hyped garbage

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

"Boy on a Dolphin" looks fabulous. It was shot for the most part in the Greek Isles and if ever there was a film that did justice to Cinemascope it's this one. It has one of the most beautiful music scores for a film ever. It also has Clifton Webb, who like George Sanders could lift any movie he was in. And then it has 22-year-old Sophia Loren, also doing justice to the Cinemascope process in a wet, figure-clinging dress - diving into the sea, swimming under the sea and climbing out of the sea - the Production Code people back in Hollywood must have been on holidays when that footage came up for review. It stars Alan Ladd. This was toward the end of his career, but we saw a lot of him in the 1950's. He has an easy assurance here although it's sad watching him knowing that he was gone a few years later aged only 50. Sophia Loren plays Phaedra who dives for sponges off her loser boyfriend's boat. When she discovers an ancient statue she tries to change their fortunes by selling it to a ruthless collector of antiquities, Victor Parmelee (Clifton Webb). However an honest American archaeologist Dr. James Calder (Alan Ladd) steps between Phaedra and Parmelee and also between Phaedra and her boyfriend.This was Sophia's first movie in English and she plays the whole thing in a fairly shrill manner, she is much better when she is diving into, swimming under or climbing out of the sea etc. However, it's hard to take your eyes off her. I first saw this film back in 1957 at age 10, an era when the thought of sex education made everyone feel uncomfortable, but I'm sure Sophia in this film helped set my gender preferences for the future. The music was by Hugo Friedhofer, and orchestral colour was his forte (he had orchestrated for Steiner and Korngold). He was brilliant at incorporating folk music and instruments into his symphonic scores. Here he infused his score with Greek music and gave the whole thing an ethereal quality - just listen to the music that accompanies Parmelee on the road to the Metoria Monastery.Watching "Boy on a Dolphin" is always a happy experience for me, nostalgia plays a part of course, but then again, what's not to like?

Sophia Loren is the key to this whole film and whatever you experience with it. Her natural acting gifts, screen presence, beauty and overall pulchritude are remarkable. View it to experience the phenomenon of Sophia. Everything else I am about to write is secondary, but here you are:The location is attractive as is the lovely theme song. Clifton Webb is notable of course. The story is sort of "An American sojourns in Greece" with nice scenery and water and a cute kid. Its inoffensive and OK 1950's fare.As for Ladd, he is giving his competent leading man performance that he did on a sort of standard basis, always in his quiet underplayed manner. He's adequate.Ladd was taller than Robinson, Cagney and numerous others. Paul Newman was often unfairly called "short". Ingrid Bergman was an inch taller than Bogart yet who taunts Bogart about "Casablanca"? Here are the 2 real issues :(1)- Sophia is a tall woman, taller than her own husband Carlo Ponti, and she towers over many male actors in most of her movies. She is a half inch taller than was Humphrey Bogart (she never made a movie with him so we don't know if he would have stood on a box). (2)- Sophia was half Ladd's age! The problem in this film is mostly the tremendous age difference between an older, declining leading man and a vigorous, very young beginner actress. "Taunts" of Ladd's height then and now are missing the point: I believe that the veteran and savvy Ladd probably was rather disinterested as he realized something was awkward here but not height. He was wondering "what am I doing here in these scenes with this young chick half my age?" The following year Ladd made a film with 41-year old leading lady Olivia DeHavilland and it worked.So these are my theories but please keep them in perspective. "Boy on a Dolphin" is all about Sophia and all this other stuff is really only minor details.

Nobody had Sophia's sensual allure in the 1950s, with her slanted, feline, glistening eyes and that plump and pendulous lower lip. In one scene she emerges from the sea in a clinging wet dress, an image of carnality that would have set Botticelli's mind awhirl.I can't think of too many other reasons to go out of your way and watch this fagged-out Hollywood production. The story has legitimate archaeologist Alan Ladd pitted against flippant and very wealthy Clifton Webb, stealer of ancient artifacts, both in pursuit of a 2,000-year-old statue of a boy riding a dolphin. It's underwater somewhere off a Greek island.Loren is caught between the duplicitous Webb and the principled Ladd. She's just a poor Greek peasant girl who dives for sea shells. She hasn't got two drachmae to rub together, not that she needs two more of anything. She's a stunning creature and given the right part can turn in an impressive performance, as she did in "Two Women." Unfortunately, this isn't the right part for any of the principals. Loren is just too elegant and dignified to stomp her feet and scream and snatch money out of somebody's hand. Someone made the same casting error in "Legend of the Lost." Clifton Webb had, by this time, gotten the role of snobbish esthete down pat. It began with "Laura" and the trajectory never came to earth. His supercilious remarks here aren't witty in any way, just sarcastic.Ladd was pretty close to the end of his career. He'd been doing a lot of booze and barbiturates and is puffy and conveys an impression of poor metabolism. At times his voice slurs noticeably.The whole thing is routine or a bit below that. The blindingly white, gorgeous islands of the Aegean Sea look colorless under a cloudy sky. The "spontaneous" Greek dancing is as forced as in any theme restaurant full of staged authenticity, and someone has dubbed Loren's voice as she sings a song in Greek instead of her native Italian. (Julie London sings the inescapable theme song.) The musical score adds little. The necessary curly haired heavy who carries the knife is comfortably identified as Albanian, not Greek. The Greeks were our pals. Albania was a big fan of Red China.All together, it's the kind of movie that signaled Hollywood was ready for a cinematic revolution, even if it meant turning the American and French revolutions upside-down and importing new cinematic techniques from France. Hollywood was becoming a dull vacuum. Enter the nouvelle vague.

Sophia Loren vibrates and pouts through this film in a manner I'm sure was intended to be sexy, but isn't. She tries to convey earthy sensuality but can't carry it off. It's an embarrassing and tacky performance with a lot of shouting, odd body postures, and ridiculous extremes of emotional response. Alan Ladd, on the other hand, could use a little of Loren's extremism. He is even more wooden than usual, and that's saying a lot. He also appears bloated and heavily made up, especially around the eyes. Clifton Webb gives the only good performance in Boy On a Dolphin, but unfortunately Webb doesn't have enough screen time to save the film. The copy I saw was not of sufficient quality for me to really appreciate the much-vaunted scenery and color photography, so I can't comment on them. Clifton Webb always is worth watching, but otherwise Boy on a Dolphin is a pretty weak effort.