Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Anyone familiar with the legendary songbook from Frank Sinatra’s years at Capitol Records (1953-1961) is probably humming the Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn title tune at the mere mention of Three Coins in the Fountain - along with some fine Italian scenery, clearly the most redeeming feature of an otherwise plodding and dated film.

The production opens with Ol' Blue Eyes warbling amongst a montage of Rome’s magnificent fountains in a state of grandiose spew. Cinematographer Milton R. Krasner used Fox’s new CinemaScope process to magnificent effect with a series of elegant Technicolor static shots; the only flaw being the disconnect experienced when the credits begin to roll - the total mood change plays as if the sequence was grafted from an alternate source.

Belying the titular coin quantity, at the outset, only two coins are tossed into Rome’s Trevi Fountain. Legend suggests that when thrown over the shoulder, the participant’s wish will be granted - as long as that wish is to someday return to Rome. The premise is expanded here to include romantic wishes by dewy-eyed working girls out to snag the fattest meal ticket available.

Plotwise, feminists will surely bristle at this distaff pack of husband-hunters lest the film be viewed as the pre-feminist travelogue that it is. The lovely and under-rated Dorothy McGuire, whom I first discovered in Dmytryk's post-war drama Till The End of Time plays secretary (and love interest) to successful American expatriate novelist John Shadwell (Clifton Webb), who is miscast as one of the three romantic leads. This fact eventually serves to undermine the credibility of the plot - especially considering the other two points of this triumvirate tag-team are the handsome scalawag Louis Jourdan and 50s Italian cover-boy Rossano Brazzi.

Both Jean Peters and Maggie McNamara (who resembles Audrey Hepburn) play secretaries (what else?) working at a fictitious American bureaucracy in Rome. Peters' character is warm for co-worker Brazzi, but keeps him at arm’s length with the false claim that she’s engaged and headed home to the States to marry. Frenchman Jourdan assumes the playboy persona of a wealthy Italian prince smitten with McNamara’s fabricating filly. These scenes of romantic gamesmanship are so weak and predictable that Jourdan’s gorgeous silver 1953 Mercedes 300S Roadster (with red leather interior) steals every scene that it occupies. Even “women’s pictures” can offer “man bait” if there’s beer, cars or explosives involved.

Further scene-stealing relies upon a showcasing of the jaw-dropping widescreen process theater-goers would come to know as CinemaScope. A story crippled by such superficiality and soap benefits from the technical boost found in such a magnificent visual display of Rome and its environs. Scripter John Patrick had much greater screenplay success (and an Oscar nomination) eight years previous with Paramount’s historic film noir exercise The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, which was notable for the introduction of 29 year-old Kirk Douglas - a scene-stealer in his own right.

As with all shiny-new inventions, overindulgence can eventually be wearing. There’s no doubt that Twentieth Century-Fox spent a considerable sum on location expense to bring this production to the screen. Establishing shots and cut-aways display a visual majesty only the Italian chamber-of-commerce could fully appreciate. The cost-saving concoction called rear (or back) projection that customarily accompanies most close-ups is almost totally absent. Oscar-nominated director Jean Negulesco (for Johnny Belinda; 1948) is really a minor player in this technological circus, as Three Coins in the Fountain is all about what impressive tricks the man behind the camera itself could pull from his sleeve.

Come for the history - three Oscar nominations netting two wins (Color Cinematography and Original song) ain’t bad in any era. A Best Picture nod is the odd-man out - the novelty of CinemaScope in Technicolor would wear thin by the time these standards were industry-embedded and films such as Cleopatra (1963), with its over-runs and bloated excess, would drive Fox to the brink of bankruptcy.

Competitors VistaVision (Paramount) and Panavision (developed independently for M-G-M) would also help dilute the market share advantage initially held by Fox. Despite the Academy’s occasional lapses in logic, history shows Kazan’s On the Waterfront was the proper Best Picture choice for Academy voters in 1954. Perhaps a couple of years earlier Three Coins in the Fountain could have been “The Greatest Show on Earth”.

Three Coins in the Fountain was filmed on location in Rome, but at times you’d swear you’re in Oklahoma - where “the corn is as high as an elephant’s eye”. These days, the concept of an independent woman engaging in blatant husband-hunting on-screen is pure corn, as is the displaced American girl whose purity and innocence are at the heart of the film. Come for the history, stay for the corn (both canned and popped are served) and (if you’re a guy along for the ride) leave with the million-dollar Mercedes. Like the posh cinematography, fifty-four years of inflation and appreciation can be a beautiful thing.

Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)
Screenplay: John Patrick
From the novel by John H. Secondari
Director: Jean Negulesco
Twentieth Century-Fox
DVD: Twentieth Century-Fox Home Video (2004)

Although he plays an Italian prince, Louis Jourdan was born in Marseille. I shall respectfully defer to the host’s expertise and let Barbara decide if the presence of Monsieur Jourdan qualifies as a Fabulous French Find.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12