Three Coins in the Fountain (1954) User Reviews (59)

Beautiful somewhat above average film

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 7/10 · 21 June 2013]

I hadn't seen this film since 1962 when it was on NBC's "Saturday Night At The Movies"...51 years ago! What surprised me most in re-seeing it is that there really isn't one star of the film...it's very much an ensemble cast.

And, it's a darned good cast. You've got Clifton Webb as an American author living in Rome, who has a relationship he doesn't even realize with his secretary -- Dorothy McGuire. Then you have Jean Peters as one of the coin tossers. That famous French actor Louis Jourdan plays an Italian prince (yes, I know...I guess they couldn't find a real Italian). And Rossano Brazzi -- an Italian -- as an Italian who works for the American government. And then there's Maggie McNamara -- who may remind you just a little bit of Audrey Hepburn -- as another American coin tosser.

I always liked Clifton Webb, and he's very good here, although this is not his finest film. Dorothy McGuire almost steals the show. Jean Peters is very good, as is Louis Jourdan. Rossano Brazzi is good here, although he is somewhat shortchanged by his screen time. Maggie McNamara is very good, and I'm surprised she didn't become a bigger star.

And as the song asks -- which one will the fountain bless? Lest you think this is one of those movies where it's all one big happy ending...well, one major character is unexpectedly dying. So, the fountain doesn't bless everyone in this film, although for most of the main players, it does lead them to happiness.

The script isn't a somewhat typical romance, and it's pretty pleasant. The extensive photography of Rome and Italy is absolutely stunning, and its worth watching the film for that alone. And you get a sense of the happy-go-lucky nature of Italy back in the day. The story line will hold your attention, although it's nothing unique. And, there is the (oddly uncredited) Frank Sinatra singing the title song.

This is definitely worth a watch...at least once.

Colorful fluff

[preppy-3 · 7/10 · 8 September 2000]

Basically a travelogue of Rome with a light story of three women meeting, losing, then getting the men of their dreams. The photography is beautiful, the acting is OK, nice music score. Basically a no brainer movie. The prime reason to see it, for me, was Rosanno Brazzi and Louis Jourdan. They're so young and VERY handsome in this film (when Brazzi smiled my knees went weak!) that they're fun to watch. Try to see it letter-boxed--the pan and scan version shown most often on TV is terrible.

Romance in the age of President Eisenhower

[theowinthrop · 7/10 · 14 March 2009]

Let us say this - the film is an eye-filler. Cinemascope was just starting and the use of the city of Rome as a backdrop was an excellent one. One only wishes a more charming and better film (such as ROMAN HOLIDAY) had been the first to use it, but that film was shot in black and white, and not in a big screen format like cinema-scope. Yet that film holds up better.

There is an unwritten rule regarding screenplays - keep them relatively simple or the story is stretched beyond acceptable belief. As this is a romantic film we are willing to let it stretch a little, but certain points about it that were acceptable in 1954 are now seen as hard to believe.

The plot deals with three women who are Americans and find themselves working in Rome. Two are connected to the American Embassy there, represented by Howard St. John. St. John was a capable, if unexciting, actor. He was the original General Bullmoose in the musical "L'il Abner" (and like Peter Palmer repeated his performance in the film version). He was usually playing professional men (lawyers, bankers, diplomats) many of whom if not crooked were willing to accept a degree of accommodation with unlikeable types for some advantage (in the film of Woody Allen's play DON'T DRINK THE WATER, St. John is willing to allow an innocent American family get smeared by a Communist Regime as spies so he could make headlines about negotiating their release for an upcoming political campaign). He is also recalled as Broderick Crawford's legal adviser in BORN YESTERDAY. St. John fit in well (including his homburg hats) with the style of the Eisenhower years.

