a charming film. like a fairy tale. in fact, it is a kind of fairy tale who reminds Disney flavor at different level. song, extraordinary locations, beautiful girls and boys, complicated stories and humor in precise doses.that seems be all. at first sigh. but it is impressive not for formula or for acting, for Rome or for coins in fountain. the special ingredient is the hope. the three young women are illustration for many girls who dreams the Charming Prince. the movie gives a realistic solution. and it is not only for isolated cases from society but for society itself. the delicacy and bitter spirit, the Romanticism and courageous decisions, the beginning and the end are not more different by many films of period. but the message is little more profound. like in a parable.

This is sort of like a poor man's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes or Funny Face. Jean Peters has to pretend that she's Audrey Hepburn. She isn't, which is not her fault.The photography of the rural scenery is beautiful, but other shots are not as good as in some contemporary European-set movies, like An American in Paris (most of which was filmed on the MGM lot), Funny Face (ditto), or The Sun Also Rises.The plot, as such, is not worth paying attention to. The real theme is that truly romantic love is to be found with European men, if you can distinguish the good ones from the cads.Dorothy McGuire may not be Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell, or Leslie Caron, but she's very good in this.Louis Jourdan is wasted on being a cad. He will be redeemed later in Gigi.And Clifton Webb is very good, and gets some very good lines.Not a great movie, but worth one viewing.

Dazzling cinematography and a wonderful story line made this 1954 blockbuster film the treasure that it is.The story of the loves of 3 secretaries in Rome is absolutely captivating.Headed by a fine cast, the film succeeds beyond expectations. The real-life tragic Maggie McNamara is engaging as an Audrey Hepburn look alike who finds romance with a young Louis Jourdan, who sheds his usual French accent in this film. McNamara tries to learn everything about the wealthy Jourdan character to snag him. However, her true love for him, makes her confess what she has done.The always reliable Dorothy McGuire and Clifton Webb again show their mettle. She has been working for him for 15 years in Rome, when she decides to go home and Webb, to keep her, proposes marriage. She happily accepts but when Webb learns that he has a terminal brain tumor, he tells her that he was too impulsive in proposing. Their resolution is most poignant in the film.Rossano Brazzi and Jean Peters play the third couple here. A misunderstanding and violation of company rules costs Brazzi his job, but love will conquer all.This picture is definitely for the romantic and young at heart. There had to be some controversy here when the title song of this film beat out The Man Who Got Away from Judy Garland's "A Star is Born." There should have been a tie in this category.

Feminists would tear it to shreds and the script's as light as a balloon but this lovely airy fairy-tale about three secretary-birds in romantic old Rome works like a dream - provided you don't dwell too much on certain aspects.. Foreign travel was not a commonplace for most punters back in 1954 so Fox's full-time commitment to CinemaScope opened up the world in more ways than one. With Sinatra on the soundtrack ushering in the Oscar-winning title-song over a scenic tour of the Eternal City the blend of ancient and modern was irresistible. Little Maria from the mid-West (Maggie McNamara) ushers in the story, arriving to work at a U.S. Government Agency. She's hardly got her coat off the first day before she's invited to a cocktail-party where she meets handsome Prince Dino (Louis Jourdan) and is determined to land him. ("Palazzo ? That's a palace, isn't it ?" Clever girl). Her strategy, encouraged by her flatmates, is to find out what his cultural tastes and interests are and then pretend, somewhat sketchily, to share them. This leads to some fatuous conversations which wouldn't fool a ten-year-old and are understandably short on screen. For a knowing Lothario (he'd already tried to lure her to Venice for the weekend) Dino seems remarkably gullible and gets terribly upset when she finally confesses the truth.Meanwhile,'Big Sister' Anita (Jean Peters),struggling with convention and the agency's strict no-fratting rule, gets close to Giorgio (Rossano Brazzi, lower lip a-quiver) following a not-too-well-done incident with a runaway car. He's a humble interpreter from the wrong side of town who wants to be a lawyer but has to support Mamma and his twenty-five brothers and sisters. When their liaison is discovered by the boss's wife, who seems to be everywhere, Giorgio gets the sack and Anita, feeling responsible, is all set to share his bleak future. It's left to Clifton Webb to play fairy-godfather as the expatriate novelist Shadwell (the man who wrote Winter Harvest, we're told, but we're not told what it's about), smoothly tossing-off a new masterpiece between epigrams and suddenly proposing marriage to Miss Frances (Dorothy McGuire), his loyal secretary for the last fifteen years (remember that) whom the film has been regarding as practically on the edge of the grave because she's 35 and hasn't got a man. (Shadwell's housekeeper kindly offers her a kitten for companionship). But when Shadwell's told he has a brain tumour he reneges on the offer as a moment of madness and won't tell her the real reason. Even after she finds out he won't shift ground so, dejected, she gets drunk and goes wading (not in the Fountain, it's not LA DOLCE VITA). Shadwell takes her home for a dry-out and a heart-to-heart which puts them back on track. Webb and McGuire handle these scenes touchingly, with grace and humour. He thereupon sorts out the younger set's problems with some influential words in the right places and all six reunite at Rome's new tourist attraction to a choral reprise of the theme-song.No one ever mentions that minor historical disturbance known as World War 11 in which the Eternal City was somewhat heavily involved. This would not be so surprising were it not for the oldsters' pointed references to "fifteen years of contentment" which would have dated from about 1938. As American residents how would they have lived, what were they up to all those years ? Speech-writing for the Fascisti, possibly ? No, I don't think so either. Rather an extreme if not wilfully perverse case of diplomatic forgetfulness in face of a new world-situation, a thriving overseas market and the no doubt enthusiastic goodwill and co-operation of an indigenous people who used to be on the wrong side. History here is reflected not in bomb-sites but in museums basking sedately, like the characters, in perpetual brochure-sunshine.