FILM REVIEWS

Italian sex symbol Sophia Loren made her American film debut with this romantic adventure, set on the Greek island of Hydra, co-starring Alan Ladd.

Phaedra (Loren) is a female sponge diver, who discovers the wreckage of a sunken ship, containing some artifacts, including a statue of a boy astride a dolphin.

When Phaedra tells her boyfriend Rhif (Jorge Mistral) it, he is convinced that the statue is valuable, and he begins making plans to bring it to land for sale.

Looking for help, they approach Dr. James Calder (Alan Ladd), an American archeologist working for a Greek museum. Calder wants the statue but can’t pay for it; he wants Phaedra and Rhif to donate it to his museum.

Rhif then turns to Victor Parmalee (Clifton Webb), a wealthy American art collector intrigued by the statue. Rhif and Victor make plans to salvage the ship’s contents and send them back to America.

By that point, Phaedra is smitten with Calder, especially after Victor offers to make her his mistress, and she begins a romance with the stoic American.  Phaedra and Calder must rescue the ship’s valuables before Rhif and Parmalee can get them.

The love scenes between Sophia Loren and Alan Ladd presented a problem for director Jean Negulesco and his crew: Ladd was 5′ 4″ and Loren was 5′ 8,” requiring him to stand on boxes.  When the two walk together along the beach, the crew dug a trench for Loren to walk in, so Ladd would appear taller—this was before the short Woody Allen courted the taller Diane Keaton.

Oscar Nominations:

Score: Hugo Friedlander

Oscar Awards

Oscar Context

The winner of Best Score was Malcolm Arnold for “The Bridge on the River Kwai.”

Running time: 120 minutes.

Directed by: Jean Negulesco.

Written By: Ivan Moffat.

Released: May 16, 1957.

Twentieth Century Fox