‘The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone’ was based on Tennessee Williams only novel which was a slight change of pace and tone for Williams - the tawdriness was there but significantly played down. He seemed to want to try and prove that he could draw emotion and reaction without the theatrics appropriate for his stage plays. Does he succeed?
Adapted by Gavin Lambert (Bitter Victory and 1989’s television version of Sweet Bird of Youth) and the directorial debut of stage veteran Jose Quintero (who would never direct another feature film but would go on to win a tony for TV’s A Moon for the Misbegotten in 1975), the film seems to be a faithful translation of the novella with all the inherent weaknesses intact.
Dismissed by critics in 1961, the film has never garnered much attention despite the fact that it contains Vivien Leigh’s last great performance as the titular Mrs. Stone. Much has been made about Vivien Leigh’s private life during the production of this picture and how much that carried over into her performance. Her 20-year marriage to Laurence Olivier which started in scandal suddenly ended when she was 48 and about to begin work on this film. Laurence Olivier left her for a younger woman and the emotional parallels to the Mrs. Stone character are obvious.
Vivien Leigh stars as Karen Stone, an aging actress whose last role would have been much more appropriate for a younger actress and the public notices. Finished with the business, she decides to head to Rome to get away. When her wealthy husband 20-years her senior dies on the trip, she arrives in Rome callous, proud, and lonely. As the widow admits loneliness to a friend, she is set up to meet the conniving Contessa (Lotte Lenya who will later be remembered as the great villainess in From Russia With Love), who amounts to little more than being a pimp (pimpette?) for the wealthy, lonely ladies of Rome and who steers young, handsome men towards these women to take them for all their worth.
Contessa sends over a young Italian boy Paolo di Leo (err...Warren Beatty) to meet with Mrs. Stone and a relationship ensues. While she initially doesn’t know, she comes to learn that Paolo is a gigolo but by this time she’s hopelessly in love. Needless to say, heartbreak is in the cards for Karen Stone.
Another Williams’s adaptation carried by its performances. Vivien Leigh in her second-to-last role (a small role in 1965’s Ship of Fools would be her last) before succumbing to tuberculosis in 1967. Her performance is a subtle, nuanced portrait of emotion and fragility in which she no doubt culled upon recent real-life wounds. The role also provides an interesting comparative to the theatrics involved in her other very different role in a Tennessee Williams’ adaptation, Blanche Dubois from A Street Car Named Desire.
Warren Beatty’s role is harder to peg. Adopting a very faux Italian accent (an accent Beatty was justifiably nervous about as he conferred with his voice coach before every scene) and bordering on obnoxious, the role attracts a little more scrutiny. With the exception of the accent, Beatty is quite good and perfectly believable as the gigolo whose intentions are hard to guess. Of course when he was cast in the role (where he had to personally seek out and get Tennessee Williams approval), audiences were completely unfamiliar with him - as his sole film, Splendor in the Grass had yet to be released. Would his accent been as annoying if you had no idea who Warren Beatty was?
The strongest supporting performance belongs to Lotte Lenya (who was nominated for best supporting actress for this role) who is superb. The Austrian actress never had much success in America but this role and her inspired casting in From Russia With Love makes me wish more roles were tailored for her. Her shrewd and devious Contessa deserves a film all to herself. Jill St. John also shows up as a younger actress who catches Mrs. Stones disdain.
These performances are important to note, since the film itself comes off as a bit dry. Slow and thick, the film as a whole comes across as almost arbitrary. Besides the strange inclusion of a sinister, young stalker who hangs out below Mrs. Stone’s apartment and who plays a big part in the sudden, questionable ending, nothing really worth taking notice of happens. The screenwriter and director seem to think that the idea of a May-December romance involving an older woman and a young gigolo (a theme we will see again one year later in ‘Sweet Bird of Youth’) is enough - with the exception of one scene where Karen climbs into bed to instigate lovemaking and has apparently lost all interest in the context, the idea falls flat. A lot of dry dialogue but no heat.
Instead of truly discussing the film, the featurette focuses on the personal problems facing Vivien Leigh and Warren Beatty. It includes interview footage with Jill St. John (who obviously still holds a grudge that Vivien Leigh never said one word to her) and details on the usual autobiographical elements that Tennessee Williams injects into all of his work.
Ultimately for me, the film seems too unnecessarily take it’s time - the languidness of certain scenes which merely repeat what has already been established draws it out longer than the material possibly justifies. Yet there’s no denying the fabulous work of Vivien Leigh and Lotte Lenya so I can recommend it for fans of these two actresses and for Tennessee Williams completists who might want to see a slightly different tone for his work.
The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD’s database for more information. The DVD is also part of the Tennessee Williams Film Collection which is now available at Amazon .
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