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Three Coins in the Fountain
A 1954 Best Picture nominee, Three Coins in the Fountain is a sumptuously mounted romantic melodrama that bears more than a passing resemblance to the previous year's How to Marry a Millionaire, both guided by the same director.
This is the story of three American secretaries who are working at a large publishing firm in Rome, Italy and their individual searches for romance. Miss Frances (Dorothy McGuire) has been in the eternal city for the past 15 years working for a famous novelist (Clifton Webb) who she has been harboring a secret crush on; Anita (Jean Peters) works at the firm and has announced she's returning to America to get married, but she is really in love with the firm's translator (Rossano Brazzi); Maria (Maggie McNamara) is newly arrived in Rome but falls instantly in love with a wealthy prince (Louis Jourdan).
On the surface, the film might appear to be a rehash of How to Marry a Millionaire, but this story is told with a much more sincere and straighter face than the 1953 comedy. In that film, Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe, and Betty Grable have given themselves a one year time limit to land millionaire husbands. This film is purely about love and romance. Only one of the three men in this story is truly wealthy and even to the girl pursuing him, it appears her attraction to him has very little to do with money. Anita's romance gets her man fired but it doesn't stop her from loving him and Miss Frances spends most of the film hiding her feelings for Webb's character.
The film also benefits from gorgeous Rome scenery making the film look like a stack of picture postcards. As a matter of fact the film won the Oscar that year for color cinematography. The adult screenplay about the pursuit of love instead of the pursuit of material things like the girls in Millionaire is also a big plus, but director Jean Negulesco manages to take the romance that bubbled underneath the surface in Millionaire and allows it to lovingly be brought to the forefront here.
Gorgeous costumes for the ladies and Victor Young's music, including the Oscar-winning title tune, sung over the opening credits by Frank Sinatra are icing on this cinematic cake. McGuire and Peters are lovely and Clifton Webb offers another of his wonderfully understated performances as the writer. Lovers of classic melodrama will be in heaven here. Remade as The Pleasure Seekers.
A 1954 Best Picture nominee, Three Coins in the Fountain is a sumptuously mounted romantic melodrama that bears more than a passing resemblance to the previous year's How to Marry a Millionaire, both guided by the same director.
This is the story of three American secretaries who are working at a large publishing firm in Rome, Italy and their individual searches for romance. Miss Frances (Dorothy McGuire) has been in the eternal city for the past 15 years working for a famous novelist (Clifton Webb) who she has been harboring a secret crush on; Anita (Jean Peters) works at the firm and has announced she's returning to America to get married, but she is really in love with the firm's translator (Rossano Brazzi); Maria (Maggie McNamara) is newly arrived in Rome but falls instantly in love with a wealthy prince (Louis Jourdan).
On the surface, the film might appear to be a rehash of How to Marry a Millionaire, but this story is told with a much more sincere and straighter face than the 1953 comedy. In that film, Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe, and Betty Grable have given themselves a one year time limit to land millionaire husbands. This film is purely about love and romance. Only one of the three men in this story is truly wealthy and even to the girl pursuing him, it appears her attraction to him has very little to do with money. Anita's romance gets her man fired but it doesn't stop her from loving him and Miss Frances spends most of the film hiding her feelings for Webb's character.
The film also benefits from gorgeous Rome scenery making the film look like a stack of picture postcards. As a matter of fact the film won the Oscar that year for color cinematography. The adult screenplay about the pursuit of love instead of the pursuit of material things like the girls in Millionaire is also a big plus, but director Jean Negulesco manages to take the romance that bubbled underneath the surface in Millionaire and allows it to lovingly be brought to the forefront here.
Gorgeous costumes for the ladies and Victor Young's music, including the Oscar-winning title tune, sung over the opening credits by Frank Sinatra are icing on this cinematic cake. McGuire and Peters are lovely and Clifton Webb offers another of his wonderfully understated performances as the writer. Lovers of classic melodrama will be in heaven here. Remade as The Pleasure Seekers.