The film is beautifully acted and the casting is spot-on. Vivien Leigh is perfect in this role, neither sickly sweet or icy cold. Beatty is great to look at and plays the gigolo without any histrionics. The Contessa is great and earned a well deserved Oscar nomination. The story is relevant even today (although unfortunately nowadays these things happen with far less elegance and finesse. What holds it back from a higher rating is that the character development between Mrs. Stone and Paolo should have gotten more focus and development. No real explanation is given for how the relationship developed as quickly and strongly as it did. Of course that aspect plays into the cool nature of the film in general which many might find correct for this material but I would have liked a bit more development between the 2 principles. Perhaps neither was able to express much in the way of "emotion" and that is surely part of the point, and the finale when Mrs. Stone throws the keys to the gigolo on the street because, realizing that love is elusive, physical needs can still be met and that provides a great ending to the film, very unsentimental and leaves one with a shiver.I enjoyed the film and recommend it but don't expect anything warm and fuzzy here because that is not in the cards, folks.

This is a sad film about a beautiful woman who believes only youth matters. She equates aging with a fading ability to be loved. Perhaps this really is how aging actresses feel. After all, sadly, many only get parts based on their beauty and youth more than talent. Once they get older they feel useless and unloved. She has wealth and fame even a still impressive beauty, still that is not enough. She is vain, she must have youth too. Perhaps she also feels her youth was wasted on a much older husband. She looks for youth/love in the wrong places now. Places she knows are wrong. She lets obviously seedy characters take advantage of her, not because she was naive, it was because she didn't care. She's experienced enough to have known better in fact she did know better so did her friends. It's hard to sympathize with Mrs. Stone in this movie. We still do. All the warning signs are there for her, still she insists on driving off that cliff ahead eyes wide open to it. That said Vivian Leigh is wonderful in this role and makes the film well worth seeing. Her talents make her character Mrs. Stone and the film believable. I've read that some feel Warren Beatty was miscast in his part. Personally I thought he did fine for this early point in his career. No he was not on a par with Ms. Leigh's talent, still he pulled off the character well. The directing, the photography and secondary characters are all excellent. The feeling of sadness and impending tragedy hangs over the film like a fog. It's personified by Mrs. Stones stalker. The ending is left open for interpretation. Some people might find the final scene annoying, I found the ending appropriate. I won't go into that here. I'll save it for the discussion board to avoid spoilers. I'll just say...the ending was chilling !

Really enjoyed the film but was distracted every time Mr Beatty was on screen. I suppose he was hitting his stride in 1961 so 'they' had to use him in this film. I don't understand why some luscious Italian couldn't have been used instead. This reminds me of Meryl Streep's casting in The Bridges of Madison County. Awful. Use originals, not poor copies.Vivien Leigh was superb in the film.....so I suppose I am contradicting myself as she played an American! Her pathos was on display completely. Lotte Lenya was wonderful as the Contessa. She devoured her scenes with aplomb. It's interesting to watch movies where some of the actors are seamless and others try really hard. You notice the difference. Warren Beatty was clearly out of his league.

Vivien Leigh is an aging beauty living in Italy in "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone," based on a novel by Tennessee Williams. Director Jose Quintero took on the job of directing and he does a fine job with quite a cast, which includes Warren Beatty, Lotte Lenya, Coral Browne, Jill St. John, and Cleo Laine.Leigh plays Karen Stone, an actress pushing 50 who travels to Rome with her elderly husband. Her husband has a fatal heart attack on the plane, and Karen doesn't return to the states. Instead, she stays in Rome and leases a gorgeous apartment. She is visited by Contessa Magda Terribili-Gonzales (Lotte Lenya) who, for a cut, pimps out gigolos to older women. Karen is hooked up with Paolo (Warren Beatty) and soon finds herself falling for him.Vivien Leigh looks beautiful, but haunted, and she's perfect for this role, which dovetails her own life, as she Olivier told the manic-depressive actress that he was going to marry Joan Plowright around the time of the filming.Warren Beatty doesn't have much of an Italian accent or, in my own opinion, much presence. He looks good, which is most important.A very good, haunting movie.