Ah Rome, land of amore, pasta and a whole lotta bedrooms - if you're Ray Hunter (Dean Martin), a hotel baron who stops in to buy a luxury hotel and stays to stage-manage the romantic lives of four comely Italian sisters. Lavishly filmed on location, Ten Thousand Bedrooms marks Martin's first film after he parted company with his longtime show-biz partner Jerry Lewis. And it's an ideal match of star and vehicle, showcasing the star's mellow pipes and relaxed style of wooing. Martin would go on to establish himself as a fine dramatic actor in such films as The Young Lions, Some Came Running and Rio Bravo, but it's carefree, swingin'-bachelor characters like Ray that many fans will always associate with Dino.

Dean Martin's first solo film after his split with Jerry Lewis was very nearly his last. Dino plays Ray Hunter, a Conrad Hiltonesque playboy hotelier at large in Rome. Taking charge of his latest acquisition -- a huge hotel with the titular 10,000 bedrooms -- Hunter finds himself being pursued by the daughters of wealthy Vittori Martelli (Walter Slezak). For a while, it looks as though the youngest daughter Nina (Anna Maria Alberghetti) has the inside track, but big-hearted Ray, realizing that Nina would be happier with a boy her own age, settles for older sister Maria (Eva Bartok). The poor box-office take for this old-fashioned musical comedy seemed at the time to foretell the end of Dean Martin's film career, but he was rescued by his well-received appearance in THE YOUNG LIONS. The funniest aspect of TEN THOUSAND BEDROOMS was its promotional trailer, narrated by Teddi Thurman, then famous as the sultry weather girl on the weekend radio series MONITOR.