Click here to read Cinema Retro’s wonderful interview with former 60s Italian sexpot Elsa Martinelli. She began acting in her native country and then was brought to Hollywood by Kirk Douglas in the mid-Fifties but failed to ignite in such forgetable movies as The Indian Fighter; Four Girls in Town; and Stowaway Girl.
Elsa went back to her homeland for a few years, but returned to Hollywood in 1962 with a big splash playing the female lead opposite John Wayn in Howard Hawks’ classic African adventure Hatari! She also appeared in The Pigeon That Took Rome; The VIPs: Woman Times Seven; and has the distinction of being Dustin Hoffman’s first female co-star in the little-known movie, Madigan’s Millions in 1967 made before The Graduate.
