DESPERATELY SEEKING......
I just saw
"THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE"...for the first time...all the way through...from beginning to end. WHEW!! Boy, Tennessee Williams is sure hard on women!!! Think about it: “Night of the Iguana” “The Glass Menagerie” “Summer and Smoke” “Sweet Bird of Youth” “Cat On a Hot Tin Roof” “A Streetcar Named Desire” “Suddenly, Last Summer”...think about the struggles and demons his heroines have to fight their way through to almost the last page. Looking for love in all the wrong places...aging. And if the soul-crushing nakedness of Blanche DuBois wasn’t enough, Vivien Leigh goes for a second helping in this Tennessee scorcher as ‘Mrs. Stone.’
I can envision this double feature: “
The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone” with “
Sunset Boulevard.” Yes, they’re different in temperament. One is definitely this macabre gargoylian gothic setting while the other is in the bright sun of the sexy Italian Riviera. But both films show older women buying the love of a younger man. ( Cougars? ) Both films show a person trapped in circumstances
of their own making. They’re not trapped beyond their control. All Joe Gillis has to do is walk out of that mansion. And all Karen Stone has to do is kick that gigolo out on his keister.
But they can’t.
I enjoyed this movie...if one can say they enjoy watching the train wreck of another human being. I enjoyed it, but it was tough to go down that road of self-destruction. The film was well-acted all around.
Warren Beatty. Lets add his name to that long list of famous young Eyetalian actors:
No...I didn’t believe his Italian, but I certainly ‘bought’ his gigolo. I found him very attractive, and he was perfectly suited to the part: self-centered and satiated; showing off in that barber’s chair...getting fitted for a new wardrobe...and being cruel. Very very cruel. You know the type
(...though I hope not through first-hand
experience). As soon as you give him what he wants he turns on you like a cobra. But the baaad thing (on your part) is that you still want to stroke him, pet him. (ACK!!! That’s Tennessee fer ya!!!) And he played her...he played the lonely widow like a fiddle. This is early in Beatty's career. And he does a decent job opposite a powerhouse of an actress.
VIVIEN LEIGH. Now come on...
what an actress. She’s wonderful in this. Sad, strong, vulnerable, hungry. There was room for her to be over-the-top, but she wasn't. She was ever graceful, so lady-like. She floats...walks on air. Her smile still so sweet and I loved the huskiness in her voice as she grew older. Older...ha! (48 y.o. sounds young to me), and
still attractive. Her Karen Stone starts off to Italy with her husband, but he dies enroute. She won’t listen to the commonsense of her friend to go back to the States (played to usual bitchy perfection by Coral Browne). She wasn’t going to be taken in by that lot over there. But she made the mistake of falling in love. Oooh, that infuriated me and broke my heart. (Hey Karen, this won't end well for you milady!!!) Methinks she had a fatalistic streak in her too. She knew she’d end her days there. And she probably wanted to:
"All I need is 4 or 5 more years..." You know, I think we get so many chances to change our path, but we don’t pay attention to the signs until we end up in trouble. It was no different for her. The gigolo says very cruel things to her; like a thousand paper cuts...he throws her age up at her, he obviously flirts with others in front of her. Gorgeous but vapid Jill St. John being one of them.
ASIDE: Be on the look out for a young Jean Marsh in this. Also:
[u]stuart.uk[/u] wrote:77-yr-old Jean Marsh from Upstairs Downstairs is recovering from a stoke. Jean, who plays Rose Buck, wasn't able to return to Upstairs Downstairs for the first 2 episodes, but is back for the 3rd out of a series of 6. With Eileen Atkins leaving the show, Jean is the only link to the original series from the 1970s. She was at one time married to Doctor Who actor Jon Pertwee and has appeared in at least 3 Saint episodes with Roger Moore.
But for some reason this lonely woman accepts it all. Egads!!! To be over forty. <
Sigh! > Life is Over ! Oh the horror of it all!!! Throw yourself over a cliff...or walk down deserted Italian alleyways!!!! I thought Leigh did a great job and I confess it is sometimes easier for me to see this, not distracted by her beauty.
But the character that got me was
Lotte Lenya. OMG she is such a
hoot in this movie! Don’t get all caught up and twisted and freaked out by her Rosa Klebb in “From Russia With Love.” She was good in that
and she’s good here. She’s a madam. Oh let’s call a spade a spade: she was a pimp. She pimped these young men out to lonely rich women. And it looked like everyone was in the game over there in Italy. (Uhmmm...is that still going on over there, does anybody know? Just curious for research purposes). Aaaaah Lenya as the Contessa, she laughed and schemed and planned and manipulated. She had her little black book out jotting notes. She was out for what she could get. She was not to be played with; she wanted her cut of the profits. And there were profits to be had from these rich old gals who would pay for...companionship. I waited for her scenes. Aaahhh, now
there was a woman in control of her fate. Sort of.
Luckily our mindset has changed over the years about women getting older. Still viable...still desirable. But that was not Mrs. Stone’s fate, nor the fate of many of the women in Tennessee Williams’ oeuvre. Leave it to a Man to write about a Woman. Watch it for how Vivien Leigh maneuvers her way through this minefield.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16TH
Look at Vivien Leigh's eyes. They really
are the windows to her characters' soul.
