Go Naked in the World (1961) User Reviews

Attitudes have certainly changed

[FANatic-10 · 6/10 · 4 August 2009]

In this lurid early 60's melodrama, Gina Lollobrigida plays a high-class call girl who meets Anthony Franciosca, the son of millionaire construction magnate Ernest Borgnine, a self-made Greek immigrant whose forceful personality and wealth dominates everyone around him. Franciosca has just gotten out of the service and is "finding himself". Franciosca is at first ignorant of Lollobrigida's calling in life, but soon gets wise and also learns that his father and seemingly half the male population in town has used her services.

This is a fairly big budget, lushly made film, set in what looked like possibly San Francisco (?) with a side trip to Acapulco. I'm kind of a sucker for films from this era, their look and style, so it was enjoyable enough though certainly nothing great. Borgnine gives the best performance, though even his character showed a lot of inconsistency - at times, he was quite likable then you wanted to beat him over the head. Gina is voluptuous and sexy, but Franciosca, playing the weakest character, could not overcome the deficiencies of the writing. The biggest problem with the film is the inherent double standard of the time, making the sexually free woman the victim who must pay for her "sins". I'm certainly happy that things have changed in that regard.

Wow this is REALLY bad

[xristofilak · 5/10 · 15 September 2021]

I watched this movie because I'm a fan of Gina. The screenplay really sucks.

Watchable, with some pretty good acting.

[loza-1 · 5/10 · 20 September 2005]

The only thing I have against this film is that the character played by tony Franciosa is rather helpless for someone who has just spent several years in the army. I would have thought that he would have come out a better man, instead of this mousy character, but there you are.

I thought the scene at the top of the skyscraper being built, where Tony Franciosa walks along a girder as though it were a tightrope, to get some money from his father was an incredible piece of acting by Franciosa, Borgnine, and the actors playing the spidermen. To me that was the outstanding scene in the whole film.

The rest of the film is a watchable melodrama, although I don't think it will ever be regarded as one of the best films ever made.

Go nauseous in the world

[mls4182 · 3/10 · 12 December 2021]

When you haven't seen a Gina Lollobrigida film in ten years her beauty really hits you in the face. She's also decked in glamorous, slinky gowns that show off her beautiful figure. Borgnine drives a gorgeous 1960 Chrysler New Yorker convertible in the film.

Those are the only good things I can say about this movie. It us absolutely pointless. It is also boring and annoying. Franciosa overacts, Borgnine just yells and Lollo acts like she's doing everyone a favor by just appearing in the film. Well, actually, she is.

You aren't given the time to care about the characters or get any insights into their motivations. Its just a lot of yelling.

La Traviata in 1961

[HotToastyRag · 7/10 · 23 April 2020]

I find it extremely hard to believe that no one who's seen Go Naked in the World has made the connection that it's a non-operatic version of La Traviata. It's based on Tom T. Charmales's 1959 novel, but it's a shameless copy of the famed story about a young man who falls in love with a prostitute.

Anthony Franciosa plays the young man, his strong, stern disapproving father is Ernest Borgnine. They come from a strict Greek background, and Ernie is just as tough, demanding, controlling, and larger-than-life than you'd expect any self-made man who wants the best for his kids. Yes, he's loud and challenging and impossible, but he also had to battle more in his life than his ingrate children have had to. He's earned the right to be gruff, and beneath it all, you can tell he's coming from a place of love.

Tony is too angry and youthful to appreciate his father's love, so rather than take a job at his extremely successful construction company, he slums it in an apartment and takes up with a beautiful prostitute, Gina Lollobrigida. He has no idea she's "the biggest call girl in town," but the audience knows it from the first scene. If you know La Traviata or Camille, you know how upset he'll get when he finds out. If you don't, you'll be extremely entertained by this heavy drama. There's an added twist to this movie that isn't present in the other stories, one that I happen to love and won't tell you about. You'll just have to rent it to find out why this particular version is so heavy.

If you rent this naughty, post-Code "romance", you'll see three very meaty performances. All three leads are given a lot to do, and they're all very convincing. Ernie certainly made good use of his Oscar, Tony broke free of his Italian-Burt-Lancaster-persona, and Gina was challenged most of all. She's given an enormous range in her scenes, so if you're a fan of the beautiful Italian actress, you're not going to want to miss this one.

You know a movie has problems when the most subtle character is the prostitute!

