La sirena y el delfín

Boy On A Dolphin concerns a statue that is just that which is found by lovely sponge diver Sophia Loren in the Aegean Sea. She's got two people interested in it, archaeologist Alan Ladd working for the Greek government and antiquity collector Clifton Webb.

Sophia likes Ladd, but Webb's got the big drachmas. I'll leave it to the experienced movie goer to figure out who she winds up with.

The film was shot in the Grecian Isles it really was her first big exposure (literally) to American audiences in an American film. Originally this was to star Robert Mitchum with her, but he backed out and Ladd was substituted.

Ladd had a miserable time during this film because of the rough humor of the Greek crew regarding his height. Sophia towered over him and 20th Century Fox did the usual compensating that Paramount and Warner Brothers did with him that involved Sophia in a trench or Ladd on a box. Alan Ladd was one of the nicest of Hollywood stars, but a sensitive soul and the barbs wounded him deeply.

The color cinematography in Greece is first rate, you can't photograph a bad color film in that location. Sophia Loren looks real good wet or dry. Reason enough to see Boy On A Dolphin.

This film was one of 1957's top grossers mainly due to the fact that in those years the public wanted exotic European location shooting and the film certainly does a good job of showing Greece and Sophia Loren who is ravishing.The story is a thriller.Alan Ladd plays a archaeologist ,Sophia a poor sponge diver and Clifton Webb an unscrupulous collector of art.The plot is not really that important.What counts is the scenery and Sophia.Alan Ladd whom I have always considered as a very good actor, but underrated by critics does a good job,like always(he always tried his best), all the more so that his partner was really very much taller than him and he suffered from that.I don't understand why everybody made so much fuss about Alan Ladd's size.He was just as short or tall as Humphrey Bogart or James Cagney or even George Raft.The film is very enjoyable.

I saw this movie in the theater when it first came out and then again, years later on t.v. I had the good fortune to tape it onto video as I don't think it can be found in any video stores. I really enjoy this movie as the story is engaging and the location shots are beautiful. Sophia Loren does a fantastic job of portraying a vibrant, headstrong, passionate woman on a mission. I've always liked Clifton Webb and thought he did a typically tight, professional turn as an arrogant, proud art dealer immersed in his own inflated sense of superiority and worldliness. Alan Ladd as Dr. Caulder of the museum in Athens is the low point for me as I never found him to be a particularly good actor. He does okay in this movie but doesn't really fill the screen with great charisma. The soundtrack and the title song are fabulous - at times lilting, haunting, and fun. I find myself humming the title theme for hours after watching the movie. How I often know whether I like a movie or not is if I want to jump into the story and "be there". I definitely would want to "be there".

Sophia Loren is the key to this whole film and whatever you experience with it. Her natural acting gifts, screen presence, beauty and overall pulchritude are remarkable. View it to experience the phenomenon of Sophia. Everything else I am about to write is secondary, but here you are:

The location is attractive as is the lovely theme song. Clifton Webb is notable of course. The story is sort of "An American sojourns in Greece" with nice scenery and water and a cute kid. Its inoffensive and OK 1950's fare.

As for Ladd, he is giving his competent leading man performance that he did on a sort of standard basis, always in his quiet underplayed manner. He's adequate.

Ladd was taller than Robinson, Cagney and numerous others. Paul Newman was often unfairly called "short". Ingrid Bergman was an inch taller than Bogart yet who taunts Bogart about "Casablanca"? Here are the 2 real issues :

(1)- Sophia is a tall woman, taller than her own husband Carlo Ponti, and she towers over many male actors in most of her movies. She is a half inch taller than was Humphrey Bogart (she never made a movie with him so we don't know if he would have stood on a box).

(2)- Sophia was half Ladd's age! The problem in this film is mostly the tremendous age difference between an older, declining leading man and a vigorous, very young beginner actress.

"Taunts" of Ladd's height then and now are missing the point: I believe that the veteran and savvy Ladd probably was rather disinterested as he realized something was awkward here but not height. He was wondering "what am I doing here in these scenes with this young chick half my age?" The following year Ladd made a film with 41-year old leading lady Olivia DeHavilland and it worked.

So these are my theories but please keep them in perspective. "Boy on a Dolphin" is all about Sophia and all this other stuff is really only minor details.

There are two good reasons to see this movie: Sophia Loren. This, if anything, was her breakthrough role and she almost did.

Loren is a sponge diver. Okay. Sponges must come from somewhere I guess. She's Greek. Fine. If Anthony Quinn and Jose Ferrer (neither in this movie) can play every nationality under the sun, and play them well, why not the ladies?

On the Aegen floor (I think It's the Aegean; when Loren climbs into her boat all my senses shut down for a while) she finds a lost artifact of great value: the eponymous boy on a dolphin, so forget any fantasies you may have of an seagoing Roy Rogers (who also isn't in this movie).

Now comes her dilemma, and It's very modern: does she donate it to a museum and see that it's kept where it belongs where, being in a museum, no one will ever know it's there? Or does she sell it to an appreciative collector and live happily ever after on the proceeds? And maybe snag a rich husband in the bargain?

It would take me about two seconds to make up my mind (all but the husband part), but her situation is complicated by her growing affection for the side of good and decency and right, represented by Alan Ladd.

Ladd was an actor of limited range, but he parlayed that into being able to play tough good guys and tough bad guys. And he was a bona fide movie star, which meant he can hold a screen. Unfortunately, in his later years Ladd didn't appear at all well. It's only been a few years since he made what some consider his masterpiece, "Shane," and he's clearly going to seed.

On the other horn of Loren's dilemma is the always delicious Clifton Webb, who also with great facility played good guys and bad guys without changing a note or turning a hair in his performances.

Webb had greater range as an actor but in the movies way back then stardom meant typecasting. People going to the theaters, I suppose, were like diners who wanted their burgers to taste the same whenever they went to their favorite joints. Who doesn't? If they go to a Clifton Webb movie they want to see Clifton Webb. And here he is.

One big mistake in this movie is an almost preternaturally lame title song. I suspect it's one they piped into Soviet gulags during Happy Hour. I nearly switched off. I'm glad I wasn't holding the remote.

Whether you like this movie depends your tolerance for Greek scenery and the freshly-hatched Sophia. She'd grow into a much better actress in English. But even at that stage, she exuded a sense that would come to haunt her when she begged her producer-husband to cast her as Lara in "Dr. Zhivago": she lacks nothing, they said, except inexperience.