The Barefoot Contessa is a 1954 American drama film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz about the life and loves of fictional Spanish sex symbol Maria Vargas.

The plot focuses on social positioning and high-powered politics within the world of film and high society.

Down on his luck, washed-up movie director and screenwriter Harry Dawes is reduced to working for business tycoon Kirk Edwards, who has decided that he wants to produce a film.

Looking for a glamorous leading lady, they go from Rome to a Madrid night club to see a dancer named Maria Vargas.

Although she flees during their meeting, Harry tracks her down to her family home and convinces her to fly with them to the United States to make her first film.

One evening at the Monte Carlo Casino, Alberto goes on a losing streak and berates Maria in public for ruining his luck.

On a rainy night, months later, with Harry in Italy, an unhappy Maria arrives at his hotel room and tells him about her husband's impotence.

Harry warns her Vincenzo is too proud to accept this, but Maria feels otherwise and plans to tell him about her pregnancy that night.

Back at the palazzo in the servants' quarters, Vincenzo shoots to death both Maria and her lover before she can tell him about the child.

[9] Some critics disapproved of the film; the book Feature Cinema in the 20th Century: Volume One: 1913–1950: a Comprehensive Guide called the film "dreadful", remarking that Mankiewicz's "intelligence and ambitious aims too often collide with an astonishing lack of subtlety and aesthetic judgment".

[10] Bosley Crowther in The New York Times described it as a "grotesque barren film" about the "glittering and graceless behavior of the Hollywood-international set.

On December 13, 2016, Twilight Time Movies released The Barefoot Contessa on high-definition Blu-ray.