XoWizIama Excellent adaptation.

HeadlinesExotic Boring

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

vincentlynch-moonoi I've always been sentimental over this film. My grandmother took me up to the big city on November 16, 1960 -- when I was just 11 -- to see it on Rochester, New York's biggest movie screen. Quite a different setting than our usual small hometown theater. When we left the theater they were hawking newspapers with the headline that Clark Gable had just died of a heart attack. The theater was either the old RKO Palace Theater or the old Lowe's Rochester Theater (both demolished a few years later). I saw the movie a second time a few days later...on the day Gable was buried.And so, I remember Clark Gable for this film and, of course, for "Gone With The Wind". Here he is just perfect as the "Americano" who has come to settle his brother's estate, only to find his brother had a second wife and a son.But this is also the film where -- at age 11 -- I simply fell in love with Sophia Loren. This film and the earlier "Houseboat" (with Cary Grant...which I only later discovered on television...same director) convinced me that Loren was the most beautiful woman in the world (with a little competition from Lana Turner). And now, over 50 years later, I still find those two to be my ideal impression of true beauty. Here, Loren is at her most playful, and a perfect match for the over-serious character Gable plays.One of the things that makes this movie so charming is that both Gable and Loren appear to be actually enjoying themselves in making the film. Gable shows humor we didn't get to often see him demonstrate, particularly later in his career. And, Loren is so entertaining, particularly in her night club dance number.The story is a decent one (although the plot is pretty transparent. You know that in the end the tired American is going to fall in love with Loren and Capri...and stay there with his new family. But on most vacations you know where you are going, the fun is in getting there...and this movie -- filmed on location -- is darned fun in the journey.In addition to the obvious on-screen chemistry between Clark Gable and Sophia Loren, the supporting cast is quite good. Of particular note is the young boy -- Marietto, who plays Nando; what a character! And Vittorio De Sica is very entertaining as Loren's lawyer.This is a delightful light comedy and romance which in beautifully filmed. I liked Gable's performance here more than any since GWTW, and it's one of my favorite performances by Loren.Highly recommended!

MartinHafer In many, many ways, this film appears to have later been made as AVANTI (with Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills). The plots have just too many similarities to be a coincidence. While not exactly a remake, this later film seems like a slight reworking of the plot--with a little bit of gratuitous sex and nudity added to boot.The film begins with Clark Gable going to Italy to take care of arrangements after his brother's accidental death. This no-good brother had apparently been living a double life--with a wife back in the States AND one in Italy! Gable is surprised to not only discover this, but that there is an 8 year-old boy who is apparently his nephew! He's also surprised that the boy's Italian Aunt (Sophia Loren) isn't particularly interested in establishing a relationship with Gable or having the boy go to live in the States. Considering that the boy is a ragamuffin living in a rather bohemian existence, this might just be in the kid's best interest--at least that is what Gable assumes. Over time, the blustering Gable comes under the spell of the island of Capri and Loren's ample charms.Oddly, however, the film makers thought that pairing Gable and Loren romantically made sense and that the public would buy it--and they didn't. The age difference was just too great. Additionally, the styles and personalities of the two were just too different to make such a pairing believable--though at least it worked better than Loren and John Wayne (LEGEND OF THE LOST) and a bit better than Loren and Alan Ladd (BOY ON A DOLPHIN). Why film makers insisted on pairing this sexy starlet with significantly older established American actors is beyond me.So, while the film isn't exactly believable, is it worth watching? After all, although miscast, the film could still be enjoyable. And, for the most part it was, though including a "cute and precocious" kid was, at times, a bit too much of a cliché. He was too cute and way too precocious to be realistic--walking, talking and acting like a 30 year-old man stuck in a kid's body--sort of like Tatum O'Neal in PAPER MOON. Also, some might find its treatment of Italians as a bit patronizing--as they all seem rather lazy and fun-loving--not like real people. As for the look of the film, it was terrific--filmed in exquisite color that really made this Italian island look its best. Overall, it's an enjoyable and nice looking piece of fluff--not bad, just not as good as it could have been.By the way, supporting actor Vittorio De Sica was also a very accomplished director. He acted in quite a few films and was quite good, but as a director he was one of the best, with such wonderful films as UMBERTO D, MIRACLE IN MILAN and THE CHILDREN ARE WATCHING US to his credits--among others.

jumbopasatebos This movie had everything on paper, a great American actor(Gable), beautiful locations and the ever-adorable Sophia Lauren. But the script is so poor and idiotic that totally ruins everything...So, Gable, your typical Yankee, arives at Naples after his brother's death.He finds out that his brother had a secret second marriage and a child who currently lives with his Aunt (Lauren). Basically what the director wanted was to demonstrate the difference of go-like-it Italians and the more sober, cold, calculating Americans, a premise so stale and stereotypical that would need a special amount of skill to be formed into something watchable. And sadly this was not the case. Actually this movie is pretty brave, in a peculiar way. It has the audacity to denounce the whole neo-realistic Italian cinema where all these poor people struggle through life and it's miseries. Alas, what offers instead is a stereotypical view where poverty is equal to a happy ignorance. All the Italian characters are rude, messy and quarrel but always in a happy and delightfull way... They all try to speak "funny" English and although they are illiterate they manage it pretty good... They are not poor because of the war's damages , they are poor because they like it and they cannot do much better...Even so, if this movie had any kind of charm I could still accept it as your shallow typical romance comedy but, here, every joke literally back-fires at the character's faces. Take for example Nando, the little boy. He is illiterate, smokes and distributes Cabaret leaflets but that's OK because he is Italian and does not need an education. He lives with a prostitute in a dump but he's good and likes fireworks so that's OK... The American again loves hamburgers, tries to teach his nephew baseball etc.His fiancée dumbs him,only because she hears music from the telephone and does not know that in Italy it is OK to play loud music all day and all night...He tries to enlist Nando in an American school that will give him proper education, because all Italian schools must be really bad (they stretch the American school joke so far that you can't possibly imagine...) The acting is also really terrible. Gable stumbles across the film like a joke of his old self,and Lauren tries to be decent but has so little to work with and cannot save herself..This movie in all aspects is a total waste...

moonspinner55 Gruff American travels to Italy to settle his late brother's estate, discovers he has a sister-in-law and and a young nephew; the two bicker over the child's upbringing, but soon realize they have feelings for each other. Clark Gable, in his second-to-last screen role, is heavy and grouchy throughout this romantic comedy-drama; stuck with the bland character name of Michael Hamilton, Gable never shakes off his lethargy. It is great to see him in the arms of Sophia Loren, but the sparks between them on-screen are mostly due to Sophia's hard work in keeping this dessert from melting. Director Melville Shavelson's pacing isn't exactly effervescent, but he does get some attractive shots of the country at its most beautiful. The well-worn romantic formula however comes straight from Hollywood; results are predictably lukewarm. ** from ****