Here St. John is observing the behavior of two of the woman, Maggie MacNamara and Jean Peters, making sure they toe the line regarding no fraternizing with Italians. But the three woman (the third is Dorothy Maguire) are walking by the Trevi Fountain in Rome, and when discussing the legend that you can get your wish there they throw their coins into the fountain (hence the title of the film) wishing for staying on in Rome or for romance. MacNamara meets a local Prince played by Louis Jordan, and Peters meets a young man working at the Embassy (Rosanno Brazzi) and two romances start up. St. John is not thrilled at this, and ends (or tries to end) the one between Peters and Brazzi by firing Brazzi. He can't do much with MacNamara and Jordan, as the latter is not attached to the Embassy, and is pretty important in Italy itself.

Maguire has been already living in Rome for 15 years. Originally working at the embassy, she has become the secretary of a famous novelist played by Clifton Webb. Although she occasionally goes out with St. John, she is frequently in the company of Webb as well. We subsequently learn that she has been carrying the torch for Webb all these years, but he is unaware of it.

Now it as been pointed out by other writers on this website that Webb, talented performer that he was in film, was the closest thing that the movies could produce as a closet "Gay" man in the movies of the 1940s and 1950s. Intellectual, sharp tongued, frequently cruel (in his serious roles like Waldo Lydecker or Eliot Templeton) he was amusing (Mr. Belvedere or MR. SCOUTMASTER or DREAMBOAT) and always attention getting. But the thought that he could have any woman quietly carrying a torch for him for 15 years is a stretch - I say this even after seeing him as Frank Gilbreth in CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN, as the ultimate father and husband - aided by Myrna Loy in that role. Yet we find him in such a position here, and playing it as though it all makes sense. He even has a chance to show that he can be noble to Maguire when he learns of an unfortunate turn of events.

The other two romances rise and collapse due to economic pressures (Peters and Brazzi) and character failure (MacNamara and Jordan). How does the film end. I will only add that the script writers decided to turn Webb into a noble lover and a deus ex machina at the conclusion.

I take it that this was fine in 1954, the year this film was made and the year of my birth. Ike was President only one year, and we had a confidence in our nation having a fairly flawless future if we only listened to the wisdom of the wise and old. And Webb just fit the bill for that in this romantic film.

The performances are pretty good, including MacNamara - who a year before had gotten critically good notices (and even an Oscar nomination) in the now dated and abysmal THE MOON IS BLUE. Here her stridency in that role is tone down, and she actually is acceptable in her pursuit of Jordan. Jordan is good as a man who believes in trust as the cornerstone of love. Peters is a practical girl who nearly loses Brazzi due to his relative poverty. And Maguire makes the most of her improbable role, especially in a late drunk scene sequence.

For the performances and the cinematography it is a "7". But the story would need real repair work if the film was redone today.

Don't mention the war ...

[derekcreedon · 19 August 2008]

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.

Some of Rome's fountains in all their glory

[SimonJack · 7/10 · 16 March 2017]

"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.

beautiful scenes

[rebeljenn · 6/10 · 9 July 2006]

'Three Coins in the Fountain' is a film about three American secretaries that throw their coins into a fountain in Rome and hope for romance. The music in the film and in the opening scenes is sung by Frank Sinatra. The film has a good story that holds the interest; pacing and the editing between the three stories of the girls and their romances are done well. Another excellent feature of this film is the photography. The opening sequence with the fountains in Rome and Frank Sinatra's music is beautiful. There are other beautiful scenes in the film of the Italian countryside and Venice. In summary, this is an old-fashioned romantic film that displays how three women find love and the lengths that they will go to be in love.

Saltimboca alla romana and Lacrima Christi

[jotix100 · 6/10 · 29 January 2011]

Life in post-war Italy is the basis of this colorful Twentieth Century Fox release of 1954. Of course, this had nothing to do with the problems the country was facing at the time, but in many ways, it was a happier time and the living was easy, for at least, the Americans that happen to be in the story. Where were the masters of neo-realism when we needed them? But then again, it would not have been a Hollywood film that could be enjoyed by the movie going public of those years.

