It Started in Naples (1960)

Mike Hamilton, a Philadelphia lawyer, comes to Naples to settle the estate of his long estranged "black sheep" brother. Once there, he discovers that the deceased has left an eight-year old... See full summary »

Director:

Melville Shavelson

Writers:

Melville Shavelson (screenplay), Jack Rose (screenplay)

Stars:

Clark Gable, Sophia Loren, Vittorio De Sica

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 3 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited 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

Storyline

Mike Hamilton, a Philadelphia lawyer, comes to Naples to settle the estate of his long estranged "black sheep" brother. Once there, he discovers that the deceased has left an eight-year old little boy named Nando, who is being raised by Michael's sister-in-law Lucia Curcio. Mike immediately disapproves of Nando's Italian-style (in other words "lax") education. To make matters worse, Lucia happens to be ... a sexy nightclub dancer. This is too much for a puritan like Mike and the only solution in his eyes is to have the boy brought up in the States...

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Plot Keywords:

uncle | aunt | nephew | capri | night club | 

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Taglines:

You'll Never See a Movie With More Carefee Fun and Happy Living!

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Italian

Release Date:

7 August 1960 (USA)

Also Known As:

C'est arrivé à Naples

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Capri Productions, Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The plot was devised for a British film project, intended to star Gracie Fields (a well-known real-life Capri resident). When financing could not be raised, the storyline was sold to Paramount, and then elaborately re-written so that the Fields character became an American man, played by Clark Gable.

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Goofs

When Lucia is on the bed waiting for Michael, she wears a blue dress and dark nylon stockings. When she is outside with her nephew Nando, she is still in her blue dress, but bare legged, and when she enters the house and lies on the bed, she is wearing the dress and stockings again.

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Quotes

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

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Connections

Featured in The Love Goddesses (1965)

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Soundtracks

It Started in Naples
by Alessandro Cicognini, Carlo Savina and Sylvana Simoni
English lyrics by Milton Gabler (as Milt Gabler)

User Reviews

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 !