The Contessa's Secret

{{Infobox film | name = The Contessa's Secret | image = The Contessa's Secret.jpg

| caption = | director = Georges Combret | producer = Claude Boissol Georges Combret Leonardo Magagnini Pierre Maudru | starring =Yvonne De Carlo Georges Marchal | music = Paul Durand | cinematography = Pierre Petit | editing = | distributor = Taurus Film Radius Productions | released = {{Film date|1954}} | runtime = | country = France Italy | language = French | budget = | gross = }} '''''The Contessa's Secret''''' ({{langx|fr|La Castiglione}}, {{langx|it|La Contessa di Castiglione}}) is a 1954 French-Italian film starring Yvonne De Carlo as Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione.

==Plot== {{No plot|date=September 2015}}

== Cast == * Yvonne De Carlo as Virginia Oldoini * Georges Marchal as Lucio Falengo * Paul Meurisse as Napoleon III * Rossano Brazzi as Count Cavour * Lucienne Legrand as Empress Eugénie * Lea Padovani as Princess Princess Mathilde Bonaparte * Georges Lannes as Mocquart * Michel Etcheverry as Pietri * Tamara Lees as Princess of Metternich * Claude Boissol as Nigra * Lisette Lebon as Luisa * Alberto Bonucci as Castiglione * Roldano Lupi as Orsini * Pierre Flourens as M. de Nieuwerkerke * Charles Bouillaud as Un indicateur

==Production== De Carlo signed on for the film in late December 1953. The film would be the first starring a Hollywood actor to have been shot in French without an English version. It was originally called ''Castiglione'' and Raf Vallone and Georges Marchall were meant to co-star.<ref>Looking at Hollywood: Yvonne De Carlo to Take Plane to Paris to Do French Film Hopper, Hedda. Chicago Daily Tribune 1 Jan 1954: b4.</ref>

Filming had to be brought forward earlier than planned so De Carlo could make a film with Cornel Wilde.<ref>Drama: Frank Lloyd Readying 'Texian;' Dana Andrews Gets 'Builder-Upper' Schallert, Edwin. Los Angeles Times 15 Apr 1954: A13.</ref>

The film was shot in France in March 1954. De Carlo did not enjoy working for the producers . "I was very much put out when they gave me a stand in for a French dialogue coach," she said. "I thought I deserved better than that, particularly as I studied day and night to perfect myself in the reading of the lines. That was only one of numerous irksome things which not only I but other people had to put up with in that French production."<ref>Yvonne's Persistence Making Believers of Her Critics Schallert, Edwin. Los Angeles Times 2 May 1954: E1.</ref>

She later claimed the film was the first time a Hollywood actress did the lead in a film for which there was no English language version. "It was a distinction that made me feel proud."<ref>{{cite book|first1=Yvonne|last1=De Carlo|title=Yvonne : an autobiography|url=https://archive.org/details/yvonneautobiogra00deca_0|url-access=registration|last2=Warren|first2=Doug|date=1987|publisher=St Martins Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/yvonneautobiogra00deca_0/page/181 181]|isbn=978-0-312-00217-6 }}</ref>

== See also == * ''The Countess of Castiglione'' (1942)

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{IMDb title|0046868}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Contessa's Secret}} Category:1954 films Category:1954 historical films Category:Italian historical films Category:French historical films Category:Films set in the 1850s Category:Films directed by Georges Combret Category:Cultural depictions of Napoleon III Category:Cultural depictions of Italian people Category:1954 Italian films Category:1954 French films Category:Unification of Italy (Risorgimento) films