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 30 July 2020]

"Go Naked in the World" is a very bad film....a glossy, good looking bad film. The more you watch it, the more you realize it's a bad film....with too many characters who seem like caricatures and absolutely no subtlety. It's a shame, as there are many interesting story elements but the sum total is just bad...really bad. Better writers EASILY could have made this into a very good film...but apparently these were not better writers!

When the story begins, Nick Stratten (Tony Franciosa) has returned to his hometown after serving a hitch in the army. While you might think he'd go straight home to see his parents, Nick doesn't as his relationship with his father is extremely problematic! Pete Stratten (Ernest Borgnine) is a loud, blustering and controlling father....and Nick claims that he wants to be free of his father's control. However, although this seems admirable that Nick wants to make his own way in life, he's a jerk-face...who goes to his father for money but then, at the same time, resents his old man and makes it obvious. As for the father, he's no prince....as he's never been faithful to his wife and has spent time schtupping a high-class prostitute, Guilietta (Gina Lollobrigida). Later, Nick finds out that his new girlfriend, the one he's head-over-heels over, is the girl Pete's been seeing for years. And, apparently, so have many, many of Pete's friends! This is obviously NOT a super-healthy family!!

So why did I dislike the film so much? I blame much of it on the writers (as I mentioned above) and the director. After all, Pete is supposed to be a large personality....but there is zero subtlety about the guy and he spends most of the movie screaming his lines. I know Ernest Borgnine was a fabulous actor, so I don't completely blame him, but his character is so unreal. As for Nick and the rest of them, it's so sad that the LEAST over-the-top and most real character was the prostitute!!

The film COULD have been a great film about a father and son who are estranged. There ARE interesting things in the movie. But instead, it's just badly written, unconvincing and dumb....and filled with a bazillion and one plot holes. Ut also suffers from one huge problem....you simply don't like most of the characters! It's a pretty looking bad film, but a bad film nonetheless.

Not as explicate as its title suggests

[kapelusznik18 · 6/10 · 25 August 2014]

***SPOLIERS*** The beautiful Gina Lollobrigida as Guillietta, or Julie for short, Cameron is stripped down to her bear bar and panties. That as her shady past is revealed as a high price call-girl at her boyfriend Nick Stratton's, Anthony Franciosa, dad's big time Chicago construction mogul Pete Stratton, Ernest Borgnine, 30th wedding anniversary party. Rick who was to announce his engagement to Julie is dumbstruck by this shocking revelation that's even more shocking to him and his mom Pete's long suffering wife Yvonne, Luana Patten, is that Pete was one of her best customers!

Running for her life out of the party before she got lynched by the outraged party goers Julie ends up in a sleazy downtown hotel where her lover, who by then got over the shock, Rick finds her. It's then after Pete was made to drop the charges, in her being a hooker, against Julie by his tearful son Rick that the two lovebirds decided to check out to Mexico and, by getting away from it all, blend into the woodwork. Pete soon realizing that there's no way he can break up the romance between Rick & Julie drops into their hotel in Acapulco unannounced and gives Julie his blessing to marry Rick and be accepted into the Stratton family. But by then the damage was already done with a guilt ridden Julie in knowing all the trouble she caused dropping her idea to marry Rick and going back to her call-girl days. Julie ends up making a complete fool of herself at a local bar by getting gloriously drunk and trying to pick every man there!

****SPOILERS*** It's when Rick sees that Julie has gone completely loco, mad, he decides the best thing to do is go back home to Chicago and start a new life working for his father's construction company. The tragic ending has Rick change his mind and decide to take Julie back no matter how crazy she is but by then it's too late. Julie in the end ended it all by taking a swan dive off an 80 foot cliff in the Gulf of Mexico. But as we see as the movie ends the heart-broken Rick is more then forgiving to her for what she did to him as well as the Stratton family.

Melodrama maelstrom that has an outdated vision of old traditional family values

[Ed-Shullivan · 5/10 · 27 April 2021]

It is hard to believe that this melodrama film was released three (3) years after the much more realistic and successful (1958) Cat On A hot Tin Roof. Over the top is an understatement. Gina Lollobrigida plays a hooker who falls in love with Anthony Franciosa who is an army veteran just returning to his hometown where his wealthy industrialist father Pete Stratton played by. Ernest Borgnine has laid out a lifelong plan for his war veteran son. Nick Stratton.

Nick obviously wants to find his own way in the world and his plan includes living life happily ever after with his hooker girlfriend,. Guilietta Cameron (Gina Lollobrigida). There's is a whirlwind romance filled with days living life to the fullest and evenings snuggled up in bed. Nick's fathers' attempts to break up his sons fruitless relationship with the hooker Guilietta cause turmoil not only between father and son but Pete Stratton's own relationship with his own wife and his only daughter also become strained.

