THE BAREFOOT NOCOUNTESSA

THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA (1954)
dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

THE BAREFOOT NOCOUNTESSA
MAD #23, May 1955
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Jack Davis

I have no idea why this first page is in black and white. It parodied the poster, which was in color.

The movie opens with Harry Dawes (Humphrey Bogart) at the funeral for “Barefoot” (Ava Gardner), where he is at her funeral narrating the story of how he knew her.

He is in Spain with a movie crew where they have seen her dance at a restaurant and are considering her for a role in a picture. Producer Kirk Edwards (Warren Stevens) has asked her to come the table. Since she doesn't do that, Harry has been sent to her home to see her. She lives in a small place with her family, and agrees to leave right then and there.

The difference between the Kurtzman parodies and the later ones where the standard was set by Al Feldstein later was that Kurtzman played with the conventions of the mediums of comics and the other media he was parodying.

When Edwards gets into an argument with playboy Alberto Bravano (Marius Goring) and loses, she goes with him and being the star encourages the rest of the crew to break ranks like they wanted to.

She is not satisfied and leaves him for Count Vincenzo (Rossanno Brazzi)

“Melvin Coznowski” was their go-to 'funny' name early on and was the mascot's name initially before becoming Alfred E. Neuman.

Vincenzo had shot her after they were married and at the funeral is taken away by the police. In the movie, it is because she has become pregnant and it couldn't be his because he is impotent. That would be too much for a comic book so here he did it because her feet smelled.