Three American women come to Rome to work in different venues. There is Frances, the oldest of the trio, who has been in the country the longest. Then there is Anita, a secretary for a United States agency. Maria is the latest arrival. She has come to work in the same place as Anita. The three women enjoy perks that ordinary people would not have. Working for a US agency gave Anita and Maria access to people and places no ordinary citizen could get.

Maria falls for a local prince, a sort of serious playboy who loves to live well, loves opera, plays the piccolo, and loves to eat at good restaurants. Anita has humbler expectations with Giorgio, an aspiring lawyer working at the agency as translator. Frances considers herself a spinster; she works for a writer that is well connected, but who has not written a book for quite some time.

Jean Negulesco directed the film with an eye toward the beauty of Rome. The opening sequence where one is taken all over to watch the fountains that are one of the main attractions of Rome. The screenplay is just an excuse to show the magnificence of the 'Eternal City' as it looked in those years. John Patrick adapted the novel by John Secondari with an eye for how it would play in Cinemascope.

Dorothy McGuire, Jean Peters and Maggie McNamara are seen as Frances, Anita and Maria. Clifton Webb plays the writer. Louis Jourdan is the prince charming and Rossano Brazzi was the stereotypical Latin Lover that he played to perfection during his American film career.

Milton Krasner, the cinematographer, had a field day with all the beautiful natural scenery he captured for the viewer's pleasure. He even gets the opportunity to take us to Venice and to the supposedly country place near Rome where Rossano Brazzi's home was located. In reality, the location is from the Dolomite Mountains, a range in Alto Adige, a location that is quite far from the city. Victor Young's music is perfect for the background musical score.

Enjoy, and 'buon appetito'

brilliantly metaphorical

[kola1965 · 5/10 · 17 December 2011]

Whilst ignoring the glossy subject matter of the film, this is a great satire on how America views Europe, and how that view is perceived by Europeans: the American characters are parochial and surprised whenever another fellow countryman displays any culture, whilst the European characters are all stereotypically over-sexed, over-stylised and painfully cultured. This film is about as European as "Happy Days" relates to the reality of life in America. Everyone lives in huge flats/houses, and the outside scenes look like they were filmed at 6 in the morning... if you've ever been to any European city, then you'll know that it's a lot busier and bustling than depicted here in the superbly photographed location shots. As usual, Europe is seen as living in the past, with all that funny sounding food and affected cultural idiosyncrasies, the buildings are all pre-historic, crumbling and steeped in shadow, the general public are depicted as being wolfish and spending most of their time pinching girls or riding around on scooters. It appears to be a "nouvelle vague" film, made for non-European audiences, as a joke at the expense of that audience. Look under the initial fluff, and there is quite a witty and biting satire on cultural mores.

Fountains and magic

[val-mainwood · 10/10 · 1 August 2008]

Lighten up, boys and girls! You must allow the director to display irony and fun in a feel-good movie in Rome not long after the fall of fascism! And how exotic it must have appeared to most of the world's population who at that time had not travelled abroad.

It does make you wonder how those secretaries could afford those glamorous clothes, and be so close to princes and movers and shakers of post-war Rome. Perhaps a gentle poke at role reversal?

One of the best tunes ever written, wonderful locations, and I don't care a damn about the Trevi fountain behaving inconsistently - that is the nature of fountains, and in Rome they are all drenched in magic!

A lovely little film for those romantics out there

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 12 December 2006]

Sure, this isn't the greatest romance ever made, but it might just do the trick if you're looking for a film to watch with someone you love (or at least tolerate, a bit). The film excels in many ways, but the best aspect of the movie is the mood it evokes--through music, panoramic scenery and the mystique of both Rome and Venice. In many ways, this made it look, at times, more like a travelogue than a romance--especially with the prologue that just features music and the sites of Rome.

