It Started in
Naples
Picture: B-
Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: B-
It
Started in Naples (1960) is far from a great film, but it does have
a few redeeming qualities that are noteworthy, especially when viewed on
Paramount’s recent DVD edition of the film.
Unfortunately the film has no extras on the disc, but the quality is
good enough, more on that later.
Clark Gable plays a stern lawyer sent to the Island of
Capri in Naples to settle a custody/estate case where he runs into a boy, who
he finds out can be a pain in the butt.
This comedy though comes to life with some charm as other players come
and go such as Sophia Loren as the aunt, and even Vittorio Di Sica, yes the
legendary Italian director known for such films as The Bicycle Thief and Umberto
D.
The first obvious reason to perhaps see this film would
either be for Sophia Loren, looking her best, or if you are a Clarke Gable fan
this is one of his better pictures for the later part of his career. And if you are not seeing the film for either
of those reasons, then perhaps it’s the great scenery of Naples shot by Robert
Surtees, who one year prior shot Ben-Hur
and also had some other reputable titles under his belt such as 1955’s Oklahoma, which was shot in both
Todd-AO and CinemaScope. Here, Surtees
gets to use Paramount’s format of VistaVision to capture the beauty, which that
format would allow for more detail and depth as the film is loaded sideways
through the camera to allow more picture information on the negative, then
cropped at the ratio here 1.85 X 1 and for this DVD, it has been anamorphically
enhanced.
There are a few minor problems with the transfer here, but
nothing major in the least. A few
instances here and there of debris, a bit soft at times, but all around this is
a very pleasing transfer. The Dolby
Digital Mono soundtrack is very weak, as can be expected in either 2.0 or 1.0
form it just doesn’t have any strength behind it. It is 2.0 in this case.
Overall I film worth visiting once and it might catch on
with a female audience more so, but that just a matter of perspective on the
film. Perhaps a bit too charming at
times, this is also the next to last film for Gable.
- Nate Goss