The acting comes across more as a live stage performance with the cast giving their very best, but like many Broadway productions this MGM film production just didn't have much meat on the bone, as well as being dry and rather tasteless.

I give the film a bland 5 out of 10 IMDB rating.

Over the top Bourgnine livens up muddled racy melodrama

[ChungMo · 3/10 · 24 January 2005]

Sick at home, I chose to watch this despite having no idea what this movie was about. Never heard of it before either.

First off, Bourgnine really got into the role of a domineering Greek immigrant architect. He spends quite a bit of time yelling at everyone. His scenes with Franciosa are very good and provided me with a reason to watch the whole thing. Lollobrigida is good but the scenes between her and Franciosa are gooey.

The plot is interesting as Lollobrigida's character is revealed to be a high-class hooker leading to Franciosa's character's very confused response and his confkict with his father who happens to be one of her clients. It could have been interesting but the movie opts for cheap moralizing at the end. I have seen the same ending in "bad girl tries to make good" movies from the 1930s.

The title is also a cheap attempt to get the male audience to think they might glimpse Lolabrigida nude at some point. Never comes close although there's a wild dissolve / montage that has an erupting champagne bottle superimposed over Lollobrigida face as she's clearly on her back. Hmmm.

You can skip it if it ever shows up again.

Surprise Racy Stuff For 1961

[florida87 · 8/10 · 24 January 2005]

I caught this on TCM running movies with Mr. Bourgnine, and based on the votes wasn't expecting much; killing time on a business trip afternoon. Maybe I'm hot for Italian women(OK I am). Franciosa and Borgnine seemed very believable to me. All the main characters are very flawed in this one and thats what makes it so interesting. Major conflicts develop in this one and Julie (Gina) is a dagger in the heart. Interesting thing, the hotel detective sniffs the cigarette to see if its pot! All the characters are dealing with their head problems, maybe to the point that it looses credibility, but I really enjoyed this one nonetheless.

Terrible Characters

[kfratt · 1/10 · 11 April 2021]

I admit to watching this film to check out Lollo, and she didn't disappoint as a minor version of Sophia Loren. My problem was with the characters played by Borgnine and Franciosa. So unlikeable - one being an overbearing jerk of a father and the other his whiny, spoiled son caught between adulthood and perpetual adolescence. Other than his good looks, what in the world would a smoking-hot woman as portrayed by Lollo want with such a spineless, no-work bum? Based on the ending, I can't imagine the son was supposed to come off as such a loser.

Big surprise...maybe not.

[hemisphere65-1 · 2/10 · 9 June 2021]

The characters in this over the top soap opera are not likable or believable. Borgnine is usually great, but the writing and direction has him trapped in the "I'm going to yell at everyone" mode.

Franciosa plays a worm of a "man" who the audience is supposed to feel sorry for or empathetic towards, I guess. He is an immature brat, just like his sister.

The dialogue is horrible, full of sappy platitudes and drivel, but at least Lollabrigida is beautiful.

Don't waste your time!

A big disappointment for Lollo fans

[JohnHowardReid · 3/10 · 6 January 2013]

Go Naked in the World (1961) is the noir movie you have when you're not expecting a noir twist in the tale. Right up to its mindless, cop-out conclusion, it behaves like an awful, incredible soap opera. We don't believe a word of it for a minute – which makes all the soapy posturing by Franciosa, Lollo and "Marty" Borgnine all the more ridiculous. Admittedly they drew handsome salaries and no doubt had themselves a great time making this soapy. And there are, I confess, a few amusing lines and mildly suspenseful situations along the way (although one of them atop a high-rise building is somewhat negated by obvious back projection). All told, however, Franciosa looks far too mature to be in any way convincing as the gormless innocent abroad. We might also well ask what Hollywood has done to Lollo, as she looks far less enticing here than in her Italian scenarios. For one thing, the photography by Milton Krasner, who has done far better work in the past, is far too harsh. (He tells me that producer Aaron Rosenberg didn't allow him sufficient time to set up the lights). In any case, Lollo's face looks too skeletal. Her clothes don't help either. They don't flatter her figure at all. She looks fat and frumpy. A similar squeeze on production values even make the Acapulco locations seem of little account. And why Rosenberg decided to shoot the movie in CinemaScope is a real mystery. The film is little more than a dull succession of slowly paced dialogue scenes, almost all framed in close-ups which make no use of the wide screen's potentials at all. Even production values seem like humble pie compared to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's usual glossy standards.

