Ten Thousand Bedrooms

Ten Thousand Bedrooms is a 1957 American romantic comedy film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Dean Martin, Anna Maria Alberghetti and Eva Bartok. Shot in Metrocolor and CinemaScope, it was Martin's first film in the wake of the dissolution of his partnership with Jerry Lewis. Plot Millionaire hotel mogul Ray Hunter flies to Rome to buy another property, the Regent. He is picked up at the airport by lovely Maria Martelli, who works for the hotel's owner, the Countess Alzani. Ray is reproached by the Countess for the impersonal way he buys up hotels this way, piling up "ten thousand bedrooms" and replacing employees without a second thought. He sincerely promises not to do so with the staff of the Regent. During the drive back into central Rome, Maria mocks Ray about his buying of numerous hotels. Instead of rebuking her, Ray appreciates her frankness, causing Maria to apologize and volunteer to be his translator that afternoon during staff introductions. When Maria stops briefly at her home to change, Ray meets the Martelli family, including Papà Vittorio and his other daughters. Maria's youngest sister, 18-year-old Nina, takes an almost immediate liking to Ray.