Seven Hills of Rome (film)

Plot

Marc Revere, an American TV singer of Italian heritage, travels to Italy in search of his jet-setting fiancée, Carol Ralston, played by Peggie Castle. Revere moves in with his comical and good hearted cousin Pepe Bonelli (Renato Rascel), a struggling artist who also befriends a beautiful young girl, Raffaella Marini (Marisa Allasio), whom Revere had met on a train, and who develops a crush on him.

Lanza, after some difficulty, lands a contract to sing in a fine nightclub, but misses his opening night due to unforeseen circumstances during a date with Carol.

Cast

Music

The music was supervised and conducted by George Stoll, and included the following songs:

Among the selections that Lanza sings in this "vocal tour de force" (Variety) is "Arrivederci Roma", performed in the Piazza Navona (and recorded) with a young street urchin, Luisa Di Meo. In typical Lanza fashion, the star had encountered the youngster while in Rome and insisted on her appearing in the film. Lanza also performs a sequence of imitations of famous singers of the era — Perry Como; Frankie Laine; Dean Martin; and Louis Armstrong- "When The Saints Go Marching In" — committing to film what was one of his favorite party performances. Opera selections include "Questa o quella" from Rigoletto.

Production

The film was directed by Roy Rowland and was the first of only four films produced by Lester Welch. The screenplay was the last written by Art Cohn, who died two months after the film's release in the same airplane crash that killed famed producer Mike Todd, whose biography Cohn was writing at the time. Cohn partnered with Giorgio Prosperi on the script for the Lanza film, which was based on a story by Giuseppe Amato. The Italian title, Arrivederci Roma, was meant to be the American title of a film Lanza was scheduled to make in 1960, until he died in Rome in October 1959.

Reception

The film performed well at the box office. According to MGM records it earned $680,000 in the US and Canada and $1,275,000 in other countries, resulting in a profit of $162,000 for MGM.

Awards

Seven Hills of Rome was nominated for a Laurel Award (1959) from Motion Picture Exhibitor magazine.