Go Naked in the World

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

Sick at home, I chose to watch this despite having no idea what this movie was about. Never heard of it before either.

First off, Bourgnine really got into the role of a domineering Greek immigrant architect. He spends quite a bit of time yelling at everyone. His scenes with Franciosa are very good and provided me with a reason to watch the whole thing. Lollobrigida is good but the scenes between her and Franciosa are gooey.

The plot is interesting as Lollobrigida's character is revealed to be a high-class hooker leading to Franciosa's character's very confused response and his confkict with his father who happens to be one of her clients. It could have been interesting but the movie opts for cheap moralizing at the end. I have seen the same ending in "bad girl tries to make good" movies from the 1930s.

The title is also a cheap attempt to get the male audience to think they might glimpse Lolabrigida nude at some point. Never comes close although there's a wild dissolve / montage that has an erupting champagne bottle superimposed over Lollobrigida face as she's clearly on her back. Hmmm.

You can skip it if it ever shows up again.

Nick Stratton (Anthony Franciosa) has a 30 day furlough from the Army before deciding on re-enlisting. He returns home to San Francisco and falls for Giulietta Cameron (Gina Lollobrigida). His father Pete Stratton (Ernest Borgnine) is a self-made Greek immigrant construction tycoon. He is torn between his controlling father and his obsession with Giulietta who turns out to be a high class call girl.

I don't particularly like any of these characters and I don't have the joy of hating any of them either. Nick is annoying. Italian star Gina Lollobrigida is wasted on this melodramatic role. Ernest Borgnine is probably the most compelling actor in the cast. He and his son on the high beam is the most intense scene. The son is just too pathetic and I don't like the father either in this melodramatic mess.

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.

"Go Naked in the World" is a very bad film....a glossy, good looking bad film. The more you watch it, the more you realize it's a bad film....with too many characters who seem like caricatures and absolutely no subtlety. It's a shame, as there are many interesting story elements but the sum total is just bad...really bad. Better writers EASILY could have made this into a very good film...but apparently these were not better writers!

When the story begins, Nick Stratten (Tony Franciosa) has returned to his hometown after serving a hitch in the army. While you might think he'd go straight home to see his parents, Nick doesn't as his relationship with his father is extremely problematic! Pete Stratten (Ernest Borgnine) is a loud, blustering and controlling father....and Nick claims that he wants to be free of his father's control. However, although this seems admirable that Nick wants to make his own way in life, he's a jerk-face...who goes to his father for money but then, at the same time, resents his old man and makes it obvious. As for the father, he's no prince....as he's never been faithful to his wife and has spent time schtupping a high-class prostitute, Guilietta (Gina Lollobrigida). Later, Nick finds out that his new girlfriend, the one he's head-over-heels over, is the girl Pete's been seeing for years. And, apparently, so have many, many of Pete's friends! This is obviously NOT a super-healthy family!!

So why did I dislike the film so much? I blame much of it on the writers (as I mentioned above) and the director. After all, Pete is supposed to be a large personality....but there is zero subtlety about the guy and he spends most of the movie screaming his lines. I know Ernest Borgnine was a fabulous actor, so I don't completely blame him, but his character is so unreal. As for Nick and the rest of them, it's so sad that the LEAST over-the-top and most real character was the prostitute!!

The film COULD have been a great film about a father and son who are estranged. There ARE interesting things in the movie. But instead, it's just badly written, unconvincing and dumb....and filled with a bazillion and one plot holes. Ut also suffers from one huge problem....you simply don't like most of the characters! It's a pretty looking bad film, but a bad film nonetheless.