Three Coins in the Fountain *** (1954, Clifton Webb, Dorothy McGuire, Jean Peters, Louis Jourdan, Maggie McNamara, Rossano Brazzi) – Classic Movie Review 6697

Director Jean Negulesco knows how to make this double Oscar-winning 1954 romantic drama sweet and sentimental, and that is fine, but fortunately Clifton Webb and Dorothy McGuire are also able to inject a bit of acid in their section of the movie.

Three Coins in the Fountain is what was called a ‘women’s picture’ back in the Fifties, now redubbed a ‘chick flick’. By either name, they were as popular then as they are now. The old-style ‘women’s picture’ sounds a bit more respectful than ‘chick flick’, but there we are.

Clifton Webb and Dorothy McGuire inject a bit of acid in their section of Three Coins in the Fountain.

Three Coins in the Fountain might horrify some viewers today. It is an unreconstructed pre-feminist tale of three American women who just want to find a husband and get married, nothing else. They haven’t another single idea in their heads!

The Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi) in Rome is used as the link between three travelogue romances in John Patrick’s screenplay based on the 1952 novel by John H Secondari, which has the three American women – Frances, Anita and Maria (Dorothy McGuire, Jean Peters and Maggie McNamara) – rooming together at the spacious Villa Eden while working in Rome and desperately hoping for love and marriage.

Clifton Webb plays secretary Frances’s boss, snooty American novelist John Shadwell, Louis Jourdan plays Italian Prince Dino di Cessi whom Maria falls for, while Rossano Brazzi plays Italian translator Georgio Binachi, whom Anita falls in love with. Frances has been secretary for 15 years to Shadwell, a man she loves, though he seems like a confirmed bachelor. It is all very neat and tidy – and romantic!

The catchy Oscar-winning title song by Jule Styne (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) – sung during the opening credits by Frank Sinatra – and Milton R Krasner’s Oscar-winning picture-postcard Technicolor cinematography helped to make it a big hit and a Fifties trendsetter, and, despite is outmoded attitudes, it can still provide a lot of nostalgic pleasure for the romantically inclined.

Three Coins in the Fountain was remade in Madrid as The Pleasure Seekers in 1964, with Ann-Margret and Anthony Franciosa, Carol Lynley, and as a TV movie, Coins in the Fountain, in 1990, with Loni Anderson, Stepfanie Kramer and Shanna Reed.

Three Coins in the Fountain is directed by Jean Negulesco, runs 102 minutes, is a 20th Century Fox release, is written by John Patrick shot in Technicolor and CinemaScope by Milton R Krasner, produced by Sol C Siegel, scored by Victor Young, and designed by Lyle R Wheeler and John DeCuir.

In the cast are Dorothy McGuire, Jean Peters, Maggie McNamara, Clifton Webb as John Shadwell, Louis Jourdan as Italian Prince Dino di Cessi,  Rossano Brazzi as Georgio Binachi, Howard St John, Kathryn Givney, Cathleen Nesbitt, Vicente Padula, Mario Siletti, Alberto Morin, Dino Bolognese, Tony De Mario, Jack Mattis, Willard Waterman, Zacharias Yaconelli, Cecilia Lovsky, Larry Arnold, Gino Corrado, Merry Anders, Maurice Brierre, Iphiginie Castiglioni, Charles La Torre, Grazia Narcisco, Renata Vanni and Norma Varden.

The Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi) in Rome.

The Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi) name comes from ‘tre vie’, or ‘three roads’ because it is at the junction of three roads. A legend says that if a visitor tosses a coin into the fountain, they will return to Rome. It was designed by Nicola Salvi and dates from 1762. Coins must be thrown with the right hand over the left shoulder. About 3,000 Euros are thrown into the fountain every day, which is used to subsidise a supermarket for Rome’s needy.

Maria and Frances toss pennies into the fountain, but Anita plans to return to America to get married and does not to toss a coin. But Georgio also threw in a coin, making it Three Coins in the Fountain.