Go Naked in the World

It is hard to believe that this melodrama film was released three (3) years after the much more realistic and successful (1958) Cat On A hot Tin Roof. Over the top is an understatement. Gina Lollobrigida plays a hooker who falls in love with Anthony Franciosa who is an army veteran just returning to his hometown where his wealthy industrialist father Pete Stratton played by. Ernest Borgnine has laid out a lifelong plan for his war veteran son. Nick Stratton.

Nick obviously wants to find his own way in the world and his plan includes living life happily ever after with his hooker girlfriend,. Guilietta Cameron (Gina Lollobrigida). There's is a whirlwind romance filled with days living life to the fullest and evenings snuggled up in bed. Nick's fathers' attempts to break up his sons fruitless relationship with the hooker Guilietta cause turmoil not only between father and son but Pete Stratton's own relationship with his own wife and his only daughter also become strained.

The acting comes across more as a live stage performance with the cast giving their very best, but like many Broadway productions this MGM film production just didn't have much meat on the bone, as well as being dry and rather tasteless.

I give the film a bland 5 out of 10 IMDB rating.

I find it extremely hard to believe that no one who's seen Go Naked in the World has made the connection that it's a non-operatic version of La Traviata. It's based on Tom T. Charmales's 1959 novel, but it's a shameless copy of the famed story about a young man who falls in love with a prostitute.

Anthony Franciosa plays the young man, his strong, stern disapproving father is Ernest Borgnine. They come from a strict Greek background, and Ernie is just as tough, demanding, controlling, and larger-than-life than you'd expect any self-made man who wants the best for his kids. Yes, he's loud and challenging and impossible, but he also had to battle more in his life than his ingrate children have had to. He's earned the right to be gruff, and beneath it all, you can tell he's coming from a place of love.

Tony is too angry and youthful to appreciate his father's love, so rather than take a job at his extremely successful construction company, he slums it in an apartment and takes up with a beautiful prostitute, Gina Lollobrigida. He has no idea she's "the biggest call girl in town," but the audience knows it from the first scene. If you know La Traviata or Camille, you know how upset he'll get when he finds out. If you don't, you'll be extremely entertained by this heavy drama. There's an added twist to this movie that isn't present in the other stories, one that I happen to love and won't tell you about. You'll just have to rent it to find out why this particular version is so heavy.

If you rent this naughty, post-Code "romance", you'll see three very meaty performances. All three leads are given a lot to do, and they're all very convincing. Ernie certainly made good use of his Oscar, Tony broke free of his Italian-Burt-Lancaster-persona, and Gina was challenged most of all. She's given an enormous range in her scenes, so if you're a fan of the beautiful Italian actress, you're not going to want to miss this one.

I watched this movie because I'm a fan of Gina. The screenplay really sucks.

I liked this film, which struck me as "Camille" in a modern setting with beautiful scenery and wardrobe in color and expressive music in the soundtrack.

The main similarity with "Camille" is the theme of "Redemption and Forgiveness" or the lack thereof with tragic results. Like Armand Duval in "Camille," the young man (portrayed by Anthony Franciosa) idealizes the exquisite young woman with whom he has fallen in love. To him, she is beautiful and innocent, and he wants a future with her. Then his father (Ernest Borgnine) reveals the ugly truth, that Giulietta is a high-priced call girl and that he and his middle-aged friends have been her clients.

The young man is confused, but he wants to forgive Giulietta for her past and help her make a new start by marrying her. They go away on holiday, but former clients (who are self righteous and who have an unforgiving attitude) come out of the woodwork and refuse to let Giulietta forget her past. As in Camille, the end is tragic, leaving the male characters to consider the parts (good or bad) they played in Giulietta's life.

In this lurid early 60's melodrama, Gina Lollobrigida plays a high-class call girl who meets Anthony Franciosca, the son of millionaire construction magnate Ernest Borgnine, a self-made Greek immigrant whose forceful personality and wealth dominates everyone around him. Franciosca has just gotten out of the service and is "finding himself". Franciosca is at first ignorant of Lollobrigida's calling in life, but soon gets wise and also learns that his father and seemingly half the male population in town has used her services.

This is a fairly big budget, lushly made film, set in what looked like possibly San Francisco (?) with a side trip to Acapulco. I'm kind of a sucker for films from this era, their look and style, so it was enjoyable enough though certainly nothing great. Borgnine gives the best performance, though even his character showed a lot of inconsistency - at times, he was quite likable then you wanted to beat him over the head. Gina is voluptuous and sexy, but Franciosca, playing the weakest character, could not overcome the deficiencies of the writing. The biggest problem with the film is the inherent double standard of the time, making the sexually free woman the victim who must pay for her "sins". I'm certainly happy that things have changed in that regard.