Boy on a Dolphin

1957 "An adventurous love story that will live 'til the seas run dry!"
6.2| 1h51m| NR| en
Details

Phaedra is a poor sponge diver on the lovely Greek isle of Hydra. While diving, she discovers an ancient brass and gold statue of a boy riding a dolphin, which is said to have the magical power to grant wishes. Her shiftless boyfriend wants to sell it to an unscrupulous art collector, but Phaedra wants to give it to anthropologist Jim Calder, who would return it to the Greek government.

Director

Producted By

20th Century Fox

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Reviews

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.
Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.
Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
cwpowers-887-16058 Loved the film but have always wondered why the film used the name "dolphin" when they actually used a porpoise . A dolphin, or mahi mahi was a much small fish. Imho.
youseineko ... but I can't tell if it is or not because it isn't captioned. Please someone, caption this movie. I do appreciate that someone listened to my plea regarding another movie and 6 months later it was captioned.We hearing impaired people love movies, too. I especially admire Sophia Loren. She is so beautiful and sophisticated. I even read her beauty book years ago. If you want to know what it's like for us, watch the movie with the sound off. Even hearing people have grown to enjoy Closed Captioning for times when someone is making noise and they can't hear the TV.Thanks for reading this. Now I pray next time I see it on TCM it will be captioned.-Youseineko-
L. Denis Brown Some films are set in very gritty surroundings such as docks or decayed warehouses, others have period settings, or need to support a sci-fi story-line. But when it is possible, most films will increase their appeal if they can provide attractive screen images to help tide viewers over occasional dull spots. Such eye candy may be land or marine scenery, architecture or people. Used at the right time, any of then can provide additional viewer enjoyment. Boy on a Dolphin, based on a novel by David Divine, is one of many films (among them Venus, Summer Lovers, and Aphrodite) which have used the magnificent scenery of the Greek Islands for this purpose. It was made by the Fox studios on location on Hydra Island in Greece, and is an adventure film about an impoverished Greek scuba diver, very vigorously played by a young Sophia Loren, who discovers a valuable classical statue she wants to see accepted as a national treasure rather than simply sold on the open market. It was filmed in colour and provides some delightful images of the scenery in this lovely part of the world; but, although there was an extremely vigorous and fiery performance by Sophia Loren, the acting of the North American cast members unfortunately left much to be desired and the overall impression after watching this film is somewhat patchy. This is sometimes blamed on the height disparity between the rather short Alan Ladd, who plays the curator of one of the museums of antiquity in Athens and the unusually tall Sophia Loren. It has been suggested that Robert Mitchum who was originally considered for the role of the museum curator, might have helped create a film which would wear better. I do not think this is fair to Director Jean Negulesco who, as I remember it, very adequately coped with any problems this difference created, and also did a wonderful job of exploiting the scenic attractions which did so much for this film. His main failure was in melding the contributions of the various cast members into a coherent story with enough sparkle and life for it to become a classic. However it was one of the top earning films at the time it was released, and was also nominated for an Oscar, so it seems probable that both Fox and those involved in making the film would have classed it as very successful.I am a visual person, and perhaps appreciate the value of eye candy more than many film-goers, but I would not give this film an IMDb Users rating of more than seven today. I would however quickly buy myself a new DVD copy if it was available. The VHS tape is no longer listed and I do feel very strongly that as a re-mastered DVD, the delightful scenery, combined with the important theme about national treasures being preserved for the enjoyment of posterity and the great performance by Sophia Loren, would be enough to ensure better sales for it than for many of the other DVD revivals which are being created in great quantities today. This is my principal reason for adding these further User Comments now.
Gilbert BURBACH This film was one of 1957's top grossers mainly due to the fact that in those years the public wanted exotic European location shooting and the film certainly does a good job of showing Greece and Sophia Loren who is ravishing.The story is a thriller.Alan Ladd plays a archaeologist ,Sophia a poor sponge diver and Clifton Webb an unscrupulous collector of art.The plot is not really that important.What counts is the scenery and Sophia.Alan Ladd whom I have always considered as a very good actor, but underrated by critics does a good job,like always(he always tried his best), all the more so that his partner was really very much taller than him and he suffered from that.I don't understand why everybody made so much fuss about Alan Ladd's size.He was just as short or tall as Humphrey Bogart or James Cagney or even George Raft.The film is very enjoyable.