Film actress Ava Gardner was the last, and least typical, of the screen's Love Goddesses, superseding Rita Hayworth and outliving Marilyn Monroe. As the hard-bitten press agent (Edmond O'Brien) in The Barefoot Contessa (1954) says of the Madrid slum gypsy (Gardner) elevated to screen stardom, "Whatever it is, whether you're born with it, or catch it from a public drinking cup, she's got it; and the people with the money in their hands put her there." Joseph L. Manckiewicz's film was dubbed "a trash masterpiece" by critic Pauline Kael, but trash or not, it perhaps gave the fullest expression to the magic sensuality of its titular star. Tall and lissome, Gardner was frequently likened to a panther and her sinuous grace inspired publicists for The Barefoot Contessa to trumpet her as "The World's Most Exciting Animal." Dark-haired, smokily glamorous, and husky-voiced, her sex appeal was...