It Started in Naples is an American romantic comedy film made by Paramount Pictures and released in August 1960. It was directed by Melville Shavelson and produced by Jack Rose from a screenplay by Suso Cecchi d'Amico based on the story by Michael Pertwee and Jack Davies. The Technicolor cinematography was by Robert Surtees.
The film stars Clark Gable, Sophia Loren, Vittorio De Sica and an Italian cast.
Only a few days before his planned wedding, Michael Hamilton (Gable), a Philadelphia lawyer, travels to Naples, Italy to handle the estate of his late brother, Joseph. Once in Naples, Michael discovers that his brother had a son -- nine-year-old Nando, who is being cared for by Lucia, a cabaret singer and the boy's maternal aunt (Loren). (The late Joseph Hamilton never married Nando's mother and drowned with her in a boat accident; meanwhile, Joseph Hamilton's wife, whom he left in 1950, is alive in Philadelphia.) Michael, who in the opening narration states he "was here before with the 5th US Army" in World War II, wants to settle his deceased brother's estate with Italian lawyer Vitalli (De Sica). To his dismay, Hamilton finds his brother spent a fortune in fireworks. After seeing Nando handing out racy photos of Lucia at 2 A.M., Michael wants to enroll Nando in the American School at Rome, but Lucia wins custody of the boy. Despite the age difference, romance soon blossoms between Michael and Lucia, and he decides to stay in Italy.
". This was the last film to be released within Gable's lifetime (his final film, The Misfits, was released posthumously) and his last film in color. One of the highlights of the film is a tongue-in-cheek musical number by Loren called "Tu vuò fà l'americano" (You Want To Be Americano) written by famed Neapolitan composer Renato Carosone.
Filmed on location in Rome, Naples and Capri, It Started in Naples was nominated for an Academy Award for its art direction (Hal Pereira, Roland Anderson, Samuel M. Comer, Arrigo Breschi). [1] It was released to DVD in North America in 2005.
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