Highly Overrated But Still Good

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Songs: "The Seven Hills of Rome" (Music by Victor Young, lyrics by Harold Adamson), "Calypso Italiano" (George Stoll), "M'Appari", "All the Things You Are", "Come Dance With Me", "Lolita", "Ay, Ay, Ay", "Loveliest Night of the Year", "Ti Voglio Benne Tanto Tanto", "Na Canzone Pe Fa Ammore", "Venticello di Roma", "E' Arrivato La Bufera", "Ostricaro Innamorato", "Vogliamaci Tanto Bene", "There's Gonna Be A Party Tonight", "Imitation Routine", and "Arrivederci Roma" (Renato Rascel, Carl Sigman), "Never Till Now" (John Green, Paul Francis Webster), "Earthbound" (Jack Taylor, Clive Richardson, Bob Muset), "Questa o Quella" (from Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi), "Temptation" (Arthur Freed, Nacio Herb Brown), "Jezebel" (Wayne Shanklin), "When the Saints Go Marching In" (traditional), "Memories Are Made of This" (Terry Gilkyson, Richard Dehr, Frank Miller).A Le Cloud Production. Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Producer: Lester Welch. Filmed by Titanus S.P.A. at Titanus Studios in Rome. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 30 January 1958 (ran 3 weeks). U.S. release: January 1958. U.K. release: 18 May 1958. Australian release: 16 June 1958. Sydney opening at the St James. 107 minutes. Cut to 104 minutes in Australia. 103 minutes in the U.K.SYNOPSIS: After losing his American TV show because of temperament, singer Marc Revere goes to Rome and his cousin Pepe's bohemian apartment. He is accompanied by Rafaella, a young Italian girl he met on the train after she had lost all her money. While Marc is singing in a fashionable night club, his erstwhile American fiancée Carol re-appears.COMMENT: "Seven Hills of Rome" looks a more attractive proposition on paper than it does in actual fact. Rome in Technirama and Technicolor is a rather drab affair. The actual locations look more like backdrops than real backgrounds.Lanza's singing? Well the songs by and large are not worthy of his talents and his series of imitations (Laine, Martin, Como, Armstrong) looks better than it actually sounds (oddly enough, the Armstrong "When the Saints Go Marching In" comes off best).Miss Allasio is only a moderately fetching heroine and as for Renato Rascel, minus his mustache and in a serious rather than a comic role, he just fails to make any impression. Is it his own voice? The direction, while it affords some scenic helicopter glimpses of Rome, is strictly functional. And as for the hokey plot, which comes on about ¾s of the way through with Miss Allasio lifting a bracelet, you can keep it. The Peggie Castle sub-plot is just as dull and clichéd but at least it enables a bit of glamour to sift across the screen — though Miss Castle is herself surprisingly bland and uninteresting in this effort. The direction is economy style, with Miss Allasio's fall in the rain obviously contrived.But for rabid Lanza fans for whom their idol can sing no wrong, he is looking good.

The "6" rating is only because Mario Lanza gets to sing a good number of worthwhile songs as only he can. But I could have done without his impersonation scene where he makes fun of popular Italian crooners like Perry Como and Dean Martin.The story is so flat and unconvincing that it's hardly worth a mention. It's sufficient to say that you can forget it while enjoying abundant glimpses of Rome's landmarks and terrain, all nicely photographed in Technicolor.Lanza was beginning to look heavier than usual but his voice is still able to belt out a mixture of operatic arias and pop tunes. The film itself is not an "essential," even for Lanza fans because the script is an uninspired bit of tedium. Just sit back and enjoy the scenery.

After a whole lot of incidents and the accompanying bad publicity, Mario Lanza took his family to live in Rome and became one of a growing group of expatriate American stars living in Europe. His last two films for MGM were shot in Italy.The real star of Seven Hills of Rome is the eternal city itself. Rome was really popular in the Fifties. Paramount did Roman Holiday and then 20th Century Fox followed with Three Coins in the Fountain both beautifully photographed. And now the best photographed of all is this one.It's almost a shame that a movie plot had to interfere with the promotional travel film. But Mario is an American singer, a whole lot like the real Mario Lanza, hovering between the classical and pop worlds. A spat with girl friend Peggie Castle sends him to Europe and Rome chasing her. He has a cousin there played by Italian performer Renato Rascel who puts him up. And he meets a girl, Marisa Allascio on the train to Rome who's stranded in Rome so he and cousin Renato take her in. The inevitable happens of course.Renato Rascel had a nice comic style and was a good performer. He reminds me a lot of Joe Pesci. Too bad he never broke into the American market. Kind of like the French comedian Fernandel that way.Back in the day, the song Arrivederci Roma was played EVERYWHERE, you couldn't get away from it. It's the biggest song that came out of Seven Hills of Rome. A whole lot of American singers back then recorded this one. I have versions of Dean Martin, Vic Damone, and Jerry Vale doing it. But Mario's all Italian version is the best and he's joined on screen by a young female street singer in an affecting duet.Nothing pretentious about Seven Hills of Rome. Good for a nice enjoyable afternoon. Fans of the eternal city will love it.

Mario Lanza was and remains an enigma. Endowed with an incredible voice and a rugged sex appeal, he rose to the top and slid to the bottom in a few short years. This film, his penultimate, is a stinker in many ways. The story sucks, the acting ghastly and the scenes contrived and unconvincing. So, why am I not slamming it with a spoiler (as indeed, this comment is not)? Easy. Mario. Mario, the voice. This guy who lived in excess of the excesses, had an absolutely great voice. He was a lousy musician (most singers are, BTW), utilized horrible vocal technique and emoted all over the place. But, the voice. Ah, the voice. It was golden. And, Mario, the ham, sang from the heart and from the soul. Trite? Perhaps. But, the truth is, his was a unique talent that even some of the great tenors of our time acknowledge as inspirational. When you consider that tenors of the quality of Pavarotti, Domingo, Carreras and McCord declare he was their inspiration, what more can you say? This film, a story not unlike Mario's own odyssey, of a tenor returning to Italy to get in touch with roots and start over again, is a bit corny. But, the singing is worth the price of watching. That voice. We will never hear another like it. In my youth, I aspired to be an operatic tenor and sang on the stage at UC Berkeley and in Italy. I found out quickly that my talent was likely not going to support a great career, but I had pursued it to that point because I loved imitating Mario. He had it. I didn't, but then, who else but Mario did? Check it out.