Anthony Quinn is Tom Healy, owner of a traveling show out West who’s hopelessly in love with his young star, Angela Rossini (Sophia Loren).
But Angela flirts too much, spends too much and doesn’t take Healy’s affections too seriously.
Oh, and that spending too much often has the show fleeing from creditors, or on the verge of bankruptcy.
Trying to get the show out of financial trouble one night, Angela enters a poker game and makes the situation worse.
Holding four 7’s, she bets herself. And loses to gunman Clint Mabry’s even better hand.
When the show leaves town with a gunman in tow, Healy wonders why.
It isn’t until later that Angela works up the courage to tell him the truth.
Then again, when renegade Indians come calling, Mabry proves a handy guy to have around.
The question is: Will Angela pay off her bet? And, if so, what will happen to Healy and his show?
Review:
Every bit as much of a mess as it sounds. Watch if you want to ogle Sophia in a blonde wig and a variety of tight dresses. Otherwise, avoid. In one of the film’s finest moments, she’s tied to a horse, lying on her back, scantily clad as the steed gallops around a theater.
The rest of Healy’s cast includes aging actress Lorna Hathaway, her pretty young daughter Della, who isn’t quite so young as she pretends, and Doc Montague, a master orator who worries more about his kidneys than his voice these days.
Directed by:
George Cukor
Cast:
Sophia Loren … Angela Rossini
Anthony Quinn … Tom Healy
Margaret O’Brien … Della Southby
Steve Forrest … Clint Mabry
Eileen Heckart … Lorna Hathaway
Ramon Novarro … De Leon
Edmund Lowe … Doc Montague
George Matthews … Sam Pierce
Edward Binns … Sherrif Ed McClain
Warren Wade … Hodges
Frank Silvera … Santis
Boyd Holister … McAllister
Cal Bolder … Goober
Runtime: 100 min.
Memorable lines:
Lorna Hathaway: “It’s Angie’s fault. She’ll be the ruination of us all.”
Della Hathaway: “She is fun, momma.”
Lorna: “She’s a flirt. and a teaser.”
Della: “What’s a teaser?”
Lorna: “Never you mind, baby. You’re too innocent. She just looks at a man, and right away he starts scraping sand with both feet.”
Tom Healy, after being kissed by Angela Rossini: “Is that for something you did? Or something you’re gonna do?”
Tom Healy: “How much was in the pot?”
Clint Mabry: “Eight or nine hundred bucks.”
Healy: “You got her cheap.”
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