Mario Lanza is an American singer looking for his fiancé (Peggie Castle) in Rome in "Arrivederci Roma" aka "The Seven Hills of Rome." The threadbare plot consists of Lanza, as Marc Revere, meeting a destitute young woman, Raffaela (Marisa Allasio) on a train. He takes her to stay with his cousin Pepe. Pepe falls in love with her; she falls in love with Marc.The plot exists only to take the audience on a dazzling tour of Rome and to have an opportunity to listen to some beautiful music. This was the film that introduced the hit song "Arriverderci Roma." Lanza also sings "The Seven Hills of Rome," and part of "M'appari." Marc blunders into a talent show where his cousin is playing accompaniment and announces he will sing an aria from the opera "Rigoletto" and somehow Pepe knows it's "Quest o' quella" instead of the more famous "La Donna e Mobile." Probably the most entertaining scene is Lanza entertaining some young rock and rollers in Pepe's courtyard with imitations of Perry Como, Frankie Laine, Dean Martin, and Louis Armstrong.Having just heard Lanza do some of his best singing in "Because You're Mine," the change in the tenor's voice after six years of drinking was apparent, not to mention that he looked bloated. The voice had darkened; the top was sometimes strained, as well as the approach pushed, and some of the high notes had a covered sound. It's not unusual for a voice to change in this way - but not at the age of 37. However, he could still pull it out when he needed to, and often does throughout the film."Arrivederci Roma" is a pleasant film but heartbreaking to realize that Lanza is almost at the end of his downward spiral and that it would be stopped by his death. He was one of music's brightest lights.

(No spoilers in the first three paragraphs.) This film was released in 1958, and the next year Mario Lanza was dead. That is hard to fathom, seeing him so youthful and alive here. The story is simple - Marc Revere (Lanza, 36 during filming) is a well-known singer in the USA and engaged to pretty but difficult Carol. When she goes off to Europe, he sets out to find her, and things become interesting during his train ride to Rome. In the rain a pretty, young Italian, Rafaella (Marisa Allascio, 21 during filming), stumbles, falls, and gets on the train without a ticket. Marc, overhearing her argument with the conductor, offers to pay the 5,900 Lira for her ticket, allowed her to share his compartment, and even goes out the compartment for a minute so she could change into his dry coat.Marc has no apparent romantic attraction, although Rafaela is strikingly pretty. They ride together to Rome, she says she will pay him back after she meets with her uncle who is to help her find a job. The rest of the movie involve a couple of different love triangles, but mostly is a series of opportunities for Mario Lanza as Marc to sing, and beautifully he does. My favorite scene is where he sings for youngsters in the streets, doing his impersonations of Perry Como, Frankie Laine, Dean Martin, and Satchmo Armstrong. A nice little movie for anyone who enjoys Mario Lanza and his singing.As was often the case in the 1950s and 1960s, movies set in a foreign country contained liberal footage of the sights and sounds of the locale. Not so much to advance the plot, but I think more to serve as a 'travelogue' of sorts, back when fewer people traveled overseas and TV was not so world-wide. This movie includes much footage of Rome, its major attractions, and the surrounding countryside, filmed nicely in widescreen and color.SPOILERS follow, do not read further if you have not seen the movie, but please DO see it when you get the chance. When they arrive in Rome, Rafaela finds that her uncle has moved to Argentina, she has no job and no place to stay, so she and Marc end up staying with Marc's cousin Pepe (Renato Rascel). When Rafaela sees that Marc is not a cad, and is in fact a nice, talented singer, she begins to fall for him, even though Marc just treats her as a young lady working as cook and cleaning lady at Pepe's. Meanwhile, Pepe who becomes Marc's pianist, begins to fall for Rafaela, but she has no interest in him. Marc finally finds Carol in Rome, they renew their intent to get married, but she has another suitor chasing her. In the end it doesn't work out and, as Marc and Carol split, Rafaela is leaving for the train station, to leave Rome. Marc tracks her down and they end up hand in hand, walking in the evening light.The story uses the 'chance encounter' theme, if Rafaela had not been chasing that particular train, or if Marc had not been in that particular car, chances are they never would have met. Much of the middle of the movie is set up by Marc, Rafaela, and Pepe all being essentially 'broke', so they have to hustle odd jobs to buy food and avoid eviction. Marc's break in Rome comes when he stumbles into a local bad talent contest, wins easily, and gets hired for a regular singing job paying just over $5 American a day.

It's ironic that Seven Hills of Rome (Italian title: Arrivederci, Roma) made a reasonable splash at the box office - particularly in Italy, where it was a huge success. After all, it's undoubtedly Mario Lanza's weakest movie effort, and a film that the tenor went to great pains to distance himself from. Lanza was particularly hard on his own performance, but watching the movie 45 years later it's immediately apparent that the fault isn't his, but rather the meandering script and lack-lustre direction. To make matters worse, there is very little in the way of substance for Lanza to sing. Still, there are a few compensations along the way...Lanza's previous film, the much underrated Serenade, was a poor performer at the box office in 1956. Nervous producers decided that Lanza's next movie should shift the emphasis away from the drama and solid operatic selections to a much lighter presentation of the popular tenor. Unfortunately they went too far, reducing Lanza to just one aria (Questa O Quella from Rigoletto) and a fragment of another. Instead of his usual role as an opera singer, Lanza is merely a TV/nightclub performer this time, and his selections include the pretty Arrivederci, Roma and a handful of largely forgettable popular ballads. Ironically, the biggest vocal highlight of this movie is Lanza's imitations of OTHER singers. His impersonations of Perry Como, Frankie Laine, Dean Martin and - believe it or not - Louis Armstrong are hilarious, and amazing in their accuracy.The original script was reportedly a good one, but the producers soon realised that it contained enough material for a five-hour movie. This resulted in drastic re-writes (even on the film set), and therein lies the problem. This is a movie without a solid story, and instead we are left with some enchanting shots of Rome, some sporadically good acting from Lanza, and two engaging co-stars in the Loren-lookalike Marissa Allassio and the popular comedian Renato Rascel.This movie will probably not win Lanza any new admirers, but diehard fans will enjoy it. Happily, Lanza's next (and final) movie, For the First Time, was a considerable improvement, with enough opera AND popular ballads to satisfy every type of music lover.

Mario Lanza was and remains an enigma. Endowed with an incredible voice and a rugged sex appeal, he rose to the top and slid to the bottom in a few short years. This film, his penultimate, is a stinker in many ways. The story sucks, the acting ghastly and the scenes contrived and unconvincing. So, why am I not slamming it with a spoiler (as indeed, this comment is not)? Easy. Mario. Mario, the voice. This guy who lived in excess of the excesses, had an absolutely great voice. He was a lousy musician (most singers are, BTW), utilized horrible vocal technique and emoted all over the place. But, the voice. Ah, the voice. It was golden. And, Mario, the ham, sang from the heart and from the soul. Trite? Perhaps. But, the truth is, his was a unique talent that even some of the great tenors of our time acknowledge as inspirational. When you consider that tenors of the quality of Pavarotti, Domingo, Carreras and McCord declare he was their inspiration, what more can you say? This film, a story not unlike Mario's own odyssey, of a tenor returning to Italy to get in touch with roots and start over again, is a bit corny. But, the singing is worth the price of watching. That voice. We will never hear another like it. In my youth, I aspired to be an operatic tenor and sang on the stage at UC Berkeley and in Italy. I found out quickly that my talent was likely not going to support a great career, but I had pursued it to that point because I loved imitating Mario. He had it. I didn't, but then, who else but Mario did? Check it out.