Sophia Loren made her Hollywood debut as a Greek sponge diver who discovers an ancient statute of a boy on a dolphin at the bottom of the Aegean Sea. The ensuing battle over the fate of the statue, waged by a corrupt treasure hunter (played with wily aplomb by Clifton Webb) and an American archaeologist working in the interests of the Greek state (played by Alan Ladd), becomes an allegory of cultural guardianship and national stewardship in the post-WWII world. A conflicted Loren, caught between the two men and the ideals they represent, symbolizes the instability of Greece following her liberation from Nazi occupation and simmering civil war between communist and anti-communist forces. Filmed in Cinemascope on location in Athens and Hydra, the great pleasures here—aside from the truly engaging intrigue—are the wonderful scenes of Ladd and Loren striding through the ruins on the Acropolis, the vitality and physicality of Loren’s performance, and, especially, Hugo Friedhofer’s Oscar-nominated score, which evokes the enchantment of the ancient Greek landscape and mystery of the sea.