Marisa Allasio Movies

Roy Rowland directs the musical Arrivederci Roma (The Seven Hills of Rome), intended as a showcase for the talents of famous operatic tenor Mario Lanza. American singer Marc (Lanza) gets into a fight with his girlfriend, Carol (Peggie Castle). He follows her to Rome in an attempt to win back her affections. On the train, he meets an Italian woman named Rafaella Marini (Marisa Allasio), who is supposed to be moving in with her uncle. Marc gives her a ride and they discover that the uncle has left for South America. With nowhere to go, Rafaella stays with Marc and his cousin Pepe Bonelli (Renato Rascel), which leads to eventual romance. The narrative allows for Lanza to do his serviceable impressions of popular singers like Perry Como, Dean Martin, Louis Armstrong, and many others. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Le Schiave di Cartegno (Slaves of Carthage) was produced on the super-epic scale that, in the late 1950s at least, was economically feasible only in Europe. Jorge Mistral plays Roman soldier Marc Valerio, assigned to the task of killing off any Christians who cross his path. Instead, he falls in love with Lea (Marisa Allasio), the titular slave of Carthage, who is accused of using sorcery to murder the Roman proconsul. For Lea's sake, Marco casts his lot with the Christians, suffering mightily as a result. Gianna Maria Canale is appropriately wicked as the Roman empress. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In keeping with the film's title, most of the characters in Le Diciotenni are 18 years old. The story takes place in a girl's finishing school, populated entirely by knockout beauties. One of the girls (Marisa Allasio) faces expulsion because her father has been known to consort with criminals. Even so, the film maintains a lighthearted tone throughout, especially when it deals with affairs of the heart. Le Dicioetteni is a remake of a successful early-1940s film of the same name, which in turn was adapted from a popular stage comedy. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

War and Peace is a commendable attempt to boil down Tolstoy's long, difficult novel into 208 minutes' screen time. In recreating the the social and personal upheavals attending Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia, $6 million was shelled out by coproducers Carlo Ponti, Dino de Laurentiis and Paramount Pictures. Some of the panoramic battle sequences are so expertly handled by second-unit director Mario Soldati that they appear to be Technicolor-and-Vistavision newsreel footage of the actual events. Still, the film falters dramatically, principally because of a lumpy script and King Vidor's surprisingly lustreless direction. In addition, the casting is wildly consistent: for example, while Audrey Hepburn is flawless as Natasha, Henry Fonda is far too "Yankeefied" as the introspective Pierre. Proving too long and unwieldy for most audiences, War and Peace died at the box office; far more successful was the epic, scrupulously faithful 1968 version, filmed in the Soviet Union. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi