JohnHowardReid Songs: "The Seven Hills of Rome" (Music by Victor Young, lyrics by Harold Adamson), "Calypso Italiano" (George Stoll), "M'Appari", "All the Things You Are", "Come Dance With Me", "Lolita", "Ay, Ay, Ay", "Loveliest Night of the Year", "Ti Voglio Benne Tanto Tanto", "Na Canzone Pe Fa Ammore", "Venticello di Roma", "E' Arrivato La Bufera", "Ostricaro Innamorato", "Vogliamaci Tanto Bene", "There's Gonna Be A Party Tonight", "Imitation Routine", and "Arrivederci Roma" (Renato Rascel, Carl Sigman), "Never Till Now" (John Green, Paul Francis Webster), "Earthbound" (Jack Taylor, Clive Richardson, Bob Muset), "Questa o Quella" (from Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi), "Temptation" (Arthur Freed, Nacio Herb Brown), "Jezebel" (Wayne Shanklin), "When the Saints Go Marching In" (traditional), "Memories Are Made of This" (Terry Gilkyson, Richard Dehr, Frank Miller).A Le Cloud Production. Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Producer: Lester Welch. Filmed by Titanus S.P.A. at Titanus Studios in Rome. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 30 January 1958 (ran 3 weeks). U.S. release: January 1958. U.K. release: 18 May 1958. Australian release: 16 June 1958. Sydney opening at the St James. 107 minutes. Cut to 104 minutes in Australia. 103 minutes in the U.K.SYNOPSIS: After losing his American TV show because of temperament, singer Marc Revere goes to Rome and his cousin Pepe's bohemian apartment. He is accompanied by Rafaella, a young Italian girl he met on the train after she had lost all her money. While Marc is singing in a fashionable night club, his erstwhile American fiancée Carol re-appears.COMMENT: "Seven Hills of Rome" looks a more attractive proposition on paper than it does in actual fact. Rome in Technirama and Technicolor is a rather drab affair. The actual locations look more like backdrops than real backgrounds.Lanza's singing? Well the songs by and large are not worthy of his talents and his series of imitations (Laine, Martin, Como, Armstrong) looks better than it actually sounds (oddly enough, the Armstrong "When the Saints Go Marching In" comes off best).Miss Allasio is only a moderately fetching heroine and as for Renato Rascel, minus his mustache and in a serious rather than a comic role, he just fails to make any impression. Is it his own voice? The direction, while it affords some scenic helicopter glimpses of Rome, is strictly functional. And as for the hokey plot, which comes on about ¾s of the way through with Miss Allasio lifting a bracelet, you can keep it. The Peggie Castle sub-plot is just as dull and clichéd but at least it enables a bit of glamour to sift across the screen — though Miss Castle is herself surprisingly bland and uninteresting in this effort. The direction is economy style, with Miss Allasio's fall in the rain obviously contrived.But for rabid Lanza fans for whom their idol can sing no wrong, he is looking good.

TheLittleSongbird As a fan of opera and as somebody who loves Mario Lanza's voice, Seven Hills of Rome(or Arrivederci Roma) is not a bad film and has some good things about it, but it could have been better and Lanza's other films showcase his talents much more.The stars here are the cinematography and the Rome scenery itself. The cinematography is bursting with gorgeous colour and is the very meaning of lavish, capturing Rome beautifully. The scenery itself is just splendid, so much so it makes one wish they were back in Rome, and the film does a good job making the costumes and settings as authentic as possible. Seven Hills of Rome has a music score that's energetic and romantically whimsical, and while only Questo a Quella from Verdi's masterpiece Rigoletto and the unforgettable Arrivederci Roma(which is the highlight of the film other than the visuals) are truly memorable the songs themselves are very pleasant and hummable.Lanza is not at his absolute best, and Seven Hills of Rome is the film that showcases his talents the least effectively(he definitely deserved more music to sing), he still sounds great with his very distinctive tone ringing and beautiful and his phrasing and musicality very good too. Marisa Allasio and Peggie Castle are charming and Renato Reschel brings some amusing comedy.Sadly, the story is poor, even for a Lanza film where it was never was a strong point, the reason being that it is so flat and wafer-thin that it is almost non-existent and seems more of an excuse to string alone scenes together. It also has a tendency to move along a little sluggishly and aimlessly and with any charming or amusing moments being in spades rather than consistent. The script fares even worse, getting increasingly tedious and meandering, with comedy that doesn't really sparkle(ranging from mildly amusing to falling flat) and parts that could have been trimmed easily. And while Lanza does sound great here, his acting is another story. It has its moments, like in Arrivederci Roma but he does try too hard and comes over as stiff. His impersonation scene is also hit-and-miss, his impression of Dean Martin is not bad but his one for Louis Armstrong is so off the mark it's embarrassing. He is not the only person whose acting is not great, because the acting generally is either too broad or going-through-the-motions, while the direction generally is limp.In conclusion, Lanza was a great talent that we lost too soon, but Seven Hills of Rome does not show it as well as his other films. Has its moments but of Lanza's films it's by far his weakest. 5/10 Bethany Cox

