La fuente del deseo

It's been plagiarised and remade so many times that it seems very ho-hum these days, but even when I first saw it, aged about 14, I wondered why the gorgeous Dorothy McGuire was considered to be old, and why she felt so strongly for the Clifton Webb character, who clearly (to me) was not romantically interested in women. It's a shame that so little is seen of Anita (Jean Peters, one of those tragically under-used actresses), who is a much more interesting character than the breathtakingly dull Maria (Maggie MacNamara). Maria comes to Rome from the mid West and leaves after a month because she's unsuccessful in hooking a prince. Sad! In fact none of the romantic story lines are credible. It's interesting how little cutting there is in the dramatic scenes - due to the anamorphic lenses, and the heftiness of the cameras, I suppose. It's interesting to contrast with 'North West Passage', released 5 years later. In that exciting movie Geoffrey Unsworth makes great use of the CinemaScope camera.