The Rose Tattoo

The Rose Tattoo is a solid film with terrific performances by 3 Oscar winners: Anna Magnani, Burt Lancaster, and Jo Van Fleet. Magnani landed the film version after Maureen Stapleton had originated the part on Broadway, and she is terrific as the smouldering Italian woman whose husband is killed when he is caught smuggling. The Tennessee Williams play touches on the usual ingredients of sexual repression and denial and hypocrisy. After years of mourning the dead husband (the Baron), Magnani finally gives in to sexual urges (with Lancaster) only after the swarm of village women (a pack of Italian harpy hags that acts as a Greek Chorus) convince her that the husband had been unfaithful. The subplot involves the purity of the daughter who is dating an equally pure sailor (Marisa Pavan and Ben Cooper). The subplot is boring. Lancaster is good as the simpleton truck driver who serves as the double for the dead husband, right down to the rose tattoo on his chest. Another rose tattoo shows up on the chest of the husband's floozie girl friend (nicely played by Virginia Grey), which serves as the "proof" Magnani needs to finally believe her husband's cheating. Lots of symbolism and circular plots, but the bottom line is the excellence of the acting. Magnani won a well-deserved Oscar for this film. Her scenes with Lancaster are electric. And Van Fleet is super as the shrieking customer (Magnani is a seamstress); it's no coincidence that Van Fleet won the supporting actress Oscar that year for East of Eden, since her performance in The Rose Tattoo is a world apart from that film. And yes Tennessee Williams can be glimpsed as a barfly at the Mardi Gras Club.

I had been a fan of Anna Magnani's films long before first viewing "The Rose Tattoo". Always intrigued by this great actor, my expectations for this film were easily met.

Magnani, a middle aged widow without means meets goodhearted Burt Lancaster, but feels she is betraying the memory of her late husband, whom she seems to worship even beyond his grave. Later the story reveals that this "gem" of a husband had been completely unfaithful and was not much to brag about.

Adapted from the Tennessee Williams play, this material transfers nicely to the screen. If you are a fan of the two incredible leads, you will enjoy this movie! The absolute best Anna Magnani film in my opinion is "Bellissima", unfortunately not currently available in the USA.

A great argument can be made that 'The Rose Tattoo' is a classic. It's a wonderful adaptation of a play by one of the most celebrated of modern playwrights, Tennessee Williams. It contains the performance of a lifetime by Anna Magnani, who won an Academy Award for it. The supporting cast also give excellent performances. It even has a fine score written by noted composer Alex North.

Magnani grabs hold of the role of Serafina Delle Rose and wrings everything she can out of it. She plays a lonely widow who is clinging to the idealized memory of her husband. She has little use for men (and not much more for women) until Burt Lancaster, playing an earthy truck driver, comes along and brings her back to life. Their courtship is swift and tempestuous.

Director Daniel Mann does a good job of making a movie out of what was once a play; only a few times do things get so wordy that you are reminded of the work's origin. Lancaster is fine in his role, but his character might be just a bit too broadly drawn. I was impressed with actress Marisa Pavan as Serafina's daughter, though she looks closer to 25 than the age of 15 the script says she is, not a unique occurrence in films. Her story also seems a little truncated compared to her mother's.

Tennessee Williams was a good friend of Anna Magnani, the great Italian screen star. It was with her in mind he wrote "The Rose Tattoo", but she never played it in the theater because she didn't feel too comfortable, at the time, in doing the play in English.

Anna Magnani was born to play Serafina; she smolders the screen every time we see her. She is the sole reason for watching the film. Daniel Mann miscalculated in the adaptation, by Hal Kanter, of the play he had directed on Broadway, and it shows. The basic failure is that he made the character of Alvaro Mangiacavallo into a buffoon. Burt Lancaster seems to have been directed to go for laughs rather than being the sensual man he is in the play. He must awaken Serafina from the self imposed mourning she is experiencing at the time they meet.

"The Rose Tattoo" has a Greek tragedy feeling. Watch Serafina at the beginning of the film shopping at the grocery store among the neighborhood women. Later, the same thing happens. At the most dramatic moments, the chorus comes to surround Serafina; it's a ploy to make her react to them and vent her anger at the ignorant women who are her neighbors and clients, but not her real friends.

