Vivien Leigh was so brilliant portraying damaged-goods, faded beauty Blanche DuBois in the 1951 film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire" that it was perhaps inevitable for her to be asked to play another Williams character who's been beaten up by life, 10 years later. Thus, in 1961, Leigh--more damaged herself now after a recent split with Laurence Olivier following a 20-year marriage--appeared in the screen adaptation of the Williams novella "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone." In it, she plays Karen Stone, a middle-aged stage actress who has just suffered two major life traumas: professional retirement and the death of her much older, millionaire husband. She retreats to a villa above the Spanish Steps in the Eternal City to hide from the world and just "drift," and is soon romanced by a handsome young Italian man, Paolo di Leo (Warren Beatty). But what Karen only dimly realizes is that Paolo is nothing more than a lira-grubbing gigolo, working for an elderly pimp/procuress named Contessa Terribili-Gonzales (Austrian legend Lotte Lenya)....
Those viewers who come to "Mrs. Stone" expecting some kind of light romantic comedy, a la the Katharine Hepburn/Rossano Brazzi Venetian affair in 1955's "Summertime," will surely be surprised at how the film unreels. Despite the fact that it is a quiet picture, with a sad theme song that plays in a subdued manner only occasionally, it is nevertheless a dark and seedy one, featuring some truly unsavory characters. The scene transitions are often accomplished in a manner that beggars my poor powers of description, and director Jose Quintero gives a brooding, unsettling mood to this, his first picture, a great-looking one with sumptuous sets. Leigh, of course, is just marvelous--touching and sympathetic--here in her penultimate film, but the real surprise is how convincing Beatty is at playing an Italian, in his second screen appearance. Lenya is snakelike and sinister in her role, plotting the destinies of her victims with a purring cat on her lap, a la Ernst Stavro Blofeld; two years later, of course, Lenya would play opposite Blofeld (and that cat) in "From Russia, With Love." And speaking of future Bond alumni, "Mrs. Stone" also features fine supporting work from Jill St. John ("Diamonds Are Forever"'s Tiffany Case) and Paul Stassino ("Thunderball"'s Maj. Derval). Coral Browne, the future Mrs. Vincent Price, is well cast as Karen's school friend Meg (both actresses were born in 1913), and how great it is to see Ernest Thesiger ("Bride of Frankenstein"'s Dr. Praetorius) again, here in his final screen role! From its lengthy pretitle sequence to its eerie, ambiguous ending, "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" manages to impress. As regards that ending, with the disillusioned Mrs. Stone tossing her house key down to the street ruffian who'd been stalking her throughout the film, Jill St. John, in one of the DVD interview extras, suggests that the thug is merely looking for a "soft berth," whereas Williams AND Lenya biographer Donald Spoto discerns something a lot more homicidal. I tend to concur more with Spoto here, but the matter is certainly open for debate. See the film for yourself and make up your own mind....
Those viewers who come to "Mrs. Stone" expecting some kind of light romantic comedy, a la the Katharine Hepburn/Rossano Brazzi Venetian affair in 1955's "Summertime," will surely be surprised at how the film unreels. Despite the fact that it is a quiet picture, with a sad theme song that plays in a subdued manner only occasionally, it is nevertheless a dark and seedy one, featuring some truly unsavory characters. The scene transitions are often accomplished in a manner that beggars my poor powers of description, and director Jose Quintero gives a brooding, unsettling mood to this, his first picture, a great-looking one with sumptuous sets. Leigh, of course, is just marvelous--touching and sympathetic--here in her penultimate film, but the real surprise is how convincing Beatty is at playing an Italian, in his second screen appearance. Lenya is snakelike and sinister in her role, plotting the destinies of her victims with a purring cat on her lap, a la Ernst Stavro Blofeld; two years later, of course, Lenya would play opposite Blofeld (and that cat) in "From Russia, With Love." And speaking of future Bond alumni, "Mrs. Stone" also features fine supporting work from Jill St. John ("Diamonds Are Forever"'s Tiffany Case) and Paul Stassino ("Thunderball"'s Maj. Derval). Coral Browne, the future Mrs. Vincent Price, is well cast as Karen's school friend Meg (both actresses were born in 1913), and how great it is to see Ernest Thesiger ("Bride of Frankenstein"'s Dr. Praetorius) again, here in his final screen role! From its lengthy pretitle sequence to its eerie, ambiguous ending, "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" manages to impress. As regards that ending, with the disillusioned Mrs. Stone tossing her house key down to the street ruffian who'd been stalking her throughout the film, Jill St. John, in one of the DVD interview extras, suggests that the thug is merely looking for a "soft berth," whereas Williams AND Lenya biographer Donald Spoto discerns something a lot more homicidal. I tend to concur more with Spoto here, but the matter is certainly open for debate. See the film for yourself and make up your own mind....