Some great scenery shot in Capri and a very sexy Sophia Loren saved a boring evening this weekend when there was absolutely nothing to watch on how ever many hundreds of TV channels we have; how have I never watched the 1960 It Started In Naples starring Sophia Loren and Clark Cable?
When Mike, played by Gable, travels to Naples the day before his wedding (…um, OK), to settle his deceased brother’s affairs, he discovers an 8-year-old nephew that he knew nothing about that is being cared for by a sister-in-law that he’s never met.
The sister-in-law, played by Sophia Loren is a kind of “woman of easy virtue”, down on her luck, who is not exactly “caregiver of the year” for the boy. He stays up all night, can’t imagine waking up at 8:00 am for school, smokes cigarettes, and prefers coffee to chocolate sodas.
Mike’s a stick-in-the-mud who doesn’t see the humor in all this and wants to get the kid out of there, but of course Capri is a force to be reckoned with, and so is Sophia Loren, so I’ll bet you can guess what happens.
It’s cute retro fun, and there’s a surprising amount of Italian with no subtitles, which along with the on-site filming makes it realistic in ways beyond the plot. And the biggest surprise; the famous director of Ladri di Biciclette, Vittoria De Sica, has a small part in it!
Pop open a bottle of cheap Chianti and get your Italian fix with this one.
Director: Melville Shavelson
Writers: Melville Shavelson
Stars: Clark Gable, Sophia Loren, Vittorio De Sica
I Love Italian Everything 