Serafina is a dignified woman who is still living back in Sicily, even though she is now in New Orleans. Her daughter rebels against her mother, who can't understand the American ways. When her husband Rosario dies, her whole world falls apart. Rosario has been the only man in her life and she wants to stay at home and not face reality, until the appearance of Alvaro, who manages to win her over with his simple ways.

Anna Magnani gives a performance that is larger than life.

Remarkable and intelligent weeper account about a widow , her daughter and their suitors , being well directed and wonderfully performed . An Italian-American neighborhood in Louisiana is disturbed when trucker Rosario Delle Rose is killed when pursued by police his truck is crashed out . His mature widow miscarries , then over a period of long time draws more and more into herself , attempting to force her lovely teenaged daughter Rosa Delle Rose (Marisa Pavan, Pier Angeli's sister) to do likewise . On one eventful day , Rose finally breaks away along with his fiancé , handsome Seaman Jack Hunter (Ben Cooper) ; things go wrong when Serafina learns of deceased husband's affair with another woman (Virginia Grey) . Along the way , there appears a sympathetic seducer , the italian truck driver Alvaro Mangiacavallo (Burt Lancaster) . While romancing the widow , Alvaro learns the principal problem results in convincing her that their relationship will make all their lives better . While the other young couple have an unexpectedly tender romance , as the boyfriend attempts to persuade her that all will be better if they marry . Her blood boiled with desire...raged with jealous fury!.Seething with realism and frankness!. The boldest story of love you have ever been permitted to see!.

This is a plain and simple film with plenty of interesting drama , soap opera , emotion and two enjoyable romances . Filmmaker Daniel Mann has got a considerable success in delineating their troublesome roles in this fabricated soaper . Various character-studios furnish the basis for this agreeable drama and it results to be a superb piece of acting . It is a mostly staged drama in which the two main actors spend the majority of the movie attempting to persuade themselves . Nice screenplay by Hal Kanter and Tennessee Williams based on his own play dealing with sensitive themes such as the disintegration of a family , an enticing love story , rebellious adolescent and including engaging dialogs . Excellent interpretation by protagonist duo , Anna Magnani as Serafina Delle Rose playing magnificently the mature but attractive truck driver's widow , though she was 46 years old during filming and she previously achieved a big hit : Rome , city open . The picture also established Magnani's claim as a player of a great worth and paved the way for her Academy Award-winning success . While Burt Lancaster plays the new carefree, good-looking Italian truck driver who enters her life , as wooing a widow that leads to unexpected consequences and while delivering an awesome performance , though overacting , at times . This is a Daniel Mann film shot in his peculiar style , in fact he established himself as a first-rate actors' director while on Broadway. Under his direction Sidney Blackmer and Shirley Booth won Tony Awards for "Come Back, Little Sheba", which also became Mann's film directorial debut in 1952 with Burt Lancaster in support of Booth on the screen. Mann would direct her again in the less successful Hot Spell (1958) at the end of the decade. Booth won an Oscar for her work, as did Anna Magnani Rose Tatto (1955), which Mann also directed on Broadway with Maureen Stapleton in the part of the lonely Italian-American widow Serafina Delle Rose, which Tennessee Williams originally wrote with Magnani in mind . Anna Magnani beat out 'Susann Hayward in I'll cry tomorrow (1955) for the Oscar, another performance directed by Mann. The top-drawer main cast Anna Magnani and Burt lancaster are well supported by a very good support cast as Marisa Pavan , Ben Cooper , Virginia Grey and veteran Jo Van Fleet.

It displays a brilliant cinematography in black and white by James Wong Howe. As welll as an evocative musical score by Alex North. The motion picture was well directed by Daniel Mann . Mann was one of the top movie directors of the 1950s, helming a lot of successes as I'll cry tomorrow (1955), The teahouse of the moon of august (1956), The Last Angry Man (1959) and Butterfield 8 (1960), which brought Elizabeth Taylor her first Oscar. However, his film career began to decline in the 1960s. In the first half of the decade he still was given A-list pictures with top female stars like Anna Magnani, Rosalind Russell and Sophia Loren, but he also directed Dean Martin comedies and the spy movie spoof Flint (1966). His reputation waned and he played out his string in the 1970s and 1980s, directing TV movies and an embarrassingly bad feature about a boxing kangaroo, Super Rocky (1978) and another failed film, a Western titled Revengers , it was a real flop , because Mann being Drama expert , no Westerns . Rating : 7.5/10 . Above average.