Mario Lanza in The Seven Hills of Rome.

Seven Hills of Rome was tenor Mario Lanza's penultimate film. Shot in 1957 on location in Rome and at the Titanus studios in the Italian capital, the movie was released by MGM in January 1958. Image File history File links Shor. ... Image File history File links Shor. ... Mario Lanza (31 January 1921 – 7 October 1959) was an American tenor and Hollywood movie star who enjoyed success in the late 1940s and 1950s. ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nickname: The Eternal City Motto: SPQR: Senatus PopulusQue Romanus Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 21 April 753 BC  - Mayor Walter Veltroni Area    - City 1285 km²  (580 sq mi)  - Urban... MGM logo Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer or MGM, is a large media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of cinema and television programs. ... Year 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The Technirama film tells the story of Marc Revere, an American TV singer of Italian heritage who travels to Italy in search of his jet-setting fiancée, Carol Ralston, played by Peggie Castle. Revere moves in with his comical and good hearted cousin Pepe Bonelli (Renato Rascel), a struggling artist who also befriends a beautiful young girl, Rafaella Marini (Marisa Allasio), whom Revere had met on a train. Like Lanza, this was Allasio's next-to-last film (the 17th of her career), as she would marry the grandson of H.R.M. Vittorio Emanuele III, King of Italy, in November 1958 and retire from the cinema. Technirama is a screen process that was used by some film production houses as an alternative to CinemaScope. ... Logo of Sons of Italy, which is the largest Italian American fraternal organization in the United States. ... Peggie Castle Born in the small Town Of Appalachia, in Southwest Virginia. ...

Among the selections that Lanza sings in this "vocal tour de force" (Variety) is "Arrivederci, Roma", performed in the Piazza Navona with a young street urchin. In typical Lanza fashion, the star had encountered the youngster while in Rome and insisted on her appearing in the film. Variety is a daily magazine for the entertainment industry. ... Fountain of the four Rivers with Egyptian obelisk, in the middle of Piazza Navona Piazza Navona is a square in Rome. ...

Lanza also performs a sequence of imitations of famous singers of the era — Perry Como, Frankie Laine, Dean Martin, and Louis Armstrong — committing to film what was one of his favorite party performances. Pierino Ronaldo Perry Como (May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an Italian American crooner during the latter half of the 20th century. ... Frankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio (March 30, 1913 – February 6, 2007), was one of the most successful American singers of the twentieth century. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Louis Daniel Armstrong (4 August 1901[1] – July 6, 1971) (also known by the nicknames Satchmo, for satchel-mouth, and Pops) was an American jazz musician. ...

Opera selections include "Questa o Quella" from Rigoletto. Giuseppe Verdi, by Giovanni Boldini, 1886 (National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome) Rigoletto is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi. ...

The film was directed by Roy Rowland and was the first of only four films produced by Lester Welch. The screenplay was the last written by Art Cohn, who died two months after the film's release in the same airplane crash that killed famed director Mike Todd, whose biography Cohn was writing at the time. Cohn partnered with Giorgio Prosperi on the script for the Lanza film, which was based on a story by Giuseppe Amato. Michael Todd (real name Avrom Hirsch Goldbogen) (June 22, 1907 or 19091 - March 22, 1958) was an American film producer who is best known for his production of Around the World in Eighty Days 1956, which won an Academy Award for Best Picture. ...

Seven Hills of Rome won a Laurel Award (1959) from Motion Picture Exhibitor magazine.

Its Italian title was Arrivederci, Roma, which was to be the American title of a film Lanza was scheduled to make in 1960, until he died in Rome in October 1959.

References

• Cesari, Armando. Mario Lanza: An American Tragedy (Fort Worth: Baskerville 2004).
• Notes accompanying the 1990 video release of the film.

External links

• Arrivederci Roma at the Internet Movie Database
• Renato Rascel at the Internet Movie Database
• Marisa Allasio at the Internet Movie Database
• Roy Rowland at the Internet Movie Database
• Lester Welch at the Internet Movie Database
• Art Cohn at the Internet Movie Database
• Giorgio Prosperi at the Internet Movie Database
• Giuseppe Amato at the Internet Movie Database
• New York Times review
• 1959 Laurel Awards from the Internet Movie Database