Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)

Midway through John Hughes’ Planes, Trains and Automobiles, two luckless travelers (Steve Martin and John Candy) find themselves on that bleakest mode of public transport, a bus, trying to get home for Thanksgiving. Candy engages his fellow bus mates to join in a sing along. He presses Martin to come up with a song. Reluctant but flattered, Steve sings a few bars of Three Coins in the Fountain to the puzzled, unenthused passengers. He is shocked no one recognizes the tune.

And shocking it is that this extremely popular film and song of the ‘50s had fallen so far off of the mainstream radar by 1987. It would be today’s equivalent of a busload of people not knowing the lyrics to “Staying Alive” from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.

Maybe that’s a good thing.

But it is curious for a culture so steeped in pop sentiment to have such a short memory of things it once found so familiar and resonant.

Three Coins in the Fountain was one of the top ten grossing films of 1954. Frank Sinatra and The Four Aces had both made number one hits of the title song in the U.K. and the U.S. respectively. The film features three of the biggest stars of the era in Clifton Webb (Laura, The Man Who Never Was), Dorothy McGuire (The Spiral Staircase, Gentleman’s Agreement) and Jean Peters (Niagara, Pickup on South Street, and wife of Howard Hughes). Most importantly, at a time when the seeds of American cultural and business interests were taking root in a rebuilding, war-torn Europe, this film acted as a promotional travelogue for the tourism and industry that would follow throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s.

The Second World War had tested America’s inherent isolationism. The success of the United States in that conflict, its hand in the reconstruction of the damaged nations in Europe and the Far East, and the ensuing struggle with Soviet Russia in the Cold War had broadened American’s interests politically, financially and culturally. Gender roles changed at home as women flocked to jobs not only created by the war effort but also those left open by the men who went off to war. There was a new air of monetary independence for American females and a newfound sense of freedom and adventure to go along with it.

The three women at the heart of Three Coins in the Fountain are just such females. Miss Francis (Dorothy McGuire), the eldest of the trio, has been in Rome the longest, acting as an assistant and confidante to expatriate writer John Frederick Shadwell (Clifton Webb). Anita (Jean Peters) has tired of her position (and loveless circumstances) as administrative assistant for an American company doing business in the Eternal City and plans to return to the States. Her replacement, Maria (Maggie McNamara), has traveled to Italy seeking success in love and career.

The women share a luxurious villa in the heart of the city (it is amazing what post war U.S. dollars could buy in Europe) and when not at work, attend galas, sightsee and dream of romance. The world famous Fountain of Trevi plays backdrop to their aspirations of love where “hope can be had for a penny”. Here, the film takes some license with reality and its own title as only two of the women actually toss coins in the fountain. A fountain that is traditionally used for wishes involving a return to Rome, not romantic hopefulness. Alas, all can be forgiven in the pursuit of love and metaphor.

The screenplay by John  Patrick, from the novel Coins in the Fountain by John H. Secondari, differentiates the ladies by age and distinct approaches to love. While they are somewhat archetypal, each is contrasted enough to define their characters and give them unique appeal.

Miss Frances is the nurturing “old maid” (laughingly in her late thirties) who, through duty and familiarity, has fallen for her author/boss Shadwell. She continually offers motherly advice to the younger two in the ways of amore, resigning her own love life to a rut of professionalism and celibacy. It is curious that she finds Shadwell, a fey, pompous, asexual recluse of a man an answer to her romantic woes.

Anita is the reluctant, disillusioned sort with a fiery passion burning just beneath her, ahem, soul. She has the vapors for her Italian co-worker, Georgio (Rossano Brazzi) but the company does not allow such international commingling. Their taboo love provides the story its heat. They are the ones who kiss passionately throughout the film and the only couple that we are sure (due to some creative visual suggestions) has had sex.

The newcomer, Maria, is the deceptive, wily sort. Her looks are an interesting cross between Liz Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, and Debbie Reynolds and it is little wonder that swarthy, playboy Prince Dino di Cessi (Louis Jourdan) finds her alluring. She further hooks him by a ruse wherein she calculatingly discovers his interests and tastes in secret, then portrays herself as his dream woman. It never comes off as despicable as it sounds as the Prince (with a notorious reputation as a womanizer) has certainly used similar lies to lure unsuspecting females.

While the film will never win any awards or recognition for its feminism (the women often come off as husband-starved and unfulfilled), it nonetheless plants the seeds of the female empowerment to come in the next few decades. The three are self-sufficient working women abroad, eager to travel and experience new cultures. They are designers of their own destiny, free willed and not yet tied down by the trappings of matrimony and child rearing. Anita acts upon her own desires with Georgio, flouting her company’s antiquated (sexist and racist) policies about interoffice dating. Miss Frances has been a successful career woman for years and is viewed as indispensable (both personally and professionally) by the artistically celebrated Shadwell, and Maria embodies (including her devious manipulations) the essence of independence and self-reliance in her pursuit of happiness. When an aggressive local male pinches her on the ass, she threatens to “kick him in his antipasto”.

These women may wrongly feel the need for a man to complete them, but at least they are not idly waiting for him to come knocking.

The direction by Jean Negulesco and cinematography by Milton R. Krasner (Oscar winner for this film) brilliantly captures the beauty of Rome, Venice and the surrounding Italian countryside. The use of Cinemascope (gimmicky and wasteful in many films of the ‘50s) gives this picture an appropriately panoramic splendor. The technical sacrifice of close-ups on the actors is a small price to pay for the view. The four-minute opening sequence is a marvel, highlighting the Eternal City’s various fountains as Sinatra croons the Oscar winning title track over the montage. The gorgeous long shots of surprisingly near empty piazzas, streets and landmarks backdrop the romantic storylines and beckon the viewer to book an immediate flight to Rome.

Three Coins in the Fountain is structured on 20^th Century Fox’s success with the “3 Girl Formula” of such predecessors as Sally, Irene and Mary (1938), Moon Over Miami (1941), Three Little Girls in Blue (1946), and How to Marry a Millionaire (1953). Equal parts travelogue and wishful romance, it is an enduring classic of the era and a quintessential Hollywood love story. 

Just be sure to remember those song lyrics if you go Greyhound.