The Barefoot Contessa

Writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz gives us a bitter tale of stardom won and wasted in "The Barefoot Contessa," a film à clef about a Rita Hayworth-style Spanish dancer (Ava Gardner) who becomes an international movie star. Her sympathetic guide is Harry Dawes (Humphrey Bogart), a nearly-has-been writer/director trying to restart his career. Edmond O'Brien won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar® playing the public relations lackey of a Howard Hughes-like mogul (Warren Stevens).