MAMBO

Italy/US, 1954, 110 minutes, Black and white.
Silvana Mangano, Vittorio Gassman, Shelley Winters, Michael Rennie, Katherine Dunham.
Directed by Robert Rossen.

Mambo is a melodramatic oddity. It is an American/Italian co production of the early '50s, at the period of de Sica's Indiscretion of an American Wife and Mankiewicz's The Barefoot Contessa. Based on a story of Ennio de Concini, the film had many scriptwriters including the American director and writer Robert Rossen (Body and Soul, the Oscar winning All the King's Men, Alexander the Great etc.) The film was considerably cut and reedited after the initial editing. The film boasts an interesting cast, though the English and American cast handle the Italian atmosphere with some unease. Dancer Katherine Dunham and her troupe are featured with considerable interest.
The film's material is conventional and the treatment in the final version of the film is also fairly conventional. (Of historic interest, the film is a co production of later production magnates Carlo Ponti and Dino de Laurentiis.

1. The impact of the film? As an Italian film? An American/Italian co production? For an Italian audience? Universal audience?

2. Black and white photography: atmosphere of Italy, especially Venice? Authenticity of locations and sets? The importance of the musical score? The atmosphere of cabaret and ballet? The atmosphere of the Mambo? The special effects? The questions of editing and reediting and their impact on continuity, dramatic presentation of character, flashbacks?

3. The atmosphere of Italian realism and its development in the '50s? The blend of realism and interpretation of character in heightened and melodramatic circumstances? The conventional nature of the basic plot? the shop girl, ambitions, falling in love, criminals, the upper class, American management, the fulfilment of dreams?

4. The plausibility of the plot? Familiarity? Sufficient for audiences to accept the situations? The characters? The hothouse atmosphere and the melodrama? Romance, betrayals, driving ambition, deaths?

5. The focus on Giovanna? The interpretation of Silvana Mangano? Her status in the Italian film industry of the '50s? Her shop girl background, ambitions? Her tenement dwelling? Poverty? Her love with Mario and his black market background? The casino? The encounter with Enrico and the masked ball? Her reaction to the Count's attack on her? Her dancing, the attraction of Toni and her invitation to join the troupe? Katherine Dunham and her company? Giovanna's joining the troupe, driven hard by Toni and her becoming a star? Her return to Venice and the changed attitudes? The new encounter with Giovanna? Toni's intervening? Her death and its repercussions? The reappearance of the Count and his proposal? The confrontation with Mario and the discovery of the Count's illness? His persuading Giovanna to marry, the motive of greed? Giovanna falling in love with the Count? The fight? Her renunciation, the money, her deciding to become a famous dancer? A sympathetic portrayal of this kind of girl?


6. The contrast between the two men? Vittorio Gassman and his style, Michael Rennie with the English background? Mario and the slick operations in Venice, work at the casino, plans, the relationship with Giovanna? Her leaving him? His asserting influence over her, the greed and the pressures on the Count, the fight? Enrico and his background, society, wealth, the masked ball, his impulsive attempt to make love? His patronage? The proposal? Her genuine love for him? His death?

7. Shelley Winters' style as Toni? Her professionalism, the background of her failing as a dancer, management, her vicarious success through Giovanna? Her influence as regards Giovanna’s private life? Toni's anger about Mario? Her death in the accident and the contrivances of the plot?

8. Katherine Dunham and her particular style of dancing, her company, its success? The contribution of the dance troupe for the music of the film, its style? Authenticity? Katherine Dunham's choreography?

9. The background in Italy: Giovanna and her work, home, relationships? The influences in her life? The contrast with the Marisoni family? Their style, affluence, snobbery? The background of the Italian world of black markets, gambling, casinos?

10. The focus of the title, musical style, the style of the '50s? As a symbol of society and of Giovanna?

11. The morbid tone of the film? The heavy touches? How satisfying as entertainment ? the background of the times? Later decades?