It Started in Naples

1960
Approved
1h 40m

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

3.3K

YOUR RATING

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1 Video

13 Photos

Comedy Drama

Days before his wedding, a Philadelphia lawyer travels to Naples in Southern Italy to settle the estate of his late brother, only to find that he has an Italian nephew who is being cared for... Read allDays before his wedding, a Philadelphia lawyer travels to Naples in Southern Italy to settle the estate of his late brother, only to find that he has an Italian nephew who is being cared for by his maternal aunt, a cabaret singer.Days before his wedding, a Philadelphia lawyer travels to Naples in Southern Italy to settle the estate of his late brother, only to find that he has an Italian nephew who is being cared for by his maternal aunt, a cabaret singer.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

3.3K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 4 nominations total

Trivia
Clark Gable became addicted to Italian food while making the film, and his weight ballooned to 230 lbs. He is clearly a lot heavier in some scenes than in others.

Goofs
Mike and Lucia order up stiff drinks for each other at the bar. Mike orders a bourbon drink for Lucia and she orders a Campari based drink for Mike. However when each of them grabs the bottle of liquor to top off the others drink the bottles are switched. Mike's gets topped off with Burbon and Lucia's with Campari.

Quotes
Michael Hamilton: How are people supposed to sleep on this island?
Cafe Waiter: Together!

Connections
Featured in The Love Goddesses (1965)

Soundtracks
It Started in Naples
by Alessandro Cicognini, Carlo Savina and Sylvana Simoni
English lyrics by Milton Gabler (as Milt Gabler)

User reviews44

Review

Featured review

6/10

Those Americanos, Americanos

This was the first Clark Gable movie I ever remember seeing and I saw it in the old Marine Theatre in Brooklyn. Turned out also to be the last one Clark Gable got to see released as The Misfits was released after Gable's demise.

He's an honest to God Philadelphia lawyer who had a brother who deserted his wife and took off for Italy where he lived with another woman. The brother has died and Gable has gone to Italy to settle the estate.

The estate's one very tangible asset was the brother's son played very winningly by Marietto. Mom is deceased also and the boy is living with her sister and who wouldn't want an aunt who looked like Sophia Loren. It's a custody battle and the question the movie asks is how will the issue be settled, in or out of court?

Gable's certainly a mature leading man playing about 15 to 20 years younger than he is, but he carries it off well. And Sophia Loren is wonderful to see.

But the real star of this film is the Isle of Capri, one of the most beautiful spots on this old planet. Capri was getting a lot of publicity from Hollywood. Only a year before Mario Lanza's last film, For the First Time, also was shot a great deal in Capri. After these two films the tourist business must have boomed.

Sophia Loren has a few nice numbers to sing and one of them was the song Americano. It had a revival a few years ago in Matt Damon's The Talented Mr. Ripley. But Sophia's version is soooooooooo much better.