ROSSANO BRAZZI

Agreed. Smoldering, sexy man. And very hot in that particular film. It’s my favorite Hepburn performance, to boot.

so he was a huge star, wasn't he ? apparently south pacific, (whch I haven't seen yet, lucky me) is one of the 50 biggest box office of all time, reajusted for inflation, and stayed atop of thebox office for three weeks, which is the amount of time I would like Rossano to stay on top of me.

He looks mega fat in OP’s pic.

Did you see him in South Pacific? He can SING! and is so handsome

[QUOTE] He looks mega fat

IN THE SPEEDO.SURE DOES

what do we know about Rossano ? married for 30 years to an old lady, childless, thenre-married with a young lady (his secretary) still childless. I say he dabbled, at the least.

Even the steely 50-something Joan Crawford fell victim to his fatal charms in THE STORY OF ESTHER COSTELLO (57).

So powerful is his erotic appeal, he "cures" a deaf and blind teenage girl with his big Italian cock.

I want to watch that, and also he had both de-beauvoir-de-haviland sisters as leading ladies. Cool

By contrast, in THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA (54), his big Italian cock doesn't work at all, even for Ava Gardner.

Oh, it was he in that ? must rewatch then. Can't stand gardner, pity, but I'll just fast forward her

one word : CLASS

Um, no, r4. Georgio Tozzi can sing, Rossano Brazzi just lip-synced.

Yeah, I didn't want to curb R4 ' enthusiasm, but I saw in wiki that he was dubbed in the movie. Oh well, who cares

Oh dear-ing myself. Thanks R12 & R13 for clarifying. That voice was yummy

He's that rarity : a man who looks like he would smell nice.

Fatness in the face, which is revealed to be further flabbiness in the body.

I watched "Summertime" a few months ago and, yes, he was stunningly handsome—charismatic and a lot of sex appeal. Italian men tend to have this without even trying. The men of that country are, by and large, fucking gorgeous.

R16, I'll take that...

the MALE GAZE. quite the atcor too

actor, sorry, I'm all hot and bothered

He oozes masculinity and confidence without being arrogant about it. Name one actor today who can do that as effortlessly as Rossano did ?

[quote]Um, no, [R4]. Georgio Tozzi can sing, Rossano Brazzi just lip-synced.

I was the ONLY one in the "South Pacific" cast who did my own singing!

exactly R21, he's also very tender in the movie, yet super masculine. he can contain Hepburn , which is no small feet. great actor

Beautiful lips

silky smooth skin

That picture is hot because you seldom see screen actors of the buttoned-up 1950s that near to nude (not counting before they were famous pics like Burt Lancaster or Yul Brenner), with a nice bulge and a dark bush that can't be fully contained in such a skimpy garment.

well said R26. And the others who thinks Brazzi is fat in the OP's pic have a very warped sense of the male body.

he's incredibly naturally gorgeous from head to toe in that pic, and his thumbs tell me everything I need to know about this thick bulge.

watching SOUTH PACIFIC as I type

[quote] one word : CLASS

Except he was involved with the Opus Dei, the ultra Right Wing phalanx of the Catholic church.

[quote]Did you see him in South Pacific? He can SING!

R4 He didn't do his own singing in South Pacific. Georgio Tozzi did.

^^Oops. Just saw the post from R22. Sorry for the duplicate.

He was also gorgeous in Light in the Piazza. He always appears beautifully groomed.

[quote] Except he was involved with the Opus Dei, the ultra Right Wing phalanx of the Catholic church.

that's a very empty accusation. All records show that he was very active in the resistance and detained and almost shot by the fascists.

[quote] I was the ONLY one in the "South Pacific" cast who did my own singing!

no Mtzi, you weren't

ok watched SOUTH PACIFIC. it's a very sexy movie. lots of almost nude beefcake My movaries exploded in the first 15 mn. Ken Clark WOW. Rossano was terrific, very attractive. At the end I was in tears. Mitzi was very good. I had to skip the musical numbers (except for Ray Walston's) but I don't like musicals anyway. the coloured filters were annoying. Apart from that it was very good. It was a blockbuster in its day, so I think we should hear about Rossano more often around here.

