The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961)

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(1,012 ratings)

Vivien Leigh plays Karen Stone, a middle-aged actress whose career is in a tailspin. To assuage her hurt feelings, Karen goes on a vacation to Rome with her husband, who dies en route. Her best friend (Coral Browne) compassionately arranges for a young Italian escort (read: gigolo) to keep Karen… More Vivien Leigh plays Karen Stone, a middle-aged actress whose career is in a tailspin. To assuage her hurt feelings, Karen goes on a vacation to Rome with her husband, who dies en route. Her best friend (Coral Browne) compassionately arranges for a young Italian escort (read: gigolo) to keep Karen from wallowing in her grief in Rome. The man hired for the task is sneering, contemptuous Pablo di Leo, played by Warren Beatty. Despite Pablo's rude behavior, the lonely Karen throws herself at him, showering him with expensive gifts and demanding his undivided attention. This being an adaptation of a Tennessee Williams novel, Blanche Dubois --er, Karen Stone must pay the piper for her eleventh-hour surfeit of passion; she is dispensed with by an "Angel of Death" in the form of psycho Jeremy Spencer. More operatic than dramatic, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone represents the only feature-film directorial effort of experimental-theatre maven Jose Quintero; his assistant was future Bullitt helmer Peter Yates. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 44 min.
Directed By: Jose Quintero
Written By: Gavin Lambert, Jan Read, Tennessee Williams
Genres: Drama, Romance, Classics

In Theaters: Jan 1, 1961 Wide
On DVD: May 2, 2006

Critic Reviews

Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
As the aging actress, Vivien Leigh is good but Warren Beatty is miscast as the gigolo in this weak screen adaptation of Tennessee William's novella.
Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central
The tagline says that they called it love and it was for sale, to which the appropriate response is that one hopes they kept the receipt.
Mark Bourne, DVDJournal.com
The prose is so purple and the tone so overripe that ... what wants to be mature, sensual romance-novel boilerplate becomes instead a plodding exercise in intriguingly cast camp.

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Featured Audience Ratings

Stefanie C

A very real side of Roman life is shown in this film ~ love for sale. In the train station or on the beaches of Ostia, the ragazzi barter with male or female for cash. Young men parade themselves in hopes of bedding old, wealthy, foreign woman. Vivien Leigh is haunting in… More
A very real side of Roman life is shown in this film ~ love for sale. In the train station or on the beaches of Ostia, the ragazzi barter with male or female for cash. Young men parade themselves in hopes of bedding old, wealthy, foreign woman. Vivien Leigh is haunting in Williams' treatise on withering beauty, aging and diminishing chances for love. While Beatty's looks fit the part of a gigolo, he is unbelievable as an Italian, an unfortunate miscast. Leigh's abandonment brings the film to a chilling conclusion.