Washed up actor Kirk Douglas arrives at Cinecitta, in Cinemascope and Metrocolor, at the invitation of Edward G. Robinson, who asks him to supervise the dubbing. The actor is haunted by a relationship with a very annoying character played by Cyd Charisse, who we took against immediately (as did Kirk - he didn't want her cast); his salvation comes instead through Daliah Lavi, who's been discarded by mercurial hothead George Hamilton. It sounds like some kind of best-selling novel, which it was (Irwin Shaw, adapted by Charles Schnee). Claire Trevor shouts a lot, Rosanna Schiaffino is the annoying starlet.
The best bit is where Kirk takes over as director, before Robinson stabs him in the back.
With lots of dramatics and location shooting, thus it probably was filmed at the Hotel Excelsior in the Via Veneto (or the outside of it, at least); whether it's the actual Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere we weren't quite sure... I think it is:
Music by David Raksin, photographed by Milton Krasner.
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