Sophia Loren: A Biography by Warren G. Harris

Author:Warren G. Harris [Harris, Warren G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Graymalkin Media
Published: 2016-02-26T00:00:00+00:00

13

VILLA PONTI'S TREASURES

WITH Doctor Zhivago filming at studios in Spain and virtually on automatic pilot as far as Carlo Ponti was concerned, he started negotiating with MGM on his next projects. They settled on two: Operation Crossbow, a World War II espionage thriller that Ponti had been developing with two Italian writers, and Lady L, which had already cost MGM several million dollars in losses due to an aborted filming in 1961. Ponti made sure that Sophia would be in both. MGM was delighted to get her for Lady L after their previous experience with her longtime rival Gina Lollobrigida, whose inadequate performance in the title role caused them to pull the plug after two weeks.

1964 promised to be the Year of Sophia Loren. With two De Sica-Mastroianni movies and The Fall of the Roman Empire due for release, she would be on theater screens everywhere, and at the same time be building up a stockpile for the future. While readying the two MGM projects, Ponti made a separate deal for Sophia to play the title role in Judith, a cloak-and-dagger epic set in the first year of Israel's statehood. Ponti may have been a silent partner in the movie, which had a mysterious pedigree and credited an inexperienced Israeli named Kurt Unger as the producer. Paramount Pictures had taken on the distribution and also contributed some of the $6 million budget, allegedly at the instigation of studio chief Jacob H. Karp, who was a power in the United Jewish Appeal and who reportedly saw the film as helpful to Israel's image.

As if Sophia didn't have enough to occupy her, she also signed up for her second American television special, this one to be filmed in color for ABC under the title Sophia Loren in Rome. It was the latest in a series of travelogues that had previously featured Elizabeth Taylor conducting a tour of her native London, Jacqueline Kennedy showing off the White House, and Princess Grace touting the sights of Monaco.

In addition to her $100,000 fee, Sophia demanded participation in writer-director Sheldon Reynolds's script. Her longtime associate Basilio Franchina contributed most of Sophia's dialogue and helped to select location sites. In her opening spiel, Sophia would say: “You cannot tell Rome's story in an hour, but for an hour you can feel it, and permit it to touch you.”

The special ran less than an hour due to the commercial breaks, but Sophia had more costume changes than she did in some of her movies—a suit and three dresses, all designed by Marc Bohan of Christian Dior and hers to keep afterwards.

Sophia Loren in Rome would be telecast in November 1964, but filming took place that spring before she started her next movie. While working with the American production crew, Sophia always carried a deck of cards with her and would call for poker partners during the breaks. She displayed an incredible knack for drawing winning hands. Some might call it cheating, but if you're an adored superstar and the chips are only hundred-lire coins (about 16 cents then), you can usually get away with it.

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