It Started in Naples (1960)

Director:

Melville Shavelson

Writers:

Michael Pertwee (story) &
Jack Davies (story) ...

Release Date:

7 August 1960 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

Mike Hamilton, a Philadelphia lawyer, comes to Naples to settle the estate of his long estranged "black sheep" brother...

Plot Keywords:

Italy | Place Name In Title | Beautiful Woman | Affair | Claim In Title

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 3 nominations

Cast

Clark Gable	...	Michael Hamilton
Sophia Loren	...	Lucia Curcio
Vittorio De Sica	...	Mario Vitale
Marietto	...	Nando Hamilton
Paolo Carlini	...	Renzo
Giovanni Filidoro	...	Gennariello
Claudio Ermelli	...	Luigi
Bob Cunningham	...	Don Mc Guire - Train Passenger
Marco Tulli
Carlo Rizzo
Yvonne Monlaur

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (re-rating) (2005) | West Germany:12 | France:U | Australia:PG | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Capri Productions

Trivia:

At one point Sophia Loren accused director Melville Shavelson of filming her from her less attractive side in order to favor co-star Clark Gable. She added, "He doesn't have to worry about his career any more, but I have to worry about mine." Gable immediately exploded, "What the hell is she talking about? Both sides of my face are lousy and my backside isn't much better." Relations between the two stars did not improve after that.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Mike and Lucia order up stiff drinks for each other at the bar. Mike orders a bourbon drink for Lucia and she orders a Campari based drink for Mike. However when each of them grabs the bottle of liquor to top off the others drink the bottles are switched. Mike's gets topped off with Burbon and Lucia's with Campari.

Quotes:

Mario Vitale: A man can be a pig and a lawyer at the same time.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Stay Here with Me

La donna e bella !

This film really has to take the cake as being one of the most romantic comedies ever made, I have watched it countless times and this year it was finally issued on DVD with excellent picture quality devoid of clicks, blotches and other compression artefacts.

The film is plastically beautiful, the surroundings are out of this world, Sophia Loren is beautiful, sexy, funny, what more could you ask, Nando is a gorgeous character and Mark Hamilton ( Clark Gable ) carries his rôle to perfection. The dialogues between him and Nando are absolutely scrumptious. Yhe story line which alternates between moments of pure romance then quarrelling and back again keeps the spectator on his/her toes even if the outcome is guessed in advance. I just loved the scene where Gable is in the train, listens to the comments of his compatriots in the compartment, just gets up and goes .. an excellent ending.

The sets of the film are beautiful, I have never been to Capri but it sure looks a beautiful and romantic place. The 100,000 euro question is "Does it Still Look Like that in 2005" . Hopefully one or more of the inhabitants will read this and let us know !!

My only beef on this film is trying to get hold of the sound track, no cd in the world seems to contain it - surprising when you consider the number of film sound tracks now available. My favourite is actually the title song ( instrumental ) which was composed by a certain Alessandro Cicognini, and which appears at various intervals in the film, including in a vocal version sung in Italian with a rhumba rhythm - no one tells us what the title is - so God knows how this can be found. The song "Tu vuo fa l'americano" sung by Loren in the nightclub has fared better ! It has actually been sung by one of the artists well known here in France, Dany Brilliant and his version, though not as good as Loren's is not bad at all. As for the other tunes, no sign of them anywhere.

Hopefully one day, someone somewhere will have the intelligence to issued the INTEGRAL sound track of this film on a cd. Given the amount of time we have had to wait to have the film on DVD, there may still be hope for a cd later. Brilliant !