Teresa

Trailer—Teresa

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source: Teresa

Teresa

Although Pier Angeli appeared in this movie this long lost film also starred my angel Peggy Ann Garner.My Peggy Ann was only 19 year old when she appeared but one could tell that she was an accomplished star. If she did not say one word all you had to do is look into the eyes of my angel and you would know that Peggy Ann was a star. Peggy Ann and Pier were born the same year-1932 but Pier died in 1971. My Angel PEGGY Ann passed away on Tuesday evening October 16,1984. When my angel Peggy Ann passed Hollywood died. Peggy Ann and Pier are gone but they will never forget that long lost movie Teresa which they starred a long time ago. God bless Pier and my angel Peggy Ann Garner.

There are moments of great power in this film. It starts out very strong, and without giving the story entirely away brings you in. The feel is very much like Italian post-war neo-realism which was unexpected upon viewing. The performances are great. Erickson is very sympathetic as a tortured soul, and Angeli is fantastic as the young but strong Italian war bride. I would say that the first part set in Italy is the stronger part of the film but while I was a little frustrated with aspects of the story set in America, overall it is a film I will remember for some time. Patricia Collinge and the rest of the supporting cast all do a great job. This is a quiet film but that tells a powerful story in a way that few American films do. I do recommend it.

Soldier boy meets local Italian girl falls in love, he suffers shell shock, they marry. The trials of the War Bride forms the basis of this emotional drama. Pier Angeli, plays the young woman starving in war torn Italy. She is excellent having the audience viewer wrapped around her finger, John Ericson plays the mentally fragile, returned soldier. This is their love story. Ericson's character is a classic case of a son being overly mothered by a woman who refuses to let him leave the family nest. Angeli's character is as committed to her marriage, as her mother in law commits to breaking it up. That forms the conflict, which woman wins? I'm sure that the war in Europe produced thousands of similar stories

John Ericson may have had Marlon Brando's looks but none of his talent so his debut performance as a young soldier returning from WW2 with an Italian bride proved not to be the launch-pad for superstardom that it might have been and "Teresa" remains one of the least, and certainly one of the least known, of Fred Zinnemann's films. If it isn't exactly a bad movie it's certainly an unexciting one. The inexperience of both leads shows, (Pier Angeli is Teresa, the young bride), and it's left to the supporting cast, (Patricia Collinge as the clinging mother, Peggy Ann Garner as the sister, Ralph Meeker and Bill Mauldin as soldiers), to try to carry the film. Had it been shorter, tighter and concentrated more on life in post-war New York it might have worked but Zinnemann gives us a very long introductory section in war-torn Italy. These scenes are fine in themselves but they belong in a different picture. For Zinnemann completists only.

Fred Zinnemann's attempt at Neo-Realism is a drab story about a soldier who brings his war bride back to America to live with his disappointment of a father and his overbearing mother. Pier Angeli, as the bride, is lovely, but John Ericson, as the soldier, isn't up to the acting challenge asked of him. Patricia Collinge is decent as his mom, but everyone is done a disservice by Zinnemann's detached direction. I think he was going for understated realism but everything is so understated as to be lacking in any kind of emotional impact whatsoever. "Teresa" received a 1951 Oscar nomination for Best Motion Picture Story, a category that later was absorbed into the Original Screenplay Oscar. Grade: C

Extremely moody melodrama (told mostly in flashback) has young war veteran struggling to adjust to civilian life, bringing over Italian bride to live with him and his parents. Trouble begins almost immediately, however, because of the soldier's mother, who is a neurotic mess. Film takes an eternity setting up its story (which is pretty basic) and John Ericson is terribly miscast in the leading role (when trying for seriousness, this well-scrubbed youth only looks petulant and selfish). Rod Steiger fans might want to take a look; this was his first movie, and he's very good as a psychiatrist. *1/2 from ****