LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Prismark10 The film has an enjoyable title song by Frank Sinatra. It has scenic touristic views of Rome without plenty of tourists. I have never seen the Trevi Fountains so empty, it must have been filmed very early in the morning.Three women who work as secretaries share an apartment in Rome. Miss Frances (Dorothy McGuire) has been working conscientiously for noted writer John Frederick Shandwell (Clifton Webb) for some years. She is besotted by him, everyone knows this apart from Shandwell who learning that Miss Frances is thinking of leaving the country offers to marry her as a marriage of convencience only to learn she has always loved him. He then finds out that he has less than a year to live which causes ructions with his new found relationship.Anita (Jean Peters) and Maria (Maggie McNamara) work as secretaries at for a US Agency. Anita who is nearing going back to the USA falls for a local man Giorgio Binachi (Rossano Brassi) who works as a translator but wishes to train as a lawyer but he gets fired from his job for fraternising with Anita. Maria decides is attracted to the womanising Prince Dino di Cessi (Louis Jourdan.) She finds out all the stuff he likes, he is amazed by how much they have in common until she tells him the truth.The film is a bland fairy tale. Maria's story is the most fun and involving. There is no romantic chemistry between Miss Frances and John Frederick Shandwell. Clifton Webb was a great character actor, he was not a romantic lead.

SimonJack "Three Coins in the Fountain" is a romantic film of 1954 that especially appealed to young women (and some men) who dreamed about love matches in the romantic 1950s. Today, it might be called a chick flick by the would-be macho set. It's based on a 1952 novel by John Sedondari, "Coins in the Fountain." He was a Rome-born writer, producer and director who also co-wrote the screenplay for this film. The movie is a light comedy and drama, and is about three American women working in Rome, each of whom seems spurned or ignored at first but then finds "true" love. The film has a fine cast, and the story is so-so. The movie also spurned a hit song by the same title, sung by Frank Sinatra in the film. It won the Academy Award for best original song. Julie Styne wrote the music and Sammy Cahn the lyrics. The Four Aces turned it into a number one hit on the 1954 U.S. pop chart. Several other recordings were made after that. While the story is okay, a big plus for the film is its cinematography and scenic shots of and around Rome. The best of these are scenes of some of the many glorious fountains of the eternal city. The granddaddy of them all, the Trevi Fountain, is center stage for the opening and closing. One interesting aspect of the story is with the lead male and female characters. Clifton Webb plays John Shadwell, an expatriate American who has lived in Rome most of his adult life. Dorothy McGuire plays Miss Frances, his secretary for the past 15 years. That means that she was in Rome since 1939, and the two of them lived through World War II. That would have included the early years when Benito Mussolini's Italy was allied with Nazi Germany, and the later German occupation of Rome. I don't know how Sedondari treated that in his novel, but it seems strange that there's not a hint of the war having just been over less than nine years, or of Miss Frances having been there during that time. It seems that Anita (Jean Peters) and Maria (Maggie McNamara) would have asked Frances about that at some point. A funny line by Shadwell stands out. He says to Prince Dino di Cessi (played by Louis Jordan), "These girls in love never realize they should be honestly dishonest instead of being dishonestly honest.

wes-connors Three well-mannered American secretaries seek husbands in Rome. Arriving last is Maggie McNamara (as Maria), who is set to replace Jean Peters (as Anita), who rooms with Dorothy McGuire (as Frances). Their respective romantic interests are prince Louis Jourdan (as Dino), translator Rossano Brazzi (as Georgio) and writer Clifton Webb (as Shadwell). The most striking part of this bland picture is the wide-screen color photography by Milton Krasner. It opens with Frank Sinatra singing the title song. Written by Jule Styne and lyricist Sammy Cahn, "Three Coins in the Fountain" became a million-selling #1 hit for The Four Aces (featuring Al Alberts); it was rare for another version to outperform an original Sinatra title song. According to the lyrics, only one romantic wish will be granted. That may not be entirely accurate. Also, although only two of the women throw coins in the Trevi Fountain, we can be fairly certain a third coin joined them at some point.***** Three Coins in the Fountain (5/20/54) Jean Negulesco ~ Maggie McNamara, Jean Peters, Dorothy McGuire, Louis Jourdan

derekcreedon Feminists would tear it to shreds and the script's as light as a balloon but this lovely airy fairy-tale about three secretary-birds in romantic old Rome works like a dream - provided you don't dwell too much on certain aspects.. Foreign travel was not a commonplace for most punters back in 1954 so Fox's full-time commitment to CinemaScope opened up the world in more ways than one. With Sinatra on the soundtrack ushering in the Oscar-winning title-song over a scenic tour of the Eternal City the blend of ancient and modern was irresistible. Little Maria from the mid-West (Maggie McNamara) ushers in the story, arriving to work at a U.S. Government Agency. She's hardly got her coat off the first day before she's invited to a cocktail-party where she meets handsome Prince Dino (Louis Jourdan) and is determined to land him. ("Palazzo ? That's a palace, isn't it ?" Clever girl). Her strategy, encouraged by her flatmates, is to find out what his cultural tastes and interests are and then pretend, somewhat sketchily, to share them. This leads to some fatuous conversations which wouldn't fool a ten-year-old and are understandably short on screen. For a knowing Lothario (he'd already tried to lure her to Venice for the weekend) Dino seems remarkably gullible and gets terribly upset when she finally confesses the truth.Meanwhile,'Big Sister' Anita (Jean Peters),struggling with convention and the agency's strict no-fratting rule, gets close to Giorgio (Rossano Brazzi, lower lip a-quiver) following a not-too-well-done incident with a runaway car. He's a humble interpreter from the wrong side of town who wants to be a lawyer but has to support Mamma and his twenty-five brothers and sisters. When their liaison is discovered by the boss's wife, who seems to be everywhere, Giorgio gets the sack and Anita, feeling responsible, is all set to share his bleak future. It's left to Clifton Webb to play fairy-godfather as the expatriate novelist Shadwell (the man who wrote Winter Harvest, we're told, but we're not told what it's about), smoothly tossing-off a new masterpiece between epigrams and suddenly proposing marriage to Miss Frances (Dorothy McGuire), his loyal secretary for the last fifteen years (remember that) whom the film has been regarding as practically on the edge of the grave because she's 35 and hasn't got a man. (Shadwell's housekeeper kindly offers her a kitten for companionship). But when Shadwell's told he has a brain tumour he reneges on the offer as a moment of madness and won't tell her the real reason. Even after she finds out he won't shift ground so, dejected, she gets drunk and goes wading (not in the Fountain, it's not LA DOLCE VITA). Shadwell takes her home for a dry-out and a heart-to-heart which puts them back on track. Webb and McGuire handle these scenes touchingly, with grace and humour. He thereupon sorts out the younger set's problems with some influential words in the right places and all six reunite at Rome's new tourist attraction to a choral reprise of the theme-song.No one ever mentions that minor historical disturbance known as World War 11 in which the Eternal City was somewhat heavily involved. This would not be so surprising were it not for the oldsters' pointed references to "fifteen years of contentment" which would have dated from about 1938. As American residents how would they have lived, what were they up to all those years ? Speech-writing for the Fascisti, possibly ? No, I don't think so either. Rather an extreme if not wilfully perverse case of diplomatic forgetfulness in face of a new world-situation, a thriving overseas market and the no doubt enthusiastic goodwill and co-operation of an indigenous people who used to be on the wrong side. History here is reflected not in bomb-sites but in museums basking sedately, like the characters, in perpetual brochure-sunshine.