From 20th Century Fox
Screenplay by John Patrick
From novel by John Secondari
Directed by Jean Negulesco
Starring
Clifton Webb
Dorothy McGuire
Jean Peters
Louis Jourdan
Maggie McNamara
Rossano Brazzi
Howard St. John
Kathryn Giveny
Cathleen Nesbitt
It's not one of my favorite flicks but I have always enjoyed watching it, always felt like it lifted my spirits somehow. It is both a romance drama and a beautiful Cinemascope travelogue of Rome and a bit of Venice. (The process was the first for a film shot outside the United States) It has a lovely cast, three of whom (Webb, McGuire and Peters) are still favorites. Its intent was to spread some joy and in that it succeeded.
20th Century, I think, led all of Hollywood on the trio-of-women- looking-for-husbands storyline. It's been done many times in Hollywood and we've done an earlier posting on such movies. The year before Fox had a big success with How to Marry a Millionaire (also directed by Negulesco) which gave a green light to this project. One thing that may be a little different here is that the women are not golddiggers as they usually are.
The film opens with long, strikingly beautiful views of The Eternal City that will dazzle even the most cynical of viewers all the while listening to an uncredited Frank Sinatra singing the Oscar-winning title tune. That gorgeous cinematography by Milton Krasner also won an Oscar as well it should have. The beauty of this film, the beauty of Rome is a memory I've never forgotten. It is that impressive.
The story opens with McNamara's arrival. She will share a luxurious flat with McGuire and Peters, the latter of whom will be moving back to the States in a week. McNamara is also taking over Peters's job at an ad agency. McGuire has worked for 15 years as the secretary of a cynical novelist (Webb) with whom she is secretly in love. The women get on well but of course the film would lack a little interest if the same could be said about their relationships with their men.
 |
| Clifton Webb and Dorothy McGuire |
Webb is totally oblivious to McGuire's romantic notions until close to the end of the film. McNamara falls for Jourdan, a womanizing Italian prince, and makes up stories to show him how much they have in common. He takes her on his private plane to Venice and again we're dazzled by the beauty of that city as well. After she meets his mother (Nesbitt), McNamara feels guilty about the dishonesty. When she confesses to him, he is hurt and stops seeing her.
Peters and Brazzi are coworkers at a company that forbids fraternization. She tells everyone she's returning to the States to marry, which isn't true. When she tells Brazzi the truth, he turns on the charm.
The pair is involved in my favorite scene. She meets him in the city where he and too many relatives are packed in an open-air Jeep with no brakes. They travel upcountry to his family's home and they have an al fresco meal on the side of a mountain... literally. It's so on the side that the picnic table is not flat on the ground. Someone is playing the guitar and singing Anima e Core. The cinematographer could have won his Oscar for this scene alone.
It follows with another scene where Peters ends up alone behind the wheel of the brakeless Jeep going done the curvy mountain with Brazzi and others chasing her.
 |
| Jean Peters and Rossano Brazzi |
They're my favorite relationship here but unfortunately it looks like they, too, are not going to make it as a couple because he feels he is too poor, especially now that his boss has fired him when Brazzi and Peters were seen by him in the Jeep.
I did have to laugh at Webb proposing to McGuire and then un-proposing when he receives some bad medical news. Both times he is obviously so uncomfortable with this dialog. The actor had never proposed to a woman in his life and doubt that he ever did more than this time in the movies. Nonetheless McGuire (!) plays a drunk scene well and wins him back.
Webb, in turn, decides to do what he can to reunite the other two couples. He gets Brazzi his job back and most amusingly tells Jourdan that McNamara lied because she felt she couldn't measure up to his high standards. We know Jourdan is thinking it over.
 |
| Louis Jourdan and Maggie McNamara |
Peters and McNamara have decided to return to the States together and shortly before they are to leave, McGuire asks them to meet her in front of the Trevi Fountain. She tells them she has a surprise. Soon Webb, Jourdan and Brazzi come from different directions to join them. All is well. Love is flourishing in Rome.
Negulesco was the perfect director here. He knew his way around the three girls gone-a-hunting theme very well. In 1964 he would direct Coins' remake, The Pleasure Seekers, in Madrid, with Ann-Margret, Carol Lynley and Pamela Tiffin. It by no means measured up to the original.
These types of films don't nab Oscar nominations for acting and yet everyone involved here is letter-perfect. At the same time, wasn't there an Italian actor available to play the Italian prince that Marseilles-born Louis Jourdan played? In four more years, Italian-born Brazzi would play a Frenchman in South Pacific. Was Louis busy? Ok, so I'm a stickler on casting.
Eagle-eyed moviegoers likely noticed that in neither of the two coin-tossing scenes does Peters engage. What about this title then? Should it have been Two Coins in the Fountain? Well, sharp eyes probably detected that Brazzi, in fact, tosses a coin at the end. I guess that's three.
The tossing of those coins, according to legend, signifies not romance, as often thought, but that one will return to Rome. Coins must be thrown with the right hand over the left shoulder. The name, Fontana di Trevi, comes from tre-vie which means three roads because it is at the junction of them. The fountain was built in 1762.
The original choices for the three women were Barbara Stanwyck, who had played Webb's wife in Titanic, Gene Tierney, whom Webb had a sick crush on in Laura, and Jeanne Crain, who played his daughter in Cheaper by the Dozen. Boy, that would have been something.
The film deserves an A+ on its use of color, photography in general and the locations. It features a hugely popular song and has a strong cast of actors I liked. So why the guilty pleasure? It's the story. While I do enjoy it, it is routine but nostalgic Hollywood fare about women who want little else in life than getting a husband. It would rile up the feminists and for that I feel guilty.
It remains high on my list of favorite American films of Rome but there are others... Roman Holiday, a year earlier, and in the early 60s there were Come September, A Light in the Piazza and Rome Adventure.
Here's a trailer:
Answers to last Friday's Rodgers & Hammerstein movie quiz:
1. Flower Drum Song
2. The King and I
3. Carousel
4. Oklahoma
5. The Sound of Music
6. State Fair
7. South Pacific
Next posting:
From the 40s
No comments:
Post a Comment