Unintentionally Funny Love Story before "Love Story"

[theognis-80821 · 3/10 · 31 March 2021]

Father says she's a prostitute. Son says she's a lady. Hence, conflict. This routine saga, going back to ancient Rome, is the core of this corn. Talented Randall MacDougall's long simmering problem with femmes du monde ("Mildred Pierce," "The Naked Jungle") finally knocks the lid off this potboiler. The actors put up a mighty struggle: Ernest Borgnine as an ethnic (Greek) Super-Yenta, feigning heart attacks when he can't get his way; Anthony Franciosa, a Causeless Rebel trying to figure out how to act like a man; and Gina Lollobrigida as the beautiful Whore With A Heart Of Gold seeking acceptance against all odds. This is one of the best So-Bad-It's-Good pictures before Russ Meyer made it into a genre. As they say in poker, "read 'em and weep."

Soap Opera

[kermitdgorf123 · 5/10 · 24 January 2022]

Best part of the film was every time Ernest Borgnine yelled at someone. Which was every scene he was in. Horrible dysfunctional family. Gina Lollabridgeda was certainly gorgeous , but I never thought she could act. So she kind of ruins what could have been a better film. Anthony Francioso didn't have any chemistry with each other .

Something like "Camille"

[Sheila_Beers · 10/10 · 3 March 2006]

I liked this film, which struck me as "Camille" in a modern setting with beautiful scenery and wardrobe in color and expressive music in the soundtrack.

The main similarity with "Camille" is the theme of "Redemption and Forgiveness" or the lack thereof with tragic results. Like Armand Duval in "Camille," the young man (portrayed by Anthony Franciosa) idealizes the exquisite young woman with whom he has fallen in love. To him, she is beautiful and innocent, and he wants a future with her. Then his father (Ernest Borgnine) reveals the ugly truth, that Giulietta is a high-priced call girl and that he and his middle-aged friends have been her clients.

The young man is confused, but he wants to forgive Giulietta for her past and help her make a new start by marrying her. They go away on holiday, but former clients (who are self righteous and who have an unforgiving attitude) come out of the woodwork and refuse to let Giulietta forget her past. As in Camille, the end is tragic, leaving the male characters to consider the parts (good or bad) they played in Giulietta's life.

"Honest women have lonely nights"

[evening1 · 5/10 · 17 May 2021]

Another entry in the mini-genre that asks: "Can a prostitute ever go straight?"

None could top "The Naked Kiss" (1964), but this exercise in dysfunctionality makes for a so-so diversion.

I had never seen Gina Lollabrigida in a film, and I didn't particularly like her performance. Her Guilietta ("I'm not for sale!") mostly struts a great bod and indulges in over-the-top histrionics. But she does have a few good lines (i.e., "Men with gray hair are very patient").

Nor did I enjoy Ernest Borgnine in a stereotyped role that couldn't find its way onto a screen today. James Franciosa is only slightly better, as Guilietta's conflicted lover (he is pretty cool atop those construction beams, though).

I did enjoy the few carefree moments that Guilietta passed in Acapulco. For a moment we imagine that she can change her spots. But what a disappointing denouement. Cop out!

\

melodramatic mess

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 26 August 2023]

Nick Stratton (Anthony Franciosa) has a 30 day furlough from the Army before deciding on re-enlisting. He returns home to San Francisco and falls for Giulietta Cameron (Gina Lollobrigida). His father Pete Stratton (Ernest Borgnine) is a self-made Greek immigrant construction tycoon. He is torn between his controlling father and his obsession with Giulietta who turns out to be a high class call girl.

I don't particularly like any of these characters and I don't have the joy of hating any of them either. Nick is annoying. Italian star Gina Lollobrigida is wasted on this melodramatic role. Ernest Borgnine is probably the most compelling actor in the cast. He and his son on the high beam is the most intense scene. The son is just too pathetic and I don't like the father either in this melodramatic mess.

You can learn a lesson in love from this movie

[BERGDORF · 10/10 · 25 October 2007]

I saw this movie twenty years ago when my self-esteem was not strong, and when I saw Go Naked into the World....I was devastated when Gina Lollabridga's character committed suicide. I wanted to shout at the television "Just hold on honey, he is coming for you, he is in love with you!" And that taught me that even when your chance at love feels hopelessly doomed, just give it one more day. Then that day will turn into another, and so on. If your heart really wants it, it will be yours. The title was so aptly titled, because all of us at point in our lives, will have to go out into the world - reluctantly, feeling exposed by whatever your tribulation may be. But it gets easier as your "armour" gets stronger. Go ahead, go naked into the world, just never give up.

