Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Neil Doyle The "6" rating is only because Mario Lanza gets to sing a good number of worthwhile songs as only he can. But I could have done without his impersonation scene where he makes fun of popular Italian crooners like Perry Como and Dean Martin.The story is so flat and unconvincing that it's hardly worth a mention. It's sufficient to say that you can forget it while enjoying abundant glimpses of Rome's landmarks and terrain, all nicely photographed in Technicolor.Lanza was beginning to look heavier than usual but his voice is still able to belt out a mixture of operatic arias and pop tunes. The film itself is not an "essential," even for Lanza fans because the script is an uninspired bit of tedium. Just sit back and enjoy the scenery.

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?).

Derek McGovern 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.