Mambo (1954)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Robert Rossen

Writers:

Ennio De Concini (writer)
Ivo Perilli (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

18 September 1954 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Cast

Silvana Mangano	...	Giovanna Masetti
Michael Rennie	...	Enrico Marisoni
Vittorio Gassman	...	Mario Rossi
Shelley Winters	...	Toni Salerno
Katherine Dunham	...	Dance teacher
Mary Clare	...	Contessa Marisoni
Eduardo Ciannelli	...	Padre di Giovanna
Julie Robinson	...	Marisa
Walter Zappolini
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ottone Candiani
Franco Caruso	...	Pio
Mimi Dugini
Giovanna Galletti
Cecilia Maris	...	Barbara
Martitia Palmer	...	Lena Masetti
Sergio Parlato	...	Eduardo
Catherine Zago

Directed by
Robert Rossen

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ennio De Concini		writer
Ivo Perilli		writer
Guido Piovene		writer
Robert Rossen		writer

Produced by
Dino De Laurentiis	....	producer
Carlo Ponti	....	producer

Original Music by
Angelo Francesco Lavagnino
Nino Rota

Cinematography by
Harold Rosson

Film Editing by
Adriana Novelli

Production Design by
Andrej Andrejew
Bruno Fabrizio

Art Direction by
Andrej Andrejew

Costume Design by
Giulio Coltellacci

Music Department
Franco Ferrara	....	musical director

Other crew
Katherine Dunham	....	choreographer
Tina Lattanzi	....	voice dubbing: Mary Clare
Lidia Simoneschi	....	voice dubbing: Silvana Mangano

Production Companies

• Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica
• Paramount Pictures

Distributors

• Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica (1954) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Paramount Pictures (1955) (USA) (theatrical)
• Paramount Films de España (1959) (Spain) (theatrical)

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

Italy | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-8 | Italy:VM14 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15

Company:

Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica

Movie Connections:

Featured in Nuovo cinema Paradiso (1988)

Rough but worth roughing it

The sound and the editing are rough to the point of being distracting, and the film starts slowly. Those are really the only minuses though. The writing is good, the directing is good for the most part. The actors are well directed at least, and the pacing is good.

There are three real draws to this film: Silvana Mangano's solid performance, a great supporting contribution by Shelley Winters, and a rather intense melodramatic screenplay. Rossen is not credited as a writer, but I find it hard to believe that he didn't have a significant hand in it. Many of the scenes are written in a style quite close to his.

Briefly the story runs as follows, a poor venetian in love with a dead end guy is taken under the wing of a Mambo dance producer (Shelley Winters). She briefly finds fame and then a problematic and complicated marriage with a count (the why of it you will have to find out for yourself). Her marriage is troubled by her relationship with her former lover Mario.

This film has been on my to-watch list ever since seeing a brief snippet of it in Nanni Moretti's "Caro Diario". For the most part I think it was referenced as a dancing film, but if you watch this you'll see there are some subtler ties to (which I can't mention without spoiling the film).

Silvana's closing lines: "Perhaps in my third world, the absorbing world of the Mambo, I could find forgetfulness of the past, and in time peace and happiness."