The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone

This article is about the 1961 film. For the 2003 TV film, see The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003 film).

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
Film poster
Directed by	José Quintero
Written by	Gavin Lambert Jan Read
Based on	The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone 1950 novel by Tennessee Williams
Produced by	Louis de Rochemont Lothar Wolff
Starring	Vivien Leigh Warren Beatty Lotte Lenya Jill St. John Coral Browne
Cinematography	Harry Waxman
Edited by	Ralph Kemplen
Music by	Richard Addinsell
Production companies	Louis De Rochemont Associates Seven Arts Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	28 December 1961 (1961-12-28)
Running time	103 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone is a 1961 British romantic drama film made by Warner Bros. It was directed by José Quintero and produced by Louis de Rochemont with Lothar Wolff as associate producer. The screenplay was written by Gavin Lambert and Jan Read and based on the novel by Tennessee Williams. The music score was by Richard Addinsell and the cinematography by Harry Waxman.

This was the only theatrically released film directed by José Quintero.

Plot

Karen Stone, an acclaimed American stage actress and her businessman husband are off on holiday to Rome. On the plane, her husband, a multi- millionaire, suffers a fatal heart attack. Karen decides to stay in Italy and rent a luxury apartment in Rome. She has no reason to go home. She shut down her latest play, Shakespeare's "As You Like It", because she realizes she is far too old to play Rosalind. A year later, the Contessa Magda Terribili-Gonzales, a procurer, introduces her to a handsome, well-dressed, narcissistic young Italian named Paolo, who is one in her stable of professional gigolos.

Magda plots and plans, telling Paolo that Mrs. Stone has just begun to taste loneliness. Paolo and Mrs. Stone go out for dinner and dancing, but no more. Eventually, she begins the affair. She falls in love with him; he pretends to love her. She believes that she is different from other mature women he has known. Her self-deception is aided by the fact that she does not actually pay him, but buys him expensive clothes and gifts, including a movie camera, and pays his bills through charge accounts. They become the subject of gossip columns. It soon becomes obvious that Paolo is only interested in himself. Eventually he is bored by Mrs. Stone's possessiveness and pursues an American starlet.

Abandoned by Paolo, ridiculed by the Contessa, with her only real friend, Meg, on a plane to New York, Mrs. Stone looks over her balcony and sees the ragged, mysteriously menacing young man who has followed her everywhere since the day she moved in, pacing. She tosses the keys of her apartment down to him and walks back inside, remembering what she told Paolo after he tried to frighten her with a story about a middle-aged woman murdered on the French Riviera by someone she invited into her apartment: "All I need is three or four years. After that, a cut throat would be a convenience". She lights a cigarette and sits down to wait. The youth comes into the apartment and walks toward her slowly, hands deep in the pockets of his filthy coat, smiling faintly as his shadow fills the screen.

Cast

• Vivien Leigh as Karen Stone
• Warren Beatty as Paolo di Leo
• Lotte Lenya as Contessa Magda Terribili-Gonzales
• Coral Browne as Meg
• Jill St. John as Barbara Bingham
• Jeremy Spenser as Young Man
• Stella Bonheur as Mrs. Jamison-Walker
• Peter Dyneley as Lloyd Greener
• Carl Jaffe as Baron Waldheim
• Harold Kasket as Tailor
• Viola Keats as Julia McIlheny
• Cleo Laine as Singer
• Bessie Love as Bunny
• Elspeth March as Mrs. Barrow
• Henry McCarty as Campbell Kennedy
• Warren Mitchell as Giorgio
• John Phillips as Tom Stone
• Paul Stassino as Stefano, the Barber
• Ernest Thesiger as Stefano
• Mavis Villiers as Mrs. Coogan
• Jean Marsh (non-speaking) as a party guest and object of Paolo's attentions.

Production

Williams had approval over director and screenwriter; he had worked with Quinetero several times in the theatre and admired Gavin Lambert's The Slide Area. The film was going to be entirely shot in Italy but then the producer did a deal with Warner Bros which entailed filming in Britain. A number of scenes set outside were rewritten to be set inside where they could be filmed in England.

The first actor offered the part of the countess was Elisabeth Bergner who turned it down.

According to Quinntero, "Warren was never popular with the crew. Out of what I can only imagine to be insecurity, he was arrogant and huffy to Vivian. He kept people waiting."

Reception

Variety called it a "gloomy, pessimistic portrait of the artist as a middle-aged widow" adding the "curiosity factor" in Leigh's appearance might "avert the dubious boxoffice career which the enterprise might be destined" as the film "seems in for some tough sledding, principally because of the unhappy, unsavory characters... an audience will have enormous difficulties establishing compassion, let alone idetification."

Awards and nominations

Lotte Lenya was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

2003 version

Main article: The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003 film)

In 2003, an Emmy-award-winning made-for-cable version was produced for Showtime Networks starring Helen Mirren, Anne Bancroft, and Olivier Martinez.

See also

• Male prostitution
• Gigolo
• Male prostitution in the arts
• Female sex tourism
• American Gigolo

External links

• The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone at IMDb
• The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone at the British Film Institute
• The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone at the TCM Movie Database
• The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone at Letterboxd
• The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone at AllMovie
• The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films