Mario Lanza's Glorious Voice Equals the Splendor of Rome

Lanza's weakest movie, to be sure, but entertaining nonetheless

Mario Lanza's weakest film, but has its strong points

Unessential movie with an outstanding voice!

Ann Blyth and Mario Lanza in The Great Caruso (1951)

Ann Blyth, John Ericson, and Edmund Purdom in The Student Prince (1954)

Mario Lanza and Johanna von Koczian in For the First Time (1959)

Ethel Barrymore, Kathryn Grayson, José Iturbi, Mario Lanza, Jules Munshin, and Keenan Wynn in That Midnight Kiss (1949)

David Niven, Kathryn Grayson, and Mario Lanza in The Toast of New Orleans (1950)

Donald Sutherland and Kate Nelligan in Eye of the Needle (1981)

Groucho Marx and Jane Russell in Double Dynamite (1951)

Ann E. Todd, Jane Powell, Elinor Donahue, José Iturbi, and Jeanette MacDonald in Three Daring Daughters (1948)

Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker in Many Rivers to Cross (1955)

Mario Lanza in Seven Hills of Rome (1957)

Maybe Paris is the most beautiful city in the world... CONSCIOUSLY; but Rome is the most beautiful city in the world... UNconsciously.

Peggie Castle and Mario Lanza in Seven Hills of Rome (1957)

Peggie Castle in Seven Hills of Rome (1957)

Mario Lanza

Renato Rascel

Marisa Allasio

Giuseppe Amato

Art Cohn

Giorgio Prosperi

On a train to Rome, the American singer Marc Revere meets the Italian Rafaella. He notices that she intends to work and live at her uncle&apos;s. After he gives her a ride, it turns out that said uncle has moved to South America. Rever...

Roy Rowland

Arrivederci Roma

Lanza&apos;s weakest movie, to be sure, but entertaining nonetheless

It&apos;s ironic that Seven Hills of Rome (Italian title: Arrivederci, Roma) made a reasonable splash at the box office - particularly in Italy, where it was a huge success. After all, it&apos;s undoubtedly Mario Lanza&apos;s weakest movie effort, and a film that the tenor went to great pains to distance himself from. Lanza was particularly hard on his own performance, but watching the movie 45 years later it&apos;s immediately apparent that the fault isn&apos;t his, but rather the meandering script and lack-lustre direction. To make matters worse, there is very little in the way of substance for Lanza to sing. Still, there are a few compensations along the way...

Lanza&apos;s previous film, the much underrated Serenade, was a poor performer at the box office in 1956. Nervous producers decided that Lanza&apos;s next movie should shift the emphasis away from the drama and solid operatic selections to a much lighter presentation of the popular tenor. Unfortunately they went too far, reducing Lanza to just one aria (Questa O Quella from Rigoletto) and a fragment of another. Instead of his usual role as an opera singer, Lanza is merely a TV/nightclub performer this time, and his selections include the pretty Arrivederci, Roma and a handful of largely forgettable popular ballads. Ironically, the biggest vocal highlight of this movie is Lanza&apos;s imitations of OTHER singers. His impersonations of Perry Como, Frankie Laine, Dean Martin and - believe it or not - Louis Armstrong are hilarious, and amazing in their accuracy.

The original script was reportedly a good one, but the producers soon realised that it contained enough material for a five-hour movie. This resulted in drastic re-writes (even on the film set), and therein lies the problem. This is a movie without a solid story, and instead we are left with some enchanting shots of Rome, some sporadically good acting from Lanza, and two engaging co-stars in the Loren-lookalike Marissa Allassio and the popular comedian Renato Rascel.

This movie will probably not win Lanza any new admirers, but diehard fans will enjoy it. Happily, Lanza&apos;s next (and final) movie, For the First Time, was a considerable improvement, with enough opera AND popular ballads to satisfy every type of music lover.

It's ironic that Seven Hills of Rome (Italian title: Arrivederci, Roma) made a reasonable splash at the box office - particularly in Italy, where it was a huge success. After all, it's undoubtedly Mario Lanza's weakest movie effort, and a film that the tenor went to great pains to distance himself from. Lanza was particularly hard on his own performance, but watching the movie 45 years later it's immediately apparent that the fault isn't his, but rather the meandering script and lack-lustre direction. To make matters worse, there is very little in the way of substance for Lanza to sing. Still, there are a few compensations along the way...

Lanza's previous film, the much underrated Serenade, was a poor performer at the box office in 1956. Nervous producers decided that Lanza's next movie should shift the emphasis away from the drama and solid operatic selections to a much lighter presentation of the popular tenor. Unfortunately they went too far, reducing Lanza to just one aria (Questa O Quella from Rigoletto) and a fragment of another. Instead of his usual role as an opera singer, Lanza is merely a TV/nightclub performer this time, and his selections include the pretty Arrivederci, Roma and a handful of largely forgettable popular ballads. Ironically, the biggest vocal highlight of this movie is Lanza's imitations of OTHER singers. His impersonations of Perry Como, Frankie Laine, Dean Martin and - believe it or not - Louis Armstrong are hilarious, and amazing in their accuracy.

The original script was reportedly a good one, but the producers soon realised that it contained enough material for a five-hour movie. This resulted in drastic re-writes (even on the film set), and therein lies the problem. This is a movie without a solid story, and instead we are left with some enchanting shots of Rome, some sporadically good acting from Lanza, and two engaging co-stars in the Loren-lookalike Marissa Allassio and the popular comedian Renato Rascel.

This movie will probably not win Lanza any new admirers, but diehard fans will enjoy it. Happily, Lanza's next (and final) movie, For the First Time, was a considerable improvement, with enough opera AND popular ballads to satisfy every type of music lover.

On a train to Rome, the American singer Marc Revere meets the Italian Rafaella. He notices that she intends to work and live at her uncle's. After he gives her a ride, it turns out that said uncle has moved to South America. Revere proposes that she stays with him at his cousin's, an impecunious pianist.

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Arrivederci Roma

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