Now as for the plot, it's also pretty good--with a light romantic touch. The only downside is one of the three relationships just didn't seem very realistic and one other just didn't seem to be given enough screen time (Jean Peters' romance). Part of the lack of realism with Dorothy McGuire's romance was clearly because it sprang up out of nowhere, but part of the problem might be my own, since I know that Clifton Webb was gay and the idea of his marrying seemed a bit hard to believe. By far the biggest and best part was given to newcomer Maggie McNamara, and she was delightful as the conniving but nice lady bent on hooking a handsome prince (played by Louis Jordan--who, oddly, plays an Italian, not a Frenchman). Most of the plot deficiencies really seem to come from the film being about 100 minutes, when it could have worked better with at least an additional 15-30 minutes. Still, its a sweet and fun film that is well worth your time.

Formula 50's Romance Story

[mdm-11 · 5/10 · 20 May 2005]

This typical early 1950s romance story has all of the "desk set" elements (found only in romantic dime novels): 3 American secretaries in Rome are searching for "meaning in life", hoping to find it in marriage. The desired suiters are equally "fairy tale-like", including a Prince (played by Frenchman Louis Jourdan), a handsome full-blooded Italian (epitemized by Rossano Brazzi) and a distinguished Englishman (played by Clifton Webb).

Old fashioned values are running rampant in this film. A "working girl" planning to marry was expected to leave her job to tend to full-time housework. Dating was a "no-no", branding a woman a "bad girl". Double-standards across the board. It definitely was a "man's world".

The romantic theme song popularized by the Four Aces endured as a favorite for nearly 50 years. Unfortunately the film itself has lost its mass appeal over time. Although similar in broad subject matter, films like the Tracy/Hepburn classic "Desk Set" or the hilarious "How To Marry A Millionaire" starring the trio Monroe/Grable/Bacall have maintained their cult status as true Hollywood Classics. "Three Coins In The Fouintain" is a mildly pleasant trip into post-WWII Italy, a time of simplicity amidst toil and poverty. Those who dream of "marrying a prince" may have their fill.

Rome, the eternal city of love

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 15 March 2005]

By the Fifties, the movie-going public was no longer satisfied with studio versions of far away places. They wanted to see the real thing and Hollywood had to give it to them. The year before Three Coins In a Fountain came out, Paramount had done another Rome based film in Roman Holiday. Though it had that winning romantic team of Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, Paramount played it on the cheap and wouldn't splurge for color.

Not to be outdone by rivals, Darryl F. Zanuck went whole hog on terrific color cinematography and three romances. Dorothy McGuire, Jean Peters, and Maggie McNamara are three Americans sharing an apartment in Rome. Peters and McNamara work for a U.S. government agency and McGuire is secretary to expatriate novelist Clifton Webb.

The fountain of course is Rome's famous Fountain of Trevi where tourists are lured into throwing their pennies with the promise of good fortune and a return to the eternal city. Frank Sinatra sings the title song over the opening credits and the Four Aces also had a mega-hit out of that tune. I remember as a lad in the Fifties, hearing that constantly on the radio. It was a BIG factor in the success of this film and won an Oscar for composer Jule Styne and lyricist Sammy Cahn.

McNamara and Peters fall for Prince Louis Jourdan and aspiring lawyer and co-worker Rossano Brazzi respectively. They play the continental lovers effortlessly.

20th Century Fox during the 50s toned down Clifton Webb's acerbity in order to make him leading man material. They never quite succeeded, but Dorothy McGuire conveys that she has a deep and abiding affection for Webb.

The usual romantic complications occur, but it all works out in the end as it always does in these films.

But the star is Rome and even seeing it 50 years ago, you'll still want to a pack a bag and see the place after watching this film.

Pleasant locales but it's still little more than a travelogue...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 11 May 2007]

Time hasn't been kind to certain films and THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN is one of them. The story at its center is trite and only exists in order to show the splendors of Rome in color and CinemaScope to lure patrons away from their television sets when the film was made, in the mid-'50s.

The only performers emerging from the film unscathed are JEAN PETERS, gorgeous as a secretary looking for romance away from the office, and the two men who are in their physical prime and give the film's most ingratiating performances--ROSSANO BRAZZI and LOUIS JOURDAN, both being the prototypes of the sort of European men American women find so attractive.

