Oh Bogie Again...

The Barefoot Contessa(dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
The best aspect of this film is that it takes it's material seriously even though it should be taking it not so seriously. The worst aspect of this film is that it thinks it is a representation of life, when it clearly is not. The story is as artificial as you can get. A woman becomes a movie star then the expensive plaything of a South American millionaire then the Cinderella to an Italian count. The count's confession to his new bride is amusing just because of the dialogue and the straight-faced delivery of it. The ending is about as trashy as you can get. Another film called Duel in the Sun also had trashy material, but unlike the material in this film, was amusing by itself and didn't have to depend on a straight-faced delivery. The more I think about that particular film, the more I think it's a masterpiece mainly due to the fact it had moments of true beauty and it was wildly excessive in terms of acting and cinematography to match the overblown and trashy nature of it's script. This film, however, is just an amazingly amusing directing miscalculation.
*** out of ****