Boy on a Dolphin (1957)

Director:

Jean Negulesco

Writers:

David Divine (novel)
Ivan Moffat (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

19 April 1957 (West Germany)

Genre:

Adventure | Romance

Tagline:

An adventurous love story that will live 'til the seas run dry!

Plot:

Sophia Loren stars as Phaedra, a poor sponge diver on the lovely Greek isle of Hydra. While diving,...

Plot Keywords:

Art Collector | Anthropologist | Diver | Statue | Man In Swimsuit

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Alan Ladd	...	Dr. James 'Jim' Calder
Clifton Webb	...	Victor Parmalee
Sophia Loren	...	Phaedra
Alex Minotis	...	Milidias Nadapoulos - the government man
Jorge Mistral	...	Rhif
Laurence Naismith	...	Dr. Hawkins
Piero Giagnoni	...	Niko
Gertrude Flynn	...	Miss Dill

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Greek

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System) (magnetic prints) | Mono (optical prints)

Certification:

UK:U | France:U | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

Acropolis, Athens, Greece

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Originally, the film was to star Cary Grant. It was four days into shooting in Greece when Grant canceled. His wife, Betsy Drake, had survived the sinking of the Andrea Doria ocean liner and he went to be with her. Robert Mitchum was then considered, before Spyros Foucas signed Alan Ladd.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Dennis Miller: All In (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Boy on a Dolphin

Sophia explodes beautifully!

Certainly script writers Ivan Moffat and Dwight Taylor have done the best they could to arrange a fairly equal balance of nature and Sophia...

The Greek Isle of Hydra is one of the most cosmopolitan points in the Mediterranean, a dream world with a unique beauty... It appears like a huge dry rock rising out the sea with its tiled houses and buildings scaling the precipitous terrain, one on top of the other, starting from the quay and reaching up to the tops of the hill, while the victorious color scheme is Aegean (white green and bright blue), and the weather is Adriatic... The pretty port looks extremely picturesque, dramatically beautiful...

Director Jean Negulesco has thrown all the grandeur and loveliness of these features upon the eye-filling CinemaScope screen... But Alan Ladd's and the audience's attention is directed to Sophia who explodes beautifully into warmth, glamor, beauty and sex, through frequent and liberal posing of her in full and significant views... Her statuesque beauty reminds us what the Mediterranean can offer in grace and richness...

Diving in the Aegean Sea for sponges off Hydra, peasant girl Phaedra (Sophia Loren) discovers a golden statue of a boy riding a bronze dolphin, chained to the body framework of a wrecked ship... Together with Rhif (Jorge Mistral) her lazy fisherman lover, Niko (Piero Giagnoni) her little brother and an English doctor Hawkins (Laurence Naismith), she tries to look for a rich American sponsor for the raising of the sunken statue...

She had two alternatives: Dr. Jim Calder (Alan Ladd), a U.S archaeologist, devoted to return lost artifacts of great value to their home countries, and Victor Parmalee (Clifton Webb), an ambitious art collector, prepared to pay highly price to cool his insatiable desire for ancient treasures...

With striking photography of the Greek island, the sparkling sea, and the Parthenon, this entertaining film, with nice music by Takes Morakes, is another example of cinema ingenuity...