Mr. Imperium

There are some stage actors who could never fully transmit their charisma on screen. Alfred Drake, Alfred Lunt, and Lynn Fontanne are the first that come to mind, but the same could be said of Ezio Pinza, the toast of the Great White Way in "South Pacific," whose career on celluloid never took off. Here, Pinza plays a prince from Mitteleuropa who falls for nightery chirp Turner while he is on holiday in Italy. They are mad for each other until he gets the call to move up one notch and become king of his land and departs. A dozen years pass in a twinkling and Turner has become a huge Hollywood star when he strolls back in her life, which is currently (and convenient...