Three Coins in the Fountain

source: Three Coins in the Fountain

Sure, this isn't the greatest romance ever made, but it might just do the trick if you're looking for a film to watch with someone you love (or at least tolerate, a bit). The film excels in many ways, but the best aspect of the movie is the mood it evokes--through music, panoramic scenery and the mystique of both Rome and Venice. In many ways, this made it look, at times, more like a travelogue than a romance--especially with the prologue that just features music and the sites of Rome. Now as for the plot, it's also pretty good--with a light romantic touch. The only downside is one of the three relationships just didn't seem very realistic and one other just didn't seem to be given enough screen time (Jean Peters' romance). Part of the lack of realism with Dorothy McGuire's romance was clearly because it sprang up out of nowhere, but part of the problem might be my own, since I know that Clifton Webb was gay and the idea of his marrying seemed a bit hard to believe. By far the biggest and best part was given to newcomer Maggie McNamara, and she was delightful as the conniving but nice lady bent on hooking a handsome prince (played by Louis Jordan--who, oddly, plays an Italian, not a Frenchman). Most of the plot deficiencies really seem to come from the film being about 100 minutes, when it could have worked better with at least an additional 15-30 minutes. Still, its a sweet and fun film that is well worth your time.

It's been plagiarised and remade so many times that it seems very ho-hum these days, but even when I first saw it, aged about 14, I wondered why the gorgeous Dorothy McGuire was considered to be old, and why she felt so strongly for the Clifton Webb character, who clearly (to me) was not romantically interested in women. It's a shame that so little is seen of Anita (Jean Peters, one of those tragically under-used actresses), who is a much more interesting character than the breathtakingly dull Maria (Maggie MacNamara). Maria comes to Rome from the mid West and leaves after a month because she's unsuccessful in hooking a prince. Sad! In fact none of the romantic story lines are credible. It's interesting how little cutting there is in the dramatic scenes - due to the anamorphic lenses, and the heftiness of the cameras, I suppose. It's interesting to contrast with 'North West Passage', released 5 years later. In that exciting movie Geoffrey Unsworth makes great use of the CinemaScope camera.

"How to Marry a Millionaire" (1953) set the template--get three beautiful gals, throw 'em together in one impossibly huge apartment, and let the husband-hunting begin! But dated as "Millionaire" is today, it benefits from good casting, a reasonably witty script and solid comic performances. Its direct descendant, "Three Coins in the Fountain," camped the story up, and began a whole sub-genre of trashy flicks: Three Gals Lookin' for Love! You know what you're in for as soon as Frank Sinatra, the studio orchestra, and a chorus of thousands begin blasting the swoony theme song, as the CinemaScope camera pans on countless smoochin' couples all around Rome. POSSIBLE SPOILERS...The three girls in question are Dorothy McGuire (the sensible spinster), Jean Peters (the working girl), and Maggie McNamara (the perky one). Actually, only Maggie technically qualifies as a "girl," but this is 1954, and all women were "girls," doncha know. The ridiculous plot has each of them meeting their future hubbies in various picturesque settings; the weirdest and creepiest union has to be McGuire and ancient, effete Clifton Webb. That's one honeymoon that I wouldn't want to be privy to. Considerably more eye-catching are Peters' and McNamara's beaux, the hunky Rosanno Brazzi and impossibly beautiful Louis Jourdan. Actually, these two slabs of Franco-Italo beefcake are better looking than the rather pedestrian female cast, and kinda make you wish that Peters and McNamara had been replaced by, say, John Gavin and Jeffrey Hunter. But I digress-- Anyway, a few melodramatic turns are provided by the fact that Webb is suffering from some Fatal Movie Disease, and Peters and Brazzi become persona non grata at the office they work at because of their lustful union. But all's well that ends well, and like every single women, er, GIRL, wanted in 1954, all three wind up married. This despite the fact that two gals will almost certainly wind up divorcees, and one will be a widow in what looks to be about 6 months at most. But hey--you wanted a happy, marriage-minded, 1954 ending, right?

Forget about being an intellectual(though this picture certainly offers some surprising intelligent lines in its dialog). Just enjoy the film! It is very well done. The reason "Three Coins" was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar(as opposed to similar films like "How to Marry a Millionaire") is because of its cinematography, careful direction, fine acting, and the fact that it was adapted from a successful novel by John Secondari and the screenplay was smartly written by John Patrick, a Pulitzer Prize Winner. The cinematography (by Milton Krasner) won an Oscar, and so did the title song. It was the first in Cinemascope produced almost entirely on location and one of the ten most successful films of the 50s decade, so if you watch it, do it just for the fun of it and enjoy the beauty of its setting, eternal Rome. "Three Coins" is certainly a better movie than "Millionaire" and all those films with similar topics that were made during the 50s and 60s. Out of all the players, as it is signaled out in the DVD's special features, the gorgeous Jean Peters had the highest box office draw. She was a top star at the time (why she was billed third in the cast is a puzzlement). Her story is the most daring in sexual content (for the era). It is the most interesting, too, and carries the best performances. Female audiences became aware of Rossano Brazi in this film, and he was later selected as one of the ten "handsomest" leading men of the decade. Peters married Howard Hughes two years after this picture was released and retired from movies in the heat of stardom and fame. As a producer noted, "Jean Peters had a lot of fire which she kept hidden inside." It's a shame Fox never gave her the chance to show us her acting talent on a bigger scale. Clifton Webb could deliver lines. He wasn't a handsome actor, but he and Dotty MacGuire have some great and very funny scenes in this film. Although Jordan and MacNamara have to tackle the least believable roles, their story has a very funny premise (the American girl doing her best to charm a bachelor Italian prince by pretending to enjoy everything he likes), and it becomes credible thanks to their acting efforts. If you enjoy romance, having fun, traveling through Italy and seeing some outstanding players at work, you must see this film.