bkoganbing After a whole lot of incidents and the accompanying bad publicity, Mario Lanza took his family to live in Rome and became one of a growing group of expatriate American stars living in Europe. His last two films for MGM were shot in Italy.The real star of Seven Hills of Rome is the eternal city itself. Rome was really popular in the Fifties. Paramount did Roman Holiday and then 20th Century Fox followed with Three Coins in the Fountain both beautifully photographed. And now the best photographed of all is this one.It's almost a shame that a movie plot had to interfere with the promotional travel film. But Mario is an American singer, a whole lot like the real Mario Lanza, hovering between the classical and pop worlds. A spat with girl friend Peggie Castle sends him to Europe and Rome chasing her. He has a cousin there played by Italian performer Renato Rascel who puts him up. And he meets a girl, Marisa Allascio on the train to Rome who's stranded in Rome so he and cousin Renato take her in. The inevitable happens of course.Renato Rascel had a nice comic style and was a good performer. He reminds me a lot of Joe Pesci. Too bad he never broke into the American market. Kind of like the French comedian Fernandel that way.Back in the day, the song Arrivederci Roma was played EVERYWHERE, you couldn't get away from it. It's the biggest song that came out of Seven Hills of Rome. A whole lot of American singers back then recorded this one. I have versions of Dean Martin, Vic Damone, and Jerry Vale doing it. But Mario's all Italian version is the best and he's joined on screen by a young female street singer in an affecting duet.Nothing pretentious about Seven Hills of Rome. Good for a nice enjoyable afternoon. Fans of the eternal city will love it.

shicorp Well, I hope, I will never regret my negative comments on this `musical movie'. I have to say, that I really appreciate Mario Lanza's broad repertoire of musical styles, but anyone who has ever seen this movie may notice, that this can get too far.This is a movie about Rome and as much as I love the music of Cole Porter, there is no place for `I've Got You Under My Skin' and `Easy To Love' in such a movie. Lanza parodying Como, Laine, Martin and Armstrong is a catastrophe itself. I'm quite sure, the tenor could have done great versions of this songs himself (as he already did with `Temptation' in 1952). The saddest thing about this all is, that the musical direction credit goes to M-G-M veteran Georgie Stoll, who has been responsible for `Meet Me In St. Louis' and several others of Judy Garland's M-G-M flicks.Now about the storyline: I guess, the screenwriters could have made far more out of the mysterious scenes of Rome and the basic score (`Arrivederci Rome', `The Seven Hills Of Rome'). All we get, are a few aerial shots of Rome (which are indeed great) and surroundings and a great end sequence, which somehow reminds me to a similar M-G-M scene in Paris. Sorry, but after years of wait to capture this movie on TV, this was a real disappointment. My hint: Forget about 90 minutes of that movie and remember Lanza's outstanding performances of the title tune, `Arrivederci Roma', `Come Dance With Me', and `The Loveliest Night Of The Year' (is it actually based on an Italian waltz?).