Jean Negulesco (“Titanic”/”A Woman’s World”/”The Rains of Ranchipur”) ably directs this scenic adventure story that was shot on location on the beautiful Greek island of Hydra (it was the first American company to shoot in Greece) and its interior shots were completed in Rome’s Cinecitta Studio. It marks the first feature film Sophia Loren made for a Hollywood studio. This was the film that helped launch Sophia Loren as an international sex symbol. But when Cary Grant bowed out and then Bob Mitchum couldn’t costar because of a conflict of schedule, the studio recruited Alan Ladd. This turned out to be a miscasting decision that severely hampered the film. The problem was that the testy Ladd’s only 5’4″ and the buxom Sophia is 5’8″; and besides her towering over him and that he appeared bloated, there was no chemistry between them. While Sophia was earthy, feisty and an eyeful, Ladd only gave a stilted angry performance that just didn’t work. He acted like he didn’t want to be in the film, and in his autobiography that’s pretty much what he said. It was hard to see these two opposites getting together, as the story required, when they were so mismatched. Nevertheless the film worked in a mild way because it was so easy to take. It was both a breezy Aegean Sea adventure over a sunken-treasure coveted by two disparate parties willing to use all sorts of trickery and had a rich atmospheric setting that made good use of traditional Greek music. It’s based on the novel by David Divine and is written by Ivan Moffat and Dwight Taylor.