A Bad Movie I Love

[joclmct · 10/10 · 14 April 2021]

I love everything about this movie. The clothes, her apartment, the innocent middle age son who has no idea she's a prostitute in spite of having just gotten out of the service, the LOUD father who also had sex w/ her, the entire straight male San Francisco population who apparently also had sex with her, Acapulco, the doomed love affair, the torment, the balcony, the white dress, the sea, the birds, the tragedy. What's not to love? Gina Lollobrigida is bodacious beautiful. Anthony Franciosa is ridiculously miscast & daddy Ernest Borgnine is, as mention above, LOUD. It's in glamorous widescreen CinemaScope filmed in lush saturated color cinematography. It's a sexy 60s morality tale treasure. If you are blessed w/ an innate appreciation of Camp, do not miss any chance to watch this movie.

This Property Is Condemned

[ricbigi · 8/10 · 12 April 2015]

GO NAKED IN THE WORLD (1961) was born out of time and out of place. This property was developed into a film that has been universally panned by critics and only intermittently enjoyed by connoisseurs and admirers of melodramas. Ranald MacDougall was a talented screenwriter (MILDRED PIERCE, JUNE BRIDE, THE NAKED JUNGLE, among other titles) but had little experience as a director (QUEEN BEE being his most successful effort). GO NAKED IN THE WORLD could have been saved by a director of genius such as Frank Borzage, George Cukor or Douglas Sirk, all three capable of handling this kind of material and transforming it into exciting drama in cinematic terms. MacDougall could not handle his own material. The fact that Charles Walters worked on the film uncredited shows that the production was in trouble. Melodrama as a genre was still quite alive in the late 1950's and early 1960's (LOVE IS A MANY-SPLENDORED THING, PEYTON PLACE, IMITATION OF LIFE, BUTTERFIELD 8 and BACK STREET are proof of that), but it needed to be handled properly in order to be successful. MGM was more interested in promoting BUTTERFIELD 8 (another tragic story about an expensive call-girl being victimized by a hypocritical society), so it let GO NAKED IN THE WORLD sink in its own troubled waters. The production shows several positive qualities: cinematography, production and costume design, for instance. And not all of the acting should be deemed bad. Ernest Borgnine is very effective in his role. Anthony Franciosa was physically right for the part, but his character was poorly conceived, to start with. We cannot understand how such a mature man could let himself be controlled by his father. Perhaps George Chakiris would have given the character the kind of vulnerability it required. Gina Lollobrigida looks absolutely gorgeous, and walks through the picture without getting very involved. No doubt she felt that the film was doomed. Possibly she was given little direction. She does the best she can with her most difficult scenes (the set-up to which she falls victim at the hotel, the desperate dance sequence at the night club in Acapulco), but we sense her emotional distance from the material. Only in her suicide scene she is truly moving. According to her own account, the film was very poorly edited. No matter, I believe that GO NAKED IN THE WORLD can still be enjoyed today. The chance to see Lollobrigida in her prime is already worth my time.

This flick reminded me a lot of a Hemingway film . . .

[oscaralbert · 8/10 · 1 August 2020]

. . . from decades ago, titled something such as PERSONAL BEST. Though Gina does not show as much of herself here as Mariel did there, Ms. L. may be more prim and proper in GO because she's more of an old pro than an inexperienced rookie. What GO lacks in ladies' sauna scenes is made up for with a cliff jumping motif. Just as the high jump trips up some of the characters in that Hemingway movie, Gina's swan dive proves to be a bridge too far for her--or a tall ladder with too many missing rungs.

OUTDATED BUT ENJOYABLE

[larryanderson · 9/10 · 1 July 2023]

I ran across this movie on Y/T and looked forward to watching it after I learned it was filmed in Acapulco MX, where I have been twice. (1979, 1994). Unfortunately most of the story takes place indoors with only a short visit to Acapulco at the end. Even then we only see Franciosi water skiing around Carletta Beach, a few balcony shots and nightclubs. All of which could easily been copy/pasted together. The La Quebrada cliff diver segments were genuine. Gina and Tony were both in their 30s but playing 20 year olds in the story. The gang rape at the end was brief because sex hadn't yet been invented in 1960. However the end result was a real twist.