Mr. Imperium

Story of a Italian Prince who falls for an Arizona singer while she is performing in Italy. 12 years pass and the actress (Lana Turner) is now a major Hollywood star, and the Prince (Ezio Pinza) is now exiled, at which point they resume the romance.

Lana Turner never looked more beautiful. Ezio Pinza was right off his success from "South Pacific." Turner and Pinza don't make a good couple, and it is somewhat evidenced by the scenes together. Pinza has ample opportunity in this film to show his Operatic talents, in many cases Lana Turner stands around as beautiful window dressing.

Marjorie Main appears in a somewhat rare non Hillbilly role, and pulls it off quite well. Barry Sullivan appears as Lana Turners Hollywood paramour, but that plot line is not followed through with very well.

This movie is in the public domain, and as such can frequently be found on TV, DVD and Video. Despite that fact, it still carries the MGM name well. Beautiful costumes, sets, musical scores and beautiful Technicolor.

This is a typical 13 in a dozen romantic musical movie from the MGM studio's. It's not any better or worse than most other productions, which means that the genre fans will most likely enjoy this movie.

This is your typical enjoyable lighthearted romantic musical comedy from the MGM studio's, which means that the movie is mostly good looking, has some good musical moments but is predictable and formulaic to watch. Does it really matter all? There only are a handful of MGM musicals that have gained the classic status. About 80% of their musical productions are nothing more than simple lighthearted movies that are pleasant to watch but at the same time also extremely forgettable. These sort of movies are good to kill some time with, of course especially if you're a fan of the genre.

Granted that the love-story is not the most believable or compelling one. I don't know but having a 60 year old playboy prince falling for a 30 years younger blond beauty by todays standards feels more dirty than romantic. Guess in the '40's/'50's this was Hollywoods idea of a romantic story and every young girl dreamed of marrying an older, rich, playboy prince. Who knows. Yet the story still works out alright enough, which is thanks to the actors Lana Turner and Ezio Pinza, who also have some good chemistry together.

Further more the movie is filled with all of the formulaic genre ingredients and most things also don't really come as a surprise. The movie is not as musical filled as perhaps other MGM productions, which might disappoint certain people.

The movie is pretty good looking, with some nice sets, costumes and setting, although it's all obvious fake at times. It helps to give the movie a pretty good light feeling and atmosphere, which helps to make this movie a pleasant one to watch.

The movie features some good other actors such as Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Debbie Reynolds in an early role. Yet most of the other characters are underused in the story, which provide the movie with some missed opportunities. The movie overall as a whole has perhaps a tad bit more misses than hits in it, which does make the movie an uneven one to watch at times.

More of the same all but I'm not complaining about it and so most certainly wouldn't the genre fans. The movie deserves a better reputation, for sure.

6/10

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More of a near miss than a flop, MR. IMPERIUM stars Ezio Pinza as Alex, heir apparent to and later king of a small European nation, who falls in love with a willing American actress and entertainer, Fredda Barlo (Lana Turner), but due to machinations by the sly prime minister of Alex as king, nicely played by Cedric Hardwicke, the lovers are separated for 12 years before being reunited in Palm Springs where their love is rekindled. Director Don Hartman, who also scripts, is not able to fully utilize his talent for snappy dialogue because of Pinza's tentative English usage, and the requisite rewriting, coupled with less than total rapport in evidence between the two stars, results in a somewhat raggedy tone to the screenplay, exacerbated by the studio's unkind cutting of many scenes, leading to a confusing ending. The overpowering Pinza dominates his scenes with Turner, but both performers score with good work, while Marjorie Main is impressive with her patter effects as written, with Debbie Reynolds placed on track by Louis B. Mayer for SINGIN' IN THE RAIN as a result of her sprightly performance here; only Barry Sullivan is heavily victimized by the flagrant cutting. Prettily filmed largely in Pebble Beach, California, and other Monterey County environs, the film is endowed with Pinza's iron strong operatic basso in Solamente Una Vez, as well as with original songs by Harold Arlen and Dorothy Fields, with Douglas Shearer splendidly handling the sound recording, and notice must be made of the fine set decorations by Edwin Willis, and the effective costume designs by Walter Plunkett.

Nothing has changed much in Hollywood, MALE producers still seem to think that the world is full of young women "attracted" to old men. While that is obviously the truth in Hollywood, I can't remember the last time a twenty-something (without a daddy complex) went wild over a 60 year old man. Here we have another example of it on film though with Lana Turner who is barely 30 in this movie and the old fart she falls madly in love with (Ezio Pinza) being 60! Ugh, hard to watch, makes the movie a joke. There is even a line in the movie where a 19 year old Debbie Reynolds says "He is good looking." Right, like "Isn't my Grampa dreamy???" Yuck, enough to make your skin crawl. Unfortunately, the pairing of young women with old men is still the norm in Hollywood, we need MORE women producers to make movies that can offer a bit of a balance...like let's say a Ryan Reynolds falling madly in love with Candice Bergen?

I had heard of Ezio Pinza. I understand he was a retired opera singer when this movie was made. As a singer myself, I enjoyed hearing him sing, with his beautiful booming voice. I had heard he played Emile de Becque in "South Pacific".

I have heard so many bad and put-downish things about Lana Turner, but in this movie I find her pleasant, beautiful and intelligent. I enjoyed watching her tie up her turban, thinking that the red color was so garish. But in the next minute, however, when she put on the red cloak all of a sudden the entire outfit made sense and actually looked stunning. I liked the many dresses and sophisticated, colorful high heel shoes she wore in this movie.

Debbie Reynolds was annoyingly perky-perky-perky, but fun. Marjorie Main played a typical domestic persona that I had seen in "Meet Me in Saint Louis". Here again, Marjorie is not playing Ma Kettle.

I liked this movie.