Review of Three Coins in the Fountain (1954) by Ben L — 18 Sep 2016

Three bad actresses meet in Italy and set the women's rights movement back a century as they desperately search for a husband so that they can feel they have worth. Yes, I realize this film is a product of its time, and the 1950s wasn't the most progressive time in our history, but I was just stunned with how backwards the thinking was in this movie.

Woman #1 has abandoned hopes of finding a husband in Italy, so she plans on moving back to the US to increase her odds of catching one. Woman #2 engages in an extremely elaborate string of lies and tricks in order to manipulate a man into marrying her.

And finally, woman #3 convinces her boss (who is clearly gay) to propose to her even though he may die soon and he only proposes to keep her from leaving. So we start with weak characters doing stupid things for pathetic reasons.

That would be bad enough but then