In 1960, Sophia Loren was completing the string of a multipicture pact with Paramount that had borne little fruit in terms of gaining the sultry Italian the stronger foothold with American audiences that she had hoped. Efforts such as The Black Orchid (1958) and That Kind of Woman (1959) had, in fact, succeeded in scrubbing off the earthy patina that had gained her initial notice in favor of a glamorization of her persona. Her final effort under the deal, A Breath of Scandal (1960), was airy and not disagreeable; while a pleasing showcase for the star's natural attributes, it didn't register with ticket buyers of its era.

Drawn from Sidney Howard's successful Broadway Americanization of the Molnar farce Olympia, and adapted by a then-blacklisted and uncredited Walter Bernstein, the film opens in the Austrian countryside of 1907. The widowed Princess Olympia (Loren) is living a lush, if dull, exile from the court of Frances Joseph I, banished as a result of vaguely-referenced indiscretions that have caused the royal family embarrassment. She's desperate for distraction, which she finds when she's thrown from her horse before a handsome young American engineer named Charlie Foster (John Gavin). She feigns injury--and the identity of a simple farm girl--to coax Charlie into bringing her to the abandoned family lodge. Her attempts to seduce Charlie fall flat when she accidentally overdoses on pain medication. Charlie's too much the gentleman to take advantage of the situation, though Olympia, the morning after, can't swear to what transpired.

Her confusion is quickly replaced by delight when she learns that the emperor has forgiven her transgressions and has summoned her back to Vienna. Upon reuniting with her parents Prince Philip (Maurice Chevalier) and Princess Eugenie (Isabel Jeans), she learns that her rehabilitation has been directed towards an arranged political marriage with the Prussian Prince Ruprecht (Carlo Hinterman), and that she must be on her best behavior to keep the nuptial arrangement from falling through.

Simple enough, except for the arrival at the palace of Charlie; as it turns out, he came to Austria to attempt to broker bauxite mining rights for his employer, and Philip is the contact that he's requited to court. The enterprising engineer crashes the party thrown to welcome Ruprecht, and is quite surprised to find his "farm girl" in royal finery. Olympia's encounter with the American interloper can't help but be noticed by the duplicitous Countess Lina (Angela Lansbury), who has profited from her own covert affair with Ruprecht and would like to see it continue.

Lina thereafter puts a bug in the ear of Count Sandor (Friedrich von Ledebur), the officious protocol minister charged with informing the crown of any and all faux pas. From there, Olympia's efforts to juggle her genuine feelings for Charlie with familial duty carry the story to its conclusion.

From cinematographer Marlo Montuori's saturated vistas of the magnificent Vienna locations to costumer Ella Bei's efforts at draping Sophia's superstructure, A Breath of Scandal does provide no small amount of eye candy. While Loren's husband/producer Carlo Ponti had recruited the venerable Warner house veteran Michael Curtiz to handle the directing chores in the belief that the 70-year-old Hungarian expatriate would have affinity for the material, the choice proved unfortunate for a number of reasons. According to Loren biographer Warren G. Harris, "He went a bit gaga from culture shock and fell more in love with Vienna than he did with the script. He seemed to be turning the film into a travelogue, making the city, rather than Sophia Loren, the real star."

There was also another problem. English was a second language for both director and leading lady, and Loren was often left dazed by Curtiz' legendary malapropisms. As Lansbury recounted in Rob Edelman and Audrey E. Kupferberg's biography, Angela Lansbury: A Life on Stage and Screen, "Michael Curtiz was a very good director...but he spoke with a thick Hungarian accent. I don't think Sophia Loren understood a single word he said on the set." It got to the point that after Curtiz' day was through, Vittorio De Sica - brought in by Ponti with a $2500 daily retainer - surreptitiously reshot Sophia's scenes.

Producers: Marcello Girosi, Carlo Ponti
Director: Michael Curtiz
Screenplay: Karl Schneider; Walter Bernstein (adaptation); Sidney Howard (English translation of "Olympia"); Ferenc Molnar (play "Olympia"); Ring Lardner, Jr. (uncredited)
Cinematography: Mario Montuori
Art Direction: Hal Pereira, Gene Allen (uncredited)
Music: Alessandro Cicognini
Film Editing: Howard Smith
Cast: Sophia Loren (Princess Olympia), Maurice Chevalier (Prince Philip), John Gavin (Charlie Foster), Angela Lansbury (Countess Lina), Isabel Jeans (Princess Eugenie), Tullio Carminati (Albert).
C-97m.

by Jay S. Steinberg