Mambo

1954 · United States, Italy · 110 min

Director: Robert Rossen
Screenplay: Ivo Perilli, Robert Rossen, Guido Piovene, Ennio de Concini
Producer: Dino De Laurentiis, Carlo Ponti
Music: Angelo Francesco Lavagnino
Cinematography: Harold Rosson

Cast

Katherine Dunham

What it is about

Giovanna Masetti is a poor young woman from Venice who dreams of becoming a dancer. After joining a troupe led by a choreographer, she begins a demanding training period. Her life becomes entangled with two very different men, a clever croupier and a wealthy aristocrat, who both compete for her attention and try to impose their will on her.

How it was made

The film is an Italian-American co-production written and directed by Robert Rossen with Ivo Perilli, Guido Piovene and Ennio de Concini. It was shot at a time when Rossen had spent almost two years without work after his 1951 hearing before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Produced by Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti, it features music by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino and cinematography by Harold Rosson. Silvana Mangano and Vittorio Gassman lead the cast, alongside Shelley Winters and choreographer Katherine Dunham, who staged the dance sequences. Pérez Prado's music plays a prominent role, reflecting the mambo craze sweeping the United States in the 1950s.

Reception and legacy

Rossen later said the film was meant to be simple fun, but he took it seriously and felt it did not succeed. The New York Times found the plot contorted and the script long, and judged Mangano's performance laboured, though it praised the moods Rossen created. Others dismissed it as a mere job, but in 2001 Dorothea Fischer-Hornung argued it achieved more than contemporary critics recognised. Today it is remembered mainly for its dance sequences, which mix montage, sudden cuts and mirroring.