The Barefoot Contessa (1954) on Netflix
Washed-up filmmaker Harry Dawes takes work from Kirk Edwards, a tycoon who wants to produce a film. In Madrid they meet Maria Vargas, a dancer, and Harry urges her to try Hollywood.
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Trailer
Plot summary
Harry Dawes is a director whose career has gone flat, and he goes to work for Kirk Edwards, a business tycoon who has decided to make a film. Kirk wants a new leading lady, so the two travel to Madrid to watch Maria Vargas dance in a nightclub. Maria takes to Harry, whose work she knows, but dislikes Kirk at once. She leaves their meeting, and Harry finds her at her family's home and talks her into flying to the United States to make her first film. The debut is a hit and Maria becomes a star.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Barefoot Contessa (1954)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- On Ava Gardner's first day of filming, Humphrey Bogart turned away from her mid-take and shouted at director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, "Hey, Mankiewicz, can you tell this dame to speak up? I can't hear a goddamn word she says." Bogart's severe coughing fits while delivering lines forced many retakes.
- During a camera test with cinematographer Jack Cardiff, Mankiewicz told Ava Gardner she was "the sittingest goddamn actress I've ever worked with," and she withdrew her trust in him. Decades later he told biographer Kenneth L. Geist he was sorry for the joke.
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz first wanted an unknown for Maria Vargas and considered Rossana Podestà and Joan Collins before he and United Artists executives Arthur B. Krim and Robert Benjamin settled on Ava Gardner. MGM loaned Gardner for $200,000 plus 10 percent of box office, while top-billed Humphrey Bogart took less than half her pay.
- The real-life model for Maria Vargas is disputed: Turner Classic Movies says Mankiewicz drew on Rita Hayworth, then married to Prince Aly Khan, while Ava Gardner's biographer Lee Server said the role was inspired by several actresses including Hayworth, Linda Darnell and Anne Chevalier.
- The Food Network cooking show Barefoot Contessa takes its name from Ina Garten's cookbook and specialty food store, which she bought already named in 1978; the store, opened in 1975 and now closed, was named after this film.
