Courtesans have been practising their skills since time immemorial and of those that flourished during La Belle Epoque none was more renowned than Spanish born Caroline Otero. She owed her celebrity to being a 'dancer'. How talented she was is debatable but a very short film from 1898 showing her dancing to 'La Valse Brillante' of Chopin reveals a charisma and vitality which could not have failed to attract male admirers. Her list of paramours, one hesitates to use the word 'clients', reads like a 'Who's Who' of the Aristocracy including an heir to the British throne and a Russian Grand Duke. She lost her considerable fortune in casinos however and ended up in one room. She must have been extremely thankful for the fee she received when her memoirs were adapted for film in 1954.
At the time this was made there could not conceivably have been anyone to play the role other than the dark-eyed, raven-haired force of Nature that was Maria Felix and by all accounts she turned down 'The Barefoot Contessa' in order to do it. Although the dubbing of her voice, both speaking and singing, leaves a lot to be desired, she looks utterly ravishing in Marcel Escoffier's costumes and exudes sensuality from every pore. In fact the Oestrogen practically leaps off the screen. The writers have also gone easy on Otero's character and have stopped short of showing her to be the opportunistic, manipulative user of men that she undoubtedly was.
Capable director Richard Pottier never allows the pace to slacken and it is shot by Michel Kelber in glorious Eastmancolor. Her leading men alas are all rather bland but mention must be made of one of French cinema's best and most ubiquitous character actors, Louis Seigner of the Comedie Francaise who plays Otero's manager. Their scenes together are the best in the film.
As a biopic it is rather superficial and merely designed to show both La Bella Otero and La Dona Maria in the best possible light.
