Bright , slight comedy of two stardom heavywights : Gable and Loren . Charming and cheerful movie set in Italy , days before his wedding, a Philadelphia lawyer called Mike Hamilton (Clark Gable) travels to Naples in Southern Italy to settle the estate of his late brother, only to find that he has an Italian nephew who is being cared for by his brother's girlfriend , a cabaret singer (Sophia Loren) who's really volluble with Italian guile and grabbiness. 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. Both of whom squabble over the future of the little boy fast turning into a delinquent amid the dolce vita temptations of a travelogue Italy . Hamilton gets a little unexpected help from the Italian lawyer Mario Vitale (Vittorio de Sicca) . You'll Never See a Movie With More Carefee Fun and Happy Living!. You'll Want to Be There When the Fun Starts!
One-joke romantic comedy in which Gable stiff with hygiene and honesty and gorgeous Loren fall in love , but due to the thorny problem of the adoption a kid things go wrong ; along the way he grows more and more in love for her . Clark Gable is very agreeable as Mike Hamilton, a Philadelphia lawyer, comes to Naples to settle the estate of his long estranged brother .This was the last movie Clark Gable made that was released during his lifetime , Gable's next to last film "The Misfits" (1961) before his death , he had already had two strokesb, but continued to smoke 60 cigarettes a day. And Sophia Loren is magnificent as brother's widow and sexy nightclub dancer and the film is kept afloat chiefly by Loren's engaging ebullience . And special mention for Vittorio De Sica who gives a stunningly likable acting , he would direct and co write the screenplay for the film (La Ciociara) or "Two Women" which won Sophia Loren an Academy Award for Best Actress . A similar formula was used by director Melville Shavelson himself in "Houseboat" or Cintia (1958) this time with Gary Grant and Sophia Loren. Originally intented as a vehicle for Gracie Fields who was 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, Hamilton/Gable.
This agreeable movie was wonderfully photographed in attractive Italian outdoors. In fact , there are lots of Naples and Capri sightseeing , spectacularly shot by great Hollywood cameraman Robert Surtees . Accompanied by an evocative and lively musical score by Alessandro Cicognini and Carlo Savina , and including catching song sung by Sophia Loren herself . The picture was professionally written and directed by Melville Shavelson but it results to be a minor vehicle for the great Clark Gable. Shavelson's movies have a special penchant for recapturing a particular atmosphere , many of his films are about real people but they remain muted in impact . A notorious screenwriter , Bob Hope -whom Shavelson had originally wanted for the lead- and Danny Kaye features Shavelson's pictures when he became filmmaker and his films with them are the most successful such as ¨The seven tittle Foys¨ , "Beau James¨, ¨On the Double¨ and ¨Five pennies¨ . Shavelson's later pictures were made for TV and mostly biographies as ¨The great Houdini¨ , ¨Ike¨, ¨Ike : the war years¨, and ¨The legend of Valentino¨ which remains the best work on the subject to date . Two of the best films turned out to be ¨Cast a giant shadow¨ , an epic movie with all-star-cast dealing with the birth of Israel and ¨Yours , mine and ours¨ his biggest hit . Rating : 7/10. The flick will appeal to Clark Gable and Sofia Loren fans.
