rich with subtext, and while there's a palpable sexual attraction between the two characters, both people realize that decorum demands they react as they do. Mankiewicz's themes of personal integrity and Hollywood's corruption, on display in All About Eve and this film, have universal appeal because there's little that's unique about Mankiewicz's version of Hollywood. I thought that the writing got a little heavy-handed here and there. Overall, however, The Barefoot Contessa is a very good, classic film that puts Mankiewicz and Bogart's talents on full display.
  Jim H Super Reviewer
• Nov 24, 2011

  Not as a good attempt at mythologizing (and demythologizing) a star through multiple perspectives as in All About Eve. The structure of the film is the same and shows how much forward of his time Mankiewicz was in breaking classical narrative within the compounds of Hollywood (still Citizen Kane precedes everything else and one should comment M. for accepting the lesson). Bogard isn't convincing enough in this movie as he still looks like he is out of a gangster film but he has a rare, inner quality of emotion at times. The film totally shines in dialogue (after all this is a Mankiewicz script) just as All About Eve and the brilliant lines come one after the other. For that reason and for the characterization that is created this way it totally deserves to be seen.
  George M Super Reviewer
• Apr 28, 2008

  Great cast and good story but it misses somewhat and is rather plodding. Good try though.
  jay n Super Reviewer

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