It Started in Naples *** (1960, Clark Gable, Sophia Loren, Vittorio De Sica) – Classic Movie Review 6920

The ageing Clark Gable announced that he was too old to play romantic leading roles and would be looking for different kinds of parts after But Not for Me (1959), but his next film is the romantic comedy It Started in Naples (1960) with the much younger Sophia Loren.

Co-writer/ director Melville Shavelson’s 1960 movie stars Gable as American attorney Michael Hamilton who comes to Italy after his brother’s death to fly home to Philadelphia with his orphaned 10-year-old nephew Nando (Marietto). But the waif’s sexy stripper aunt Lucia Curcio (Loren) battles to keep custody of him.

It Started in Naples is a conventional, good-natured romantic drama that works thanks to the appealing star pairing, a surfeit of lovely scenery and amusing if stereotypical culture-clash comedy (the supposedly puritanical Americans versus the supposedly carefree Italians).

The story by Michael Pertwee and Jack Davies is a tad thin and drawn out in the screenplay by Melville Shavelson, Jack Rose and Suso Cecchi d’Amico, but it remains entirely serviceable and good-natured. The performances are on the broad, slightly crude side, but the era’s inevitable co-star Vittorio De Sica delights as an over-the-top local lawyer by the name of Mario Vitale.

Incidentally, though it starts in Naples it actually happens on Capri, since the film was intended as a showcase for British comedienne Gracie Fields, who lived on the island and made it famous. It is filmed on the Isle of Capri, Naples, Campania, Italy; in Naples, Campania, Italy; and at Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy.

It Started in Naples is directed by Melville Shavelson, runs 100 minutes is made by Capri Productions and Paramount Pictures, is released by Paramount, is written by Melville Shavelson, Jack Rose and Suso Cecchi d’Amico, based on a story by Michael Pertwee and Jack Davies, is shot in Technicolor by Robert Surtees, is produced by Jack Rose, is scored by Alessandro Cicognini and Carlo Savina, and is designed by Hal Pereira and Roland Anderson.

Also in the cast are Claudio Ermelli, Paolo Carlini, Giovanni Filidoro, Bob Cunningham, Marco Tulli, Carlo Rizzo and Yvonne Monlaur.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6920

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