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Rating:  -
Those two stars are only for Vivien. If it wasn't for her, I would not give this film any stars at all. I think this story had the potential to be an amazing movie - but the ambition stopped after Vivien Leigh. She was dynamic, as she always is. It is so unfortunate that all of the others (yes, I mean Lotte Lenya too - even if she was nominated for an Oscar for the role) were cast in this film. Jill St. John, Lenya, and especially Warren Beatty disappointed and ruined the whole movie. From all of the fire, insanity, "drifting" and pain of 'A Streetcar Named Desire' - it all came to this dead rag of a movie. Perhaps that is what happen when a stage director takes his beautiful supporting cast from Broadway to the screen (as in Streetcar) as opposed to casting Shirley McLaine's kid brother and Kurt Weill's muse comedic songstress. I wish someone would've told Beatty back then to stick to American gangster roles and American hairdresser roles - no more accents, please. I hope they did a better job of casting in the remake with Helen Mirren. It was bad enough to do that to Vivien Leigh in her second-to-last film. I would suggest reading the book on this one. Or just watch it for Vivien. She's marvelous.
Rating:  -
Get it too see Vivien Leigh in her fragile 2nd to last film roll (it was "art imitating life"). Fascinating in everything she did.
Warren Beatty's "preformance" is excruiatingly "high school play" - way out of his league with Leigh, Lotte Lenya (an over the top, scenery-chewing interpretation), and Coral Browne. Beatty's accent is "Eye-Talian" rather than Italian, his continental "flair", that of a soda-jerk (it's right up there in miscasting idiocy with John Wayne's, Genghis Kahn (THE CONQUEROR) but embarrassing instead of hilarious {Wayne}.
I have a sentimental soft-spot for this film, but in reality, it really is'nt a success (the SHOWTIME adaptation (the great Mirren) is.
The DVD transfer is good - with the Trailer, and a short infomative documentary about it's making).
If you can afford both versions, by all means get both, otherwise, SHOWTIME made the definitive "ROMAN SPRING".
Rating:  -
This movie doesn't wear the years very well, but if you have the patience to get through the plodding pace, wooden acting and totally bizarre script, there is still something to think about. I'd definitely recommend listening to the interviews that come with the DVD, as they help you make more sense of the movie. Probably one of the most interesting aspects of the film for me was how it showed Warren Beatty rather true to life.
Rating: -
The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone is a magnificent failure of a film: it addresses the themes of fear, self-loathing and the decay of age more sensitively than any other Hollywood film which springs to mind, but ultimately feels a bit cramped and over-done at times. Based on a Tennesee Williams novel, it tells the story of Karen Stone, an aging actress known for her light, comedic performances, who, after a failed turn in Shakespeare's As You Like It begins to fret that her career is over. She makes the decision to set off for Rome with her husband, who dies on the plane taking them there. She meets up with a handsome young money-hungry gigolo, played by an out-of-his-league Warren Beattie, whose terrible faux-Italian accent threatens to turn this film into camp. It contains one of Vivien Leigh's darkest and most autobiographical turns as the miserable Mrs. Stone, who shacks up with Beattie to try to bring some meaning to her life. She is as beautiful and sensitive here as she ever was. Two excellent performances by Lotte Lenya and Coral Browne help to bolster the film's quality. Lotte Lenya's lends a superb performance as the witch-like Contessa whose stable of handsome boys entertain the bored, wealthy American expatriates, both male and female. The always-engaging Coral Browne is brilliant as Karen's close friend, Meg, who attempts to help her and pull her out of the downward spiral of decay in which she is so clearly headed. A bonus featurette on the DVD discusses the troubled making of the film, it is particularly poignant in its discussions of the insecurities that Williams, Leigh and Beattie faced at the time of the film's creation.
Rating: -
I searched everywhere for this movie, before I contacted Amazon.com and found it, because to my mind, it exactly captures Tennessee Williams' story. Vivien Leigh is fabulous as Mrs. Stone. She has exactly the right degree of world weariness and vulnerability, and of course even towards the the end of her career when this picture was made, she embodies my idea of glamour.
Warren Beatty is the ideal gigolo. His Italian accent may not be perfect, but I don't believe that anyone could have done it better. He looks just right, and of course he turned out in later life to be a great womaniser, so this role is almost type casting.
All in all it is a wonderful addition to my movie collection.
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