The film, while not being a total waste of time, provides very little interesting entertainment. The film follows three women on their hunt for husbands in Rome. The photography of Italy is gorgeous, of course, but the plot is trivial. The story lines of the two older women are considerably more interesting than the youngest of the three, who follows a prince (Louis Jordan). As an audience, we know little the personalities of the characters other than what is revealed during their courtships. I know that it's hard to expect an illuminating portrait of women in a 1950's romantic comedy but it's hard to forget the sly comedy of Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve, or the allure of Marilyn Monroe's talent in ....well, any of her films. Overall, if you want to watch something wistful and entertaining, watch Louis Jordan's other film, Gigi, Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday.

Basically a travelogue of Rome with a light story of three women meeting, losing, then getting the men of their dreams. The photography is beautiful, the acting is OK, nice music score. Basically a no brainer movie. The prime reason to see it, for me, was Rosanno Brazzi and Louis Jourdan. They're so young and VERY handsome in this film (when Brazzi smiled my knees went weak!) that they're fun to watch. Try to see it letter-boxed--the pan and scan version shown most often on TV is terrible.

Three Coins in the Fountain is the standard location shoot from the fifties. We get expensive, widescreen photography (Italy - very nice), but the minute we enter an interior (or a character gets in a car) we're in an artificial world of soundstages. This becomes the defacto formula for 50s travelogue/dramas. The movie itself would fall under the heading "chick flick," a term of assignation, for a genre that generally offers only sisterhood beset by minor conflicts; and women either short-changing their own lives and development for a man (the 50s), or defining themselves via quasi-rejecting some social norm (the 80s forward). To be sure, there are chick flicks that can be enjoyed by general audiences (Terms of Endearment) but the term is characteristically used to deservedly dismiss trifling story lines like this one. Three women are explained to be in Italy for various reasons, and become room-mates. As the time demands, they're absurd, but true period types who use the steno-pool to travel, have an income, and find eligible bachelors whom they agree never to compete with; women whose truncated education (and society's glass ceiling) insure that they can't. Additionally, improbably, they live like queens. The movies wide-screen compositions are handsome but the story is off the low end of the scale for inconsequence. The script writers can't be bothered to spare four lines to introduce the piece's major conflict. Here a stenographer is such a dense bimbo that she a) inexplicably reveals a roommates transgressions to her boss, and b) forgets to inform her, causing job loss for her boyfriend and embarrassment for the room-mate. It's just too darned hard for this pretty thing to understand that she's both been outmaneuvered, AND done something very unethical, even within the terms of the movie. The movie notes none of this. The same character has an unexplored conflict in her desire to win a guy, but to also reap benefits (travel, etc.) from delaying or denying the onset of his romantic or sexual interest. The movie is a bewildering gender-power study.

The title song of this high-rung soap opera is beautifully sung by Frank Sinatra over gorgeous shots of Rome in a sequence before the credits begin. This was bound to have put 1950's audiences in the right frame of mind to enjoy the fluffy, trite, overtly romantic film that follows. Today's audience might have some trouble. The story involves a young lady (McNamara) who travels to Rome to work as a secretary. She is replacing Peters who is set to return back the U.S. for an impending marriage. Then McGuire is the older, more world-weary of the three who wonders if she'll ever find love. Ironically, despite the movie's title, only TWO coins make it into the fountain! I guess a story about three women called "Two Coins in the Fountain" may have confused people? McNamara, coy, elfin and slightly malformed-looking was hot off the success of "The Moon is Blue" and hogs much of the screen time in a pretty predictable romance with ever-suave Jourdan. Her character is consistently irritating, not helped by her "Look Mommy, I did it myself" bangs and horrible ponytail. Peters is ravishing. Though none of the women are enviable, at least she is gorgeous and sexy. Her husky voice helping to cut through the icing of the film, she trots around in snug calf-length skirts and hoop earrings. McGuire has what has to be one of her worst roles. She does well in it, but has little to do but feign interest in the ludicrous, foppish, unattractive Webb. He is a casting casualty, thinking he's intriguing and witty and not being so. Brazzi is interesting to watch as Peters' love interest. He's attractive and practically pants for her, he's so smitten. The director made no less than four of these types of stories (three ladies looking for love) and this one might be the least fascinating (possibly because, unlike the other three, this one doesn't have Joan Crawford, Marilyn Monroe or Ann-Margret!) The scenery and the title fountain are glorious, but the film lacks zest. Good for a chuckle or two are the ghastly costumes by usually reliable Dorothy Jeakins. A few nice clothes slip in, but much of it looks like science fiction. It is completely stunning that this got a Best Picture Oscar nomination. It's not an actively horrible movie, but it isn't anything anyone would dream would be worthy of the top honor in the industry. By now it's type has been copied so much that modern viewers may very well sleep through it.

A good movie if you want something safe and easy with no violence or anything else to remind you that it's a nasty world out there! The plot is silly, and manages to insult both sexes, although of the two it is the females, or rather "girls", who come off looking the more pathetic. Nonetheless, there were many moments when my wife and I guffawed with laughter, although most of the laughs were at the silly 50's cliches and not necessarily at the plot twists, although there were some good one-liners.