DOROTHY McGUIRE is saddled with the role of a spinster (of 38) whose object of affection is CLIFTON WEBB (mid-'60s) who seems an odd choice for any woman and tries hard to be his usual urbane self. Nor is MAGGIE MacNAMARA any help as a conniving American girl who diligently learns the likes and dislikes of the man (Jourdan) she plans to trap into marriage. Miss MacNamara too often seems more annoying than charming.

But it's harmless fluff, nicely staged in real Italian locales so that there's something to look at when things get dull--as they often do. Surprisingly, the film--which gets off to a nice start with a rendition of the title song by Frank Sinatra--was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.

Summing up: No surprises here, just a dull story that gets an occasional lift from the romance between Peters and Brazzi which is the best, but briefest, part of the whole film. As a story, it's all too familiar by now but Jean Negulesco manages to combine story and scenery with a fluid touch, disguising the fact that it's little more than a pleasant travelogue.

Best to zero in on individual performances

[thatdogoliver-1 · 5/10 · 2 September 2022]

The movie star here is the city of Rome. Best to drink in the city and zero in on individual performances (and leave the film, as a whole, alone). It was a treat to see Jean Peters (whose second husband was Howard Hughes). I never saw her in a film until this one. She reminds me of Joan Bennett. I never heard of Maggie McNamara, who was quite good. Her Hollywood career was brief and her real-life death, tragic. Dorothy McGuire's cool, sleekness is always a plus for any film. The younger men are as good-looking as them come. Clifton Webb, as usual, is wonderful. And the French-born Louis Jordan and British-born Cathleen Nesbitt both play Italians! But the film as a whole? Four stars.

CinemaScope vacations in Italia!

[gregcouture · 28 April 2003]

Not much to add to the other comments here, except to say that it may be understandable that this one got a Best Picture nomination in the 1954 Oscar derby if you were able to see a pristine print, with a stereo soundtrack, in a first-class theater as I had the opportunity of doing when it was first released. The opening sequence of numerous fountains in full flood as Frank Sinatra crooned the Oscar-winning title song was just dazzling to those of us Americans who hadn't yet made a Grand Tour of Europe. What followed contained no surprises, certainly, though some eyebrows were raised by the Jean Peters/Rossano Brazzi "illicit" romance. I never understood how Maggie McNamara ever passed muster with any studio's casting director, nor how the makers of this pastiche could have thought that the suavely handsome Louis Jourdan, playing an Italian of noble descent, would finally settle for a manipulative young American whose machinations had, prior to his capitulation, been nakedly revealed. The lovely Ms. McGuire setting her cap for the aging, fastidious old fop, so well incarnated by Mr. Webb, was another of the difficulties even those first audiences had in suspending their disbelief.

But, oh!, those glorious travelogue shots of Rome and Venice. Widescreens, back then, really were worth briefly deserting one's living room "boob tube" and letting one's mind drift into Nirvana as beautiful DeLuxe Color made one believe the world was an impossibly beautiful place. A new DVD version which approximates the original CinemaScope ratio is now available, a distinct improvement over the formatted VHS tape previously available.

forget the story, just watch the vistas

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 30 May 2020]

In Rome, Anita Hutchins (Jean Peters) picks up new arrival Maria Williams (Maggie McNamara) at the airport. She is to be Anita's replacement who is planning to go back to America. They are staying at a palatial apartment with Miss Frances (Dorothy McGuire) who is the secretary to the American author John Frederick Shadwell (Clifton Webb). The three women stop at the famous Trevi Fountain where they toss in a coin and make a wish. Anita and translator Giorgio Bianchi (Rossano Brazzi) have chemistry but company policy prevents them from dating. Maria is taken with the notorious playboy Prince Dino di Cessi (Louis Jourdan).

I don't care about the stories. I barely care about the characters although they seem fine. It's not anything to write home about. This is an amazing visual feast. Italy looks great and the wide screen embraces the vista. Forget the plot. Look at the screen. This is tourism porn. I love the many location shoots. It feels like a wonderful Italian vacation. Venice is picturesque. This is a beautiful travel show within a forgettable movie.

