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This was Dean Martin's first solo movie after his split with Jerry Lewis and a pretty dire one it is too. He plays "Hunter" a millionaire hotelier who flies to Rome to oversee the latest addition to his empire-a traditional old Roman hotel acquired from its aristocratic patron.While there he becomes engaged to the youngest of the four daughters of a musician (played winningly by Walter Slezak in the best performance in the movie).He refuses permission for the marriage until the other (elder)daughters are wed .So ,Martin sets out to locate husbands for them .Further complicating matters is the growing affection between his bride to be and his pilot ,as played by Dewey Martin. It helps if you are writing a comedy to include some funny lines or scenes but -some 48 hours after watching the picture not one line or scene stays in my mind as even mildly amusing .Nor are the regular musical interludes in which Martin breaks into song memorable in any way . Martin is woeful -in a role calling for charm he merely appears smug and self satisfied .Thankfully he was to get better at light comedy but this performance is a total misfire . Some nice travelogue shots of Rome compensate but for the most part this is trite and derisory.

Starts out pretty good, with a good storyline, but what a sudden, cut-off, abrupt crap ending. Star Dean Martin is mister rich american, who flies to It-lee to buy a hotel. He meets a young lady, then meets her sisters, and now he can't decide who he really loves more. The sisters are all played by AnnaMaria Alberghetti, Eva Bartok, Lisa Montell, and Lisa Gaye. There is something strange about Eva Bartok when she smiles, or attempts to smile... it looks like her tongue is trying to hold in false teeth or something; the smile always comes out crooked, or she starts to smile and immediately stops. Very distracting. Walter Slezak is the Dad, and he doesn't approve of anyone marrying the youngest daughter before the older ones are married.. (they are all beautiful.. .why AREN'T they married??) Paul Henreid is completely wasted in a little nothing role. He was so great in Casablanca and Now Voyager just a couple years back. Martin keeps singing.. was that HIS idea, or the director's? should have cut out a few of his numbers and spent more time on the script; the end of the story feels like they left a scene on the cutting room floor or something. It's already 114 minutes, but i think they cut the wrong scenes. Skip it.

This was, of course, the first Dean Martin film in which he

appeared without his entertainment partner Jerry Lewis.

Thirty years ago, someone had told me that this was an

excellent movie, and that Dean Martin's films had declined from

this start.

I finally got a chance to see the film, and I do think that it was an

excellent qualified debut! I rate it 10 out of a possible 10.

The songs and the singing were exquisite. The plot was a

little confusing with set of the Italian sisters, but typical M-G-M

original screenplay quality.

I cannot understand, though, why none of this was put into any

of the M-G-M compilation That's Entertainment films! I think that

Dean Martin's presence would have been an enhancement to the

other great stars. Even the hilarious interpretation (not by Mr.

Martin) of Bill Haley's Rock around the Clock would have been a

good source of material.

See this film whenever you get the chance!

I had never seen Ten Thousand Bedrooms before. What a weird title? But still I enjoyed this one and what a cast! There were a few I couldn't name at first, but these names finally came to me; they were Jules Munshin who appeared in Kelly, Sinatra films namely On The Town; and Paul Henried, who played Anton the sculptor. The singing of four sisters including Anna Marie Albergetie and Dean Martin sing a couple of beautiful songs, and Dean and Jules sing a funny song about The Problem of Money. The actor who steals the show is indubitably Walter Slezak; a fine character actor. He is the confused father of four daughters who are asked to be married, but it takes a long time for the confusion to be resolved. It is not a very fast well paced movie but it is enjoyable. It was Dean Martin's first movie after his breakup with Jerry Lewis in 1957.

Ten Thousand Bedrooms has its place in movie history as Dean Martin's first solo effort without Jerry Lewis. It also nearly sunk his career. Good thing The Young Lions came immediately after this and Dino got deserved rave reviews for that one.

To be fair MGM did give him a good supporting cast and apparently spared no expense in filming this on location in Rome. Ever since Roman Holiday, Rome was pretty popular with movie audiences. Three Coins in the Fountain and Seven Hills of Rome did pretty good box office in the 1950s.

But this wasn't a Dean Martin role. I think MGM probably dusted off a property they had offered to Cary Grant and gave it to him. There was no real effort to exploit the unique personality that was Dean Martin.

Nicholas Brodzky and Sammy Cahn wrote four songs for Dino to sing, none of them especially memorable. As if they were hedging their bets, they gave him a comedy number to do with Jules Munshin who plays his valet. Kind of like the material he used to do with Jerry Lewis at Paramount.

According to the definitive biography of Dean Martin by Nick Tosches, Dino turned down the lead in The Pajama Game for this one. Well movie audiences did get to see John Raitt finally do one of his Broadway starring roles for the screen. But Dean would have been perfect opposite Doris Day.

Not his best career move.