''Woman of the Red Sea'' or ''Africa Under the Seas'' (Italian: ''Africa sotto i mari'') is a 1953 Italian

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Giovanni Roccardi Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...

and starring Sophia Loren,

Steve Barclay Stephen Paul Barclay (born 3 May 1972) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care since October 2022, having previously held the position from July to September 2022 under Boris Johnson. He served a ...

and Umberto Melnati. For the release of the film Loren, who had up to this point acted as Sofia Lazzaro, adopted her new screen name by which she became famous. This was partly in imitation of the then better-known Swedish actress

Märta Torén Märta Torén (21 May 1925 – 19 February 1957) was a Swedish stage and film actress of the 1940s and 1950s. Torén's father was a Swedish military officer, and for three years, during World War II, she was a secretary in the Swedish war offic ...

. Loren learned to swim for the role, and spent much of her screen time in a

bathing suit A swimsuit is an item of clothing designed to be worn by people engaging in a water-based activity or water sports, such as swimming, diving and surfing, or sun-orientated activities, such as sun bathing. Different types may be worn by men, wom ...

. This led one critic to worry that she was being turned into an Italian Esther Williams.Fischer & Landy p.81 The film's sets were designed by

Ottavio Scotti Ottavio Scotti (1904–1975) was an Italian art director. Scotti was born in Umago, which was then part of Italy but is today in Croatia. He worked on more than a hundred films during his career, including Orson Welles's ''Black Magic'' which wa ...

Synopsis

The troublesome daughter of an American millionaire accompanies him aboard his yacht on a deep sea diving expedition in the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

and falls in love with the captain.

Cast

* Sophia Loren as Barbara Lama *

as Paolo * Umberto Melnati as Sebastiano Lama *

Alessandro Fersen Alessandro Fersen (5 December 1911 – 3 October 2001) was a Polish-born Italian dramatist, actor, theater director, author and drama teacher. Born Aleksander Fajrajzen in Łódź to a Jewish family, Fersen he moved to Genoa with his family in 1 ...

as Prof. Krauss *

Antonio Cifariello Antonio Cifariello (19 May 1930 – 12 December 1968) was an Italian actor and documentarist. Life and career Born in Naples, son of the sculptor Filippo Cifariello, Antonio started his career in 1950 as the main actor, credited as Fabio ...

as Pierluigi *

Antonio Bardi Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular mal ...

as Franco *

Masino Manunza Masino is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Al Masino (1928–2006), American professional basketball player * Denise Masino (born 1968), American bodybuilder See also * Val Masino, Italian commune * Masino Intaray Masino In ...

as Masino *

Osman Omar Osman is the Persian transliteration and derived from the Arabic masculine given name Uthman ( ar, عُثْمان, , link=no ''‘uthmān'') or an English surname. It may refer to: People * Osman (name), people with the name * Osman I (1258–13 ...

as Ali * Ibrahim Ahmed as Hussein *

Ahmed Ben Yusuf Ahmad ( ar, أحمد, ʾAḥmad) is an Arabic male given name common in most parts of the Muslim world. Other spellings of the name include Ahmed and Ahmet. Etymology The word derives from the root (ḥ-m-d), from the Arabic (), from the ve ...

as Kassin

References

Bibliography

* Marinella Carotenuto. ''Sophia Loren. The quintessence of being an italian woman.''. Mediane, 2009. * Lucy Fischer & Marcia Landy. ''Stars: The Film Reader''. Psychology Press, 2004. * Kerry Segrave & Linda Martin. ''The continental actress: European film stars of the postwar era--biographies, criticism, filmographies, bibliographies''. McFarland, 1990.

External links

* 1953 films 1953 comedy films Italian comedy films 1950s Italian-language films Seafaring films Films featuring underwater diving Films scored by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino 1950s Italian films {{1950s-Italy-comedy-film-stub