Cream Soda Fountain

[writers_reign · 6/10 · 30 April 2009]

Rome was flavor of the month in fifties Hollywood; Paramount wound up with a mega hit sleeper on its hands when the romantic chemistry between Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday proved both a commercial and critical success. Hollywood minds are, of course, geared to spin-off potential; if One romance in black and white could rake in the dough think how much more could be made out of THREE in Technicolor. More than half a century later the response is pretty much ho hum but in the first half of the fifties a combination of the finest male singer of the twentieth century singing (albeit uncredited) a catchy title song over a series of tourist views of Rome predisposed audiences to like whatever came next however hackneyed. The sextet was interesting, Louis Jourdan wasn't even Italian but then neither was Clifton Webb, though Jourdan did personify the handsome Leading Man. Maggie MacNamara was the most interesting of the females but made only five films in total and in one of those she was uncredited; Jean Peters was arguably best known for becoming Mrs Howard Hughes in 1957 and retiring from the screen until the 70s and Dorothy McGuire was the best actress by a country mile. With a side trip to Venice thrown in this RomCom - a chick flick before the term was coined - couldn't miss and still has a novelty value for the easily pleased.

Three Coins in the Fountain

[jboothmillard · 6/10 · 18 August 2019]

I had never heard of this film before it was broadcast on television, I very rarely see classic films for the first time, unless it sounds good or has a good cast, I decided for once to make an exception (although I recognised one name in the cast), I just went by the fact that it was rated well by critics, directed by Jean Negulesco (How to Marry a Millionaire). Basically, three American women: Miss Frances (Dorothy McGuire), Anita Hutchins (Jean Peters) and Maria Williams (Maggie McNamara) share a spacious apartment together and work in Rome, Italy. Frances is the long-time secretary of successful American author John Frederick Shadwell (Clifton Webb), and Maria and Anita are secretaries for the "United States Distribution Agency". One day, on their way into town, the three women stop at the famous Trevi Fountain, where according to legend, if a coin is thrown in the fountain and a wish is made, it may come true. Maria and Frances throw in their coins, but Anita, who is planning to return to the United States to marry, declines. As time goes by, Frances, Anita and Maria find their wishes are answered, but each experience a few bumps in their journeys to find love. Frances has been in love with Frederick for fifteen years, but his reclusive nature is something of a hindrance. Anita is attracted to Italian translator Giorgio Bianchi (Rossano Brazzi), but he is poor, and she is worried she will ruin his chances of becoming a lawyer. Maria is attracted by the handsome Prince Dino di Cessi (Louis Jourdan), despite being warned that he is a womaniser. Not wanting to disappoint him, Maria decides to research into things he enjoys, including his favourite wine and opera, but she admits keeping a notebook about these, he is angered and leaves without contacting her some time. In the end, after numerous events, Frances, Anita and Maria are brought back together at the Trevi Fountain, they are disappointed to see it is empty for cleaning. But soon the water springs up again, the three women are thrilled by its beauty. At that moment, Dino, Giorgio and Shadwell arrive at the fountain. The men embrace their girlfriends, and they happily admire the fountain, which has proved lucky after all. Also starring Howard St. John as Mr. Burgoyne, Kathryn Givney as Mrs. Burgoyne and Cathleen Nesbitt as Principessa. McGuire, McNamara and Peters are all beautiful and their individual characters are interesting in own rights, Webb and Brazzi are likeable as well, but Jourdan is the most charming eligible bachelor. The love story McGuire and Webb is alright, the bonding between Peters and Brazzi is fine, but to be honest, the romance storyline I was paying most attention to was McNamara and Jourdan. It is a very simple story, three women finding and trying to work out romance "when in Rome", it is supposed to be funny as well, I don't know if I laughed very much, but it doesn't matter, it is a sweet romantic comedy. It won the Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color, and Best Original Song for the great title song, performed by an uncredited Frank Sinatra, and it was nominated for Best Picture. Good!

