CINEMA
Three Coins in a Fountain. (Carlton.)
JEAN NEOULESCO ushers in his latest film with such staggeringly beautiful photo- graphs of Rome, tracking a watery path, from its superb' fountains to the cascades at the Villa d'Este, that long before the credit titles have appeared one is in a romantic swoon. His cast, Dorothy McGuire, Jean Peters and Maggie McNamara, paired with Clifton Webb, Rossano Brazzi and Louis Jourdan, end up in much the same condition, but before that their emotional affairs do not prosper in spite of the girls having tossed their coins into the Trcvi fountain and wished their wishes. Miss
McGuire, secretary to a distinguished author, suffers from an unrequited love for this vain sardonic fellow—this sort of part seems to have become engrained in Mr. Webb (it would be nice if someone would plane it off him); Miss Peters fights against falling in love with an impecunious Italian interpreter, Mr. Brazzi; little Miss McNamara, looking like a miniature Beatrice Lillie, temporarily loses her rich Prince, played with great charm by Mr. Jourdan, by confessing she has tricked him and that she cannot play the piccolo. The trio of love stories with their joys, griefs and complications are happily woven into one another, sentiment, sophistication and humour taking their tint to entertain. In such surroundings, added to which is a visit to Venice, Jean Negulesco has done well to guide his tale, or rather John Stcondari's tale, with a feather-light hand, for the 'architectural glories spread across the CinemaScopic screen turn the affairs of men into an accompaniment rather than a theme, a background music of words to a Superb solo of stone. The girls and their suitors do not obtrude, for however dire their distress and however many times the former pack their bags, hurling their dresses unfolded into suitcases—film heroines are the only women in the world who pack like this—one knows that here is a fairy story. VIRGINIA GRAHAM
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