C'est arrivé à Naples

What a wonderful movie starring two of filmdoms' greatest stars-Clark Gable and the beautiful Sophia Loren. Set in Naples and the island of Capri this is one attractive movie.Great story line and excellent music and a wonderful performance by the master himself Vittorio De Sica. Add to the cast a young Italian actor by the name of Marietto playing a wise-cracking street kid from Naples and you have the perfect afternoon treat. Though this was Gables' second last movie before the ill fated Misfits (a movie I would rather forget)he looks in excellent shape and still has that twinkle in his eye that made him a star for over 25 years. This movie is just magic. Enough said.

This will be hard for many film lovers to believe, but I never liked Clark Gable. I've seen some of his classics like "Gone With the Wind" and "It Happened One Night", and I was always turned off by the narcissistic, arrogant jerk he always seemed to play. I only wanted to see this film because I was about to take a trip to Naples and I was hoping for some nice scenery. I was also hoping Gable wouldn't ruin it for me completely.

Jackpot! The combination of the location filming, interesting premise, clever writing, humor, solid supporting performances by Marietto and Vittorio De Sica, and Gable's highly entertaining portrayal of a short-tempered curmudgeon rather than his usual dashing know-it-all really made this film for me. I don't know how many times I've watched it. I even bought the DVD, and I buy very few due to a serious lack of storage space, because I knew I would want to share it.

During the time I spent in Naples I was constantly reminded of things in the movie: fireworks, schedules that are wrong but 'everyone knows it', endless varieties of coffee… this movie really "gets" Naples, and surprisingly some things about it haven't changed all that much in fifty years.

And now that I'm finally feeling well-disposed towards Mr. Gable, maybe I'll have to give some of his other work a second try.

Bright , slight comedy of two stardom heavywights : Gable and Loren . Charming and cheerful movie set in Italy , days before his wedding, a Philadelphia lawyer called Mike Hamilton (Clark Gable) travels to Naples in Southern Italy to settle the estate of his late brother, only to find that he has an Italian nephew who is being cared for by his brother's girlfriend , a cabaret singer (Sophia Loren) who's really volluble with Italian guile and grabbiness. Once there, he discovers that the deceased has left an eight-year old little boy named Nando, who is being raised by Michael's sister-in-law Lucia Curcio. Both of whom squabble over the future of the little boy fast turning into a delinquent amid the dolce vita temptations of a travelogue Italy . Hamilton gets a little unexpected help from the Italian lawyer Mario Vitale (Vittorio de Sicca) . You'll Never See a Movie With More Carefee Fun and Happy Living!. You'll Want to Be There When the Fun Starts!

One-joke romantic comedy in which Gable stiff with hygiene and honesty and gorgeous Loren fall in love , but due to the thorny problem of the adoption a kid things go wrong ; along the way he grows more and more in love for her . Clark Gable is very agreeable as Mike Hamilton, a Philadelphia lawyer, comes to Naples to settle the estate of his long estranged brother .This was the last movie Clark Gable made that was released during his lifetime , Gable's next to last film "The Misfits" (1961) before his death , he had already had two strokesb, but continued to smoke 60 cigarettes a day. And Sophia Loren is magnificent as brother's widow and sexy nightclub dancer and the film is kept afloat chiefly by Loren's engaging ebullience . And special mention for Vittorio De Sica who gives a stunningly likable acting , he would direct and co write the screenplay for the film (La Ciociara) or "Two Women" which won Sophia Loren an Academy Award for Best Actress . A similar formula was used by director Melville Shavelson himself in "Houseboat" or Cintia (1958) this time with Gary Grant and Sophia Loren. Originally intented as a vehicle for Gracie Fields who was a well-known real-life Capri resident , when financing could not be raised, the storyline was sold to Paramount, and then elaborately re-written so that the Fields character became an American man, Hamilton/Gable.

This agreeable movie was wonderfully photographed in attractive Italian outdoors. In fact , there are lots of Naples and Capri sightseeing , spectacularly shot by great Hollywood cameraman Robert Surtees . Accompanied by an evocative and lively musical score by Alessandro Cicognini and Carlo Savina , and including catching song sung by Sophia Loren herself . The picture was professionally written and directed by Melville Shavelson but it results to be a minor vehicle for the great Clark Gable. Shavelson's movies have a special penchant for recapturing a particular atmosphere , many of his films are about real people but they remain muted in impact . A notorious screenwriter , Bob Hope -whom Shavelson had originally wanted for the lead- and Danny Kaye features Shavelson's pictures when he became filmmaker and his films with them are the most successful such as ¨The seven tittle Foys¨ , "Beau James¨, ¨On the Double¨ and ¨Five pennies¨ . Shavelson's later pictures were made for TV and mostly biographies as ¨The great Houdini¨ , ¨Ike¨, ¨Ike : the war years¨, and ¨The legend of Valentino¨ which remains the best work on the subject to date . Two of the best films turned out to be ¨Cast a giant shadow¨ , an epic movie with all-star-cast dealing with the birth of Israel and ¨Yours , mine and ours¨ his biggest hit . Rating : 7/10. The flick will appeal to Clark Gable and Sofia Loren fans.

You have to forgive this movie several faults in order to enjoy it. Clark Gable, at 59, is far too old for Sophia Loren, 26. The musical numbers are weak with the exception of 'Americano', and let's face it, Loren is no Ginger Rogers. The custody battle for the child – Loren's son and Gable's nephew – is absurd to begin with, and then compounded by silly back and forth melodrama in the second half of the film. The film on the surface seems to be a loving look at Italy and Italians, but Gable's character is condescending with an annoying American arrogance, and the film as a whole is a bit patronizing.

And yet, despite all that, I found it somewhat enjoyable, and certainly better than expected. Shot on location in Naples and Capri, the scenery is gorgeous and many of the shots in the streets or piazzas look authentic. Gable gets off a lot of wry one-liners in a script where the dialogue is better than events. Loren may not have the greatest dance moves, but she does show both a comedic side and a touching side in her playful relationship with her son, in addition to, well, being a knockout and all. I love the scene where Loren is sprawled out face down on the bed after a long night dancing, and her son pokes her in the behind with a meat fork in front of Gable. The supporting cast is all-Italian, and the little boy (Marietto) and the lawyer (Vittorio De Sica) turn in good performances. There are moments that seem cliché, but there are also moments that seem spontaneous, and quite true to southern Italy. Far from perfect, but enjoyable.

Philadelphia lawyer Michael Hamilton (Clark Gable) arrives in Naples to settle the estate of his philandering brother...

He learns that his brother had taken a common-law wife who died with him in an automobile accident, leaving a ten-year-old lovechild named Nando...

Nando (Marietto) is looked after by his attractive aunt Lucia (Sophia Loren), a dazzling night-club dancer on Capri, who dreams of someday becoming a movie star...

Almost immediately, Mike and Lucia clash over the boy's upbringing...

Lucia wants to keep the lad and let him live as he chooses... The street urchin stays up half the night in the club, smokes cigarettes and indulges in trivial theft... Mike is aghast, and insists he be giving a proper formal and social education...

The matter is put to the court, but during the struggle for Marietto's affections, the couple fall in love and fight a lot when Hamilton makes it clear that marriage is out...

Photographed in Capri, the Island of Dreams, the pearl of the Mediterranean sea, the film is a nice romantic comedy in which a sexy Queen captures the 'King of Hollywood.'

Gable delivers one of the most memorable lines of the movie when he asks, at night, a waiter: 'How are people supposed to sleep on this island?'