ChikPapa Very disappointed :(

ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

StrictlyConfidential While watching 1961's "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" - The question that kept coming to my mind was this - "Didn't playwright/screenwriter, Tennessee Williams know how to do anything else but to bring out the vile side of people in his plays?"Believe me - I got so frickin' tired of Williams' dialogue here. It was always so full of cutting jabs like everyone was (forever) verbally fencing with each other (and they were all out for blood).And, speaking about the neurotic, frail, and brittle-looking Vivien Leigh (wearing a godawful wig) in this picture - She was 48 at the time, but she looked more like 60 to me. And, within 6 years, she would be dead from the ravages of tuberculosis.With the one exception of "A Streetcar Named Desire" - I hated this movie like I've hated every other Williams' movie that I've ever seen. I think his plays translate terribly into motion pictures. They really do.

Manhattan William The film is beautifully acted and the casting is spot-on. Vivien Leigh is perfect in this role, neither sickly sweet or icy cold. Beatty is great to look at and plays the gigolo without any histrionics. The Contessa is great and earned a well deserved Oscar nomination. The story is relevant even today (although unfortunately nowadays these things happen with far less elegance and finesse. What holds it back from a higher rating is that the character development between Mrs. Stone and Paolo should have gotten more focus and development. No real explanation is given for how the relationship developed as quickly and strongly as it did. Of course that aspect plays into the cool nature of the film in general which many might find correct for this material but I would have liked a bit more development between the 2 principles. Perhaps neither was able to express much in the way of "emotion" and that is surely part of the point, and the finale when Mrs. Stone throws the keys to the gigolo on the street because, realizing that love is elusive, physical needs can still be met and that provides a great ending to the film, very unsentimental and leaves one with a shiver.I enjoyed the film and recommend it but don't expect anything warm and fuzzy here because that is not in the cards, folks.

williwaw When Vivien Leigh died the New York Times gave her death front page news. Ironically, this magnificent actress and great beauty had a short career in films and a rather short life.As we all know Ms. Leigh conquered Hollywood with her Scarlett O Hara beating out Jean Arthur, Paulette Goddard, Susan Hayward and just about every major female star for the role of the Century. Ms. Leigh won an Oscar for her performance and another one as her peerless Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire. Jack Warner thankfully bankrolled this film shot in Europe. One sees a magical artist at work. The shame of it all is that along with Ship of Fools were Ms. Leigh's last films. Warren Beatty does a nice job as the Gigolo and the film is recommended most of all for a supreme actress Vivien Leigh.

Mikel3 This is a sad film about a beautiful woman who believes only youth matters. She equates aging with a fading ability to be loved. Perhaps this really is how aging actresses feel. After all, sadly, many only get parts based on their beauty and youth more than talent. Once they get older they feel useless and unloved. She has wealth and fame even a still impressive beauty, still that is not enough. She is vain, she must have youth too. Perhaps she also feels her youth was wasted on a much older husband. She looks for youth/love in the wrong places now. Places she knows are wrong. She lets obviously seedy characters take advantage of her, not because she was naive, it was because she didn't care. She's experienced enough to have known better in fact she did know better so did her friends. It's hard to sympathize with Mrs. Stone in this movie. We still do. All the warning signs are there for her, still she insists on driving off that cliff ahead eyes wide open to it. That said Vivian Leigh is wonderful in this role and makes the film well worth seeing. Her talents make her character Mrs. Stone and the film believable. I've read that some feel Warren Beatty was miscast in his part. Personally I thought he did fine for this early point in his career. No he was not on a par with Ms. Leigh's talent, still he pulled off the character well. The directing, the photography and secondary characters are all excellent. The feeling of sadness and impending tragedy hangs over the film like a fog. It's personified by Mrs. Stones stalker. The ending is left open for interpretation. Some people might find the final scene annoying, I found the ending appropriate. I won't go into that here. I'll save it for the discussion board to avoid spoilers. I'll just say...the ending was chilling !