Acting
Silvana Mangano smolders while falling apart spectacularly.
Cinematography
Venice shot like a fever dream of decaying beauty.
Costume
Masquerade ball looks that scream 'expensive mistake'.
Director
Robert Rossen
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Katherine Dunham, legendary Black choreographer, appears as herself—one of the few Hollywood films of the era to feature a Black artist playing herself, not a stereotype.
Rossen made this between his blacklist exile and his comeback with 'The Hustler'—you can feel his own outsider status in every frame of Venetian society.
US
