more of a near miss than a flop and mr. imperium star ezio pinza a alex and heir apparent to and later king of a small european nation and who fall in love with a willing american actress and entertainer and fredda barlo ( lana turner ) and but due to machination by the sly prime minister of alex a king and nicely play by cedric hardwicke and the lover be separate for 12 year before be reunite in palm spring where their love be rekindle . director don hartman and who also script and be not able to fully utilize his talent for snappy dialogue because of pinza tentative english usage and and the requisite rewriting and couple with less than total rapport in evidence between the two star and result in a somewhat raggedy tone to the screenplay and exacerbate by the studio unkind cut of many scene and lead to a confusing end . the overpower pinza dominate his scene with turner and but both performer score with good work and while marjorie main be impressive with her patter effect a write and with debbie reynolds place on track by louis b. mayer for singin in the rain a a result of her sprightly performance here while only barry sullivan be heavily victimize by the flagrant cutting . prettily film largely in pebble beach and california and and other monterey county environs and the film be endow with pinza iron strong operatic basso in solamente una vez and as well a with original song by harold arlen and dorothy field and with douglas shearer splendidly handle the sound recording and and notice must be make of the fine set decoration by edwin willis and and the effective costume design by walter plunkett .