“During this period of time, he grew to dislike the Fascist government and its policies. His father had strongly resisted formation of the Fascist party during its earlier days and was constantly under surveillance by party leaders. The Brazzi family was threatened on several occasions.” María Lidia describes her grandfather: “Though he did not receive much formal instruction, he read a lot, loved opera and knew all the lyrics by heart. He had a happy sort of disposition and was very, very handsome too. Mother described him as an open-minded person, respectful of other people’s thoughts, religions and races. She often used the word ‘cosmopolitan’ when talking of him though I don’t think he ever travelled abroad.” Once, according to David O. Selznick, “Fascist soldiers, unable to locate Rossano’s father, murdered two of his cousins for allegedly ‘concealing’ him”, but María Lidia does not recall hearing this story. She does, however, remember another one: “Mother, who was a teenager during World War II, used to tell me that many of their neighbours in Florence, hard-working, innocent, good people, were all of a sudden being taken away to concentration camps. Mussolini was never mentioned at the house, probably as a measure to oppose him in contrast to all the propaganda that went on in the streets. The only exam mother ever failed in school, was when she was asked to write an essay on Mussolini. She was unable to write more than three lines. The house in Florence was bombarded and they had to move to a close friend’s house, Nello Carapelli, (who was) Rossano’s first theatre ‘maestro’and also Carlo’s godfather.”

His family suffered tremendously under Mussolini’s Fascist government. María Lidia also recalls hearing the story that her grandfather had been badly beaten by Fascists, with the ominous promise that Rossano, who was already a famous actor at the time, would be next, and that his “pretty face would be left unsuitable for the movies.”

Brazzi’s resistance to the Fascist dictatorship was passive rather than active in the earlier years of Mussolini’s regime. Although he had no love for the Fascists, he found that by not revealing his political views to anyone, he was able to pursue his career as an actor without much interference. By the time the situation had worsened into total war, Brazzi had already established himself as a top actor, and top actors were being deferred from the draft on the basis that good motion picture entertainment was needed for national morale. Consequently, he escaped service in the Italian army, except for a token period of 30 days service in 1941. Up until this point, Brazzi says, the pictures he was making were commercially produced for profit and were not propaganda. In 1942, however, the Germans and the Italian government asked him to move to Milan to make propaganda pictures under government sponsorship. He refused, feigning illness, and abandoned his film career for the duration. Earlier, he had been asked by the resistance forces if he would help obtain food for those they had managed to hide from the SS executioners. Food throughout the country was scarce, and many in the Underground were close to starvation. “Probably few men in Italy were better equipped to help than Brazzi. For one thing, he had money – and food could still be bought on the black market. For another, he could get some assistance through the Vatican; as nephew of the Archbishop of Bari – later Marcello Cardinal Mimmi of Naples – Brazzi was a Papal Guard. He was able to capitalize upon his knowledge of the Cinecitta movie studio, which had been converted into a concentration camp. Night after night he helped smuggle out three or four inmates, many of them American, British and French prisoners of war. All together, it was estimated, Brazzi and his resistance group helped to smuggle around 5,000 people away from certain death. Seven days before the liberation of Rome, Brazzi was arrested by the German SS, and was turned over to the Italian authorities. Someone had apparently betrayed him, and he was never able to ascertain who his enemy was. Nonetheless, he found himself facing the strong probability of immediate execution. “I made a little bit of acting,” he said later, “I said, “You know, I been helping everybody – could have been Fascist, could have been anybody.” Because we are arrived to a certain point now that Italy is such in a mess, and I think we really forgot that, after all, we are here all Italians and we are doing this one against the other.” Whether his interrogator was impressed by Brazzi’s eloquence or merely mindful of the Allies near approach, he ordered Brazzi jailed rather than shot. A week later, Brazzi’s guards vanished and he walked out free.” (He was later decorated for his bravery by President Eisenhower).”

r12 r31 GIORGIO, not Georgio.

time to re-watch LIGHT IN THE pIAZZA

LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA = one of the most moving film I've ever seen. Olivia is imperial, Rossano is superb, Yvette Mimieux ditto. I feared we were in for a disaster with the young George Hamilton (PTSD from Beatty as Paolo Di Leo), but i was very pleasantly surprised. I was hooked till the end, never sure which way it was gonna turn. Very well shot. A gem

Rossano was one of the most talented actors ever. He also had a lot of pain and struggle throughout his life. Despite that, he had a good heart, which is hard to encounter in Hollywood. At a time when gay people were oppressed beyond belief, they identified with his struggles and he theirs.

Did these two hook up?

R38. There's a lot wrong with your story about Brazzi during the war. Cinecitta was never a concentration camp. Post war it was a camp for displaced persons. People were there by choice. They had no homes.

R43 do you mean Loren and Rossano or Perkins and Rossano ? I don't think Brazzi would touch Loren, Carlo Ponti was not to be trifled with

Mitzi stops short of saying " mamma mia Rossano, so little fabric covering up so much italian sausage "

hilarious here. I assume that not all of you speak italian, he's making fun of himself and his "latin lover" status. "dont't make me laugh, my skin is so tight it will fall off my face", "I can' t pronounce bene, my lips are pulled the wrong way twice" "ugly men's lives are much easier than mine, take this guy on the front row for instance" "I don't sleep in a bed, I sleep in my fridge"and such. very Joan Rivers. Adorable

both sisters loved salami

who could blame them ?