The Contessa's Secret

The Contessa's Secret (French: La Castiglione, Italian: La Contessa di Castiglione) is a 1954 French-Italian film starring Yvonne De Carlo as Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione.

• Yvonne De Carlo as Virginia Oldoini
• Georges Marchal as Lucio Falengo
• Paul Meurisse as Napoleon III
• Rossano Brazzi as Count Cavour
• Lucienne Legrand as Empress Eugénie
• Lea Padovani as Princess Princess Mathilde Bonaparte
• Georges Lannes as Mocquart
• Michel Etcheverry as Pietri
• Tamara Lees as Princess of Metternich
• Claude Boissol as Nigra
• Lisette Lebon as Luisa
• Alberto Bonucci as Castiglione
• Roldano Lupi as Orsini
• Pierre Flourens as M. de Nieuwerkerke
• Charles Bouillaud as Un indicateur

De Carlo signed on for the film in late December 1953. The film would be the first starring a Hollywood actor to have been shot in French without an English version. It was originally called Castiglione and Raf Vallone and Georges Marchall were meant to co-star.^[1]

Filming had to be brought forward earlier than planned so De Carlo could make a film with Cornel Wilde.^[2]

The film was shot in France in March 1954. De Carlo did not enjoy working for the producers . "I was very much put out when they gave me a stand in for a French dialogue coach," she said. "I thought I deserved better than that, particularly as I studied day and night to perfect myself in the reading of the lines. That was only one of numerous irksome things which not only I but other people had to put up with in that French production."^[3]

She later claimed the film was the first time a Hollywood actress did the lead in a film for which there was no English language version. "It was a distinction that made me feel proud."^[4]

• The Countess of Castiglione (1942)

• El secreto de la condesa en IMDb