Fine for sociology, not great for art

[rhoda-1 · 3/10 · 28 September 2007]

Don't look to movies to see how people lived in the past--most are far too glamorous for that--but to find out how they thought, or, rather, what their assumptions were. In this movie Maggie McNamara gets Louis Jourdan to fall in love with her by pretending to like everything he likes--modern art, opera, Roman food and wine, etc. What a wealth of social pathology is here revealed! We are supposed to believe that a man (even a wealthy, cultured, sophisticated man like this one) wants a wife who brings nothing at all to the party, who will never introduce him to anything new he might like, who will never disagree with him, in short is just a clone and a slave. (Didn't anyone ever tell him that a man who wants a mate who is exactly like him really wants...another man? But maybe he knows that, since he's such a pal of Clifton Webb's.) For her part, McNamara is shown as a gold-digger who is excited to have found a rich man who is also handsome and charming. But that's fine because this is what women do, right? This trick was hardly confined to this movie--it was used in other films and TV programmes. With a view of matrimony this bleak it's no wonder that since the following decade people started to give up on the idea of the man as money machine and the woman as doormat.

The view of the arts is depressing, too. McNamara merely parrots Jourdan's or her friend's opinions on art and music. She never tries to learn anything about them on her own, and she finds them hideously boring. Which all good Americans are supposed to, right? All that highbrow stuff is for phonies and foreigners! They had some nice clothes in the Fifties (if you didn't mind wearing a girdle so tight you could hardly breathe), but as for respect for intelligence and culture, forget it. Certainly no one with a tad of aesthetics would have pawned off Clifton Webb's auburn dye job on a helpless audience.

An enormous box office hit...

[Nazi_Fighter_David · 8/10 · 3 December 1999]

This pleasant comedy-romance opens with the beautiful view of the Fountain of Trevi in Rome, combined by another famous fountain garden at the villa d'Este in Tivoli where a great water organ exploits another attribute of moving water: its sound...

But in "Three Coins in the Fountain," the 'sound of music' is the fine title song - sung by Frank Sinatra - that carries the whole picture...

The film is about the search for love by a simple trio... Three American secretaries believing in love, and throwing their coins in the 'Fontana Di Trevi' for a wish, for a romance, for an idealized love...

The first person is Dorothy McGuire, the confidant secretary in love (since 25 years) with her elderly boss, the American writer Clifton Webb...

The second is Jean Peters, a pretty indecisive brunette, doubtful in seeking love in Italy with Rossano Brazzi...

The third, a decisive Maggie McNamara aspiring to catch a wealthy suspicious lover (Louis Jourdan) by the art of lying...

Webb, Jourdan and Brazzi bring to the production its significant flavor... The film, nominated for Best Picture, won two Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Music Song...

With a stunning photography in CinemaScope and sumptuous Technicolor of Rome and Venice, the motion picture is in itself a thin entertainment, but the title song carried it...

Good enjoy

[matthewjrau · 7/10 · 24 December 2020]

It was a fine enough movie. The main actress that plays Maria is a poor man's Audrey Hepburn that's for sure. It got a little bit darker in places than I had anticipated but I guess it's not a comedy it does say it's a drama. Good reminder for all of us to shoot your shot and not to wait too long because life can have unexpected changes

A mundane piece of fluff

[vic22703 · 4/10 · 10 August 2004]

The film, while not being a total waste of time, provides very little interesting entertainment. The film follows three women on their hunt for husbands in Rome. The photography of Italy is gorgeous, of course, but the plot is trivial. The story lines of the two older women are considerably more interesting than the youngest of the three, who follows a prince (Louis Jordan).

As an audience, we know little the personalities of the characters other than what is revealed during their courtships. I know that it's hard to expect an illuminating portrait of women in a 1950's romantic comedy but it's hard to forget the sly comedy of Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve, or the allure of Marilyn Monroe's talent in ....well, any of her films.

Overall, if you want to watch something wistful and entertaining, watch Louis Jordan's other film, Gigi, Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday.

"A pinch is a pinch in any man's language"

[jhkp · 8/10 · 28 September 2018]

Three Coins In The Fountain deftly weaves together three love stories about American secretaries in Rome. Miss Frances (Dorothy McGuire), who has been in Rome for 15 years, lives with a younger woman, Anita Hutchins (Jean Peters), and they're joined by another young woman, Maria Williams (Maggie McNamara), just arrived from the States.

Frances has been in love with her boss, the expatriate American writer, John Frederick Shadwell (Clifton Webb), all these years. Anita gets into a forbidden relationship with Georgio (Rossano Brazzi), a translator who works at her place of employment (a US government agency where office relationships between American girls and local men are taboo). Maria meets a playboy prince (Louis Jourdan), and comes up with a plan to get him interested in her as more than just a prospective conquest.

It's not deep, but it's all very well done, good to look at, fairly witty and generally involving. It's really the nicely-drawn characters, the somewhat sopisticated dialogue, the enjoyable performances that keep you interested, though the scenery is certainly worth the price of admission.

The music of Victor Young adds a great deal to the enjoyment of the film. Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn penned the title tune, sung by Frank Sinatra (offscreen) as musical accompaniment to a prologue that showcases the fountains of Rome.

Dorothy Jeakins designed the attractive fashions for the three women stars.

CinemaScope doesn't have the thrills on TV that it must have had on the big screens of the 1950s, but there is enough in the way of clever writing and attractive acting to interest the viewer. Three Coins In The Fountain is a fine example of colorful, light entertainment.

A glossy cliched 50's Chick Flick in search of a story

[mts43 · 6/10 · 14 February 2023]

It's hard to believe that films like this were popular at the time, but they were. The biggest drawback is the almost total lack of a story or stories; three American females fall in love in Rome, and that's it. It's a decent cast, though, and the performances are pretty good. There is fairly extensive footage of Rome and Venice which, given the lack of any real story at all, actually lends to the film's appeal. The eponymous song also won the Oscar that year. If you look up the word "contrived" in the dictionary, there should be a video of this film's ending -- a Hollywood happy ending, of course. Believe it or not, the film was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar -- Wow!

balsa wood romance

[onepotato2 · 1/10 · 22 April 2008]

Three Coins in the Fountain is the standard location shoot from the fifties. We get expensive, widescreen photography (Italy - very nice), but the minute we enter an interior (or a character gets in a car) we're in an artificial world of soundstages. This becomes the defacto formula for 50s travelogue/dramas. The movie itself would fall under the heading "chick flick," a term of assignation, for a genre that generally offers only sisterhood beset by minor conflicts; and women either short-changing their own lives and development for a man (the 50s), or defining themselves via quasi-rejecting some social norm (the 80s forward). To be sure, there are chick flicks that can be enjoyed by general audiences (Terms of Endearment) but the term is characteristically used to deservedly dismiss trifling story lines like this one.

Three women are explained to be in Italy for various reasons, and become room-mates. As the time demands, they're absurd, but true period types who use the steno-pool to travel, have an income, and find eligible bachelors whom they agree never to compete with; women whose truncated education (and society's glass ceiling) insure that they can't. Additionally, improbably, they live like queens.

The movies wide-screen compositions are handsome but the story is off the low end of the scale for inconsequence. The script writers can't be bothered to spare four lines to introduce the piece's major conflict. Here a stenographer is such a dense bimbo that she a) inexplicably reveals a roommates transgressions to her boss, and b) forgets to inform her, causing job loss for her boyfriend and embarrassment for the room-mate. It's just too darned hard for this pretty thing to understand that she's both been outmaneuvered, AND done something very unethical, even within the terms of the movie. The movie notes none of this. The same character has an unexplored conflict in her desire to win a guy, but to also reap benefits (travel, etc.) from delaying or denying the onset of his romantic or sexual interest. The movie is a bewildering gender-power study.