Directed by José Quintero
UK 1961

 

  A fine bit of melodrama adapted from Tennessee Williams's potboiler about an aging actress (Leigh) who moves to Rome to find a new lease of life in her career, but instead finds a love affair with a young gigolo (Beatty, with a truly crappy Italian accent). The two manage to suggest a believably seedy but passionate romance. However, the real star of the show is Lenya, who turns in a fine performance as the grossly unpleasant Contessa. As Leigh was filming this, her marriage to Olivier was falling apart - a lot of the misery on screen reflected events in her private life. 

Excerpt from Channel 4 located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: December 28th, 1961

Reviews    More Reviews    DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Warner - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover

   

CLICK to order from:

This is also part of the Tennessee Williams Film Collection which contains A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 Two-Disc Special Edition / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 Deluxe Edition / Sweet Bird of Youth / The Night of the Iguana / Baby Doll / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone 

              

Other Individual Reviews:
Distribution Warner Home Video - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC
Runtime 1:43:40 
Video 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 5.74 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate:

Audio English (Dolby Digital 1.0), DUB: French (Dolby Digital 1.0)  
Subtitles English, Spanish, French, None
Features

Release Information:
Studio: Warner Home Video

Aspect Ratio:
Original Aspect Ratio 1.78:1

Edition Details:

• New featurette The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone: Looking for Love in All the Dark Corners (12:48)
• Theatrical trailer

DVD Release Date: May 2nd, 2006

Keep Case
Chapters: 25

 

 

Comments:

NOTE: We have had some discussion regarding this films aspect ratio. It is listed in many places as 2.35:1 but I didn't feel the composition at 1.85 (DVD actually 1.78) supported it. Patrick McCart emailed us this:

'Techniscope has a 2.35:1 image that is 2 perfs tall (it's half the height of the picture area for a regular Panavision film). Extracting anything less like 1.85:1 means cutting off the sides. Films shot in Techniscope include The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; American Graffiti; and THX 1138. All of which are 2.35:1-only.

However, Superscope involved shooting films at full silent aperture (the entire usable area, including where the optical soundtrack could be) and making prints via anamorphic squeezing. This has evolved into your standard Super-35 used for the Lord of the Rings films, The Matrix, Gangs of New York, etc. I think your contributor mistook Techniscope for Superscope, as well as using the IMDB as reference (they're often wrong on aspect ratios).

If the opening credits do not mention Techniscope, it wasn't shot in Techniscope. Also, the posters and lobby cards have no mention of Techniscope, but of Technicolor instead. Posters in 1961 would have noted the process. 
'

****

This image quality is excellent looking very film-like in the Warner transfer to digital. Colors are bright, detail is strong, contrast is good and the image is tight to the frame, anamorphic and progressive. Warner continue to impress with consistently thorough production of classic older films to DVD for exceptionally reasonable prices. This edition includes a 12 minute featurette that spoke frequently about its two lead performers. Certainly a worthy, if short, supplement.

I'd never seen this film before but was very impressed with it - rejuvenating my own personal fantasy romance with Viv Leigh. :) We recommend!    

Gary W. Tooze

 





DVD Menus


 


Subtitle Sample

 

 


 

Screen Captures

 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 

 


 

 


DVD Box Cover

   

CLICK to order from:

The 2-disc SE is part of the Tennessee Williams Film Collection which contains A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 Two-Disc Special Edition / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 Deluxe Edition / Sweet Bird of Youth / The Night of the Iguana / Baby Doll / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone) 

              

Other Individual Reviews:
Distribution Warner Home Video - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC




 

Hit Counter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DONATIONS Keep DVDBeaver alive:

Mail cheques, money orders, cash to:    or CLICK PayPal logo to donate!

Gary Tooze

Mississauga, Ontario,

   CANADA

Thank You!