La donna più bella del mondo

There’s quite a familiar premise supporting this colourful costume drama, and it’s proof that Gina Lollobrigida can turn out an operatic aria with some considerable skill, too. Indeed, it’s her own dulcets delivering Verdi’s beautiful “Vissi d’arte” that starts this drama off. Her character, “Lina” is a music hall cantante at the turn of the twentieth century who has a brief encounter with the visiting Russian prince “Sergei” (Vittorio Gassman). The two fall hook, line, and sinker but he must leave to rejoin his regiment. Meantime, she is adopted by musical maestro “Doria” (Robert Alda) who takes her under his wing and to Paris where she is swiftly the talk of the town. A brief but rather controversial reunion with her princely beau could put the kibosh on their dreams and so she turns her affections to her co-star “Silvani” (Gino Sinimberghi) but when he falls victim to an on-stage mishap, it’s her mentor who hopes to capitalise on her confused predicament as her success goes from strength to strength. With an imperial command performance in St. Petersburg looming, it looks like she and “Sergei” might be thrown together again, but will that be a good thing or disastrous? Gassman is adequate here as the dashingly uniformed prince, and the others do fine in support - but this is really a vehicle for a star who glides effortlessly through this story delivering plenty of grand scale set-pieces as well as a lively duel with her feisty rival “Manolita” (Tamara Lees). The production designers, costumiers and orchestrations are as impressive as anything Hollywood was producing in the mid 1950s, and although it’s structurally a little too episodic, it’s an enjoyable historical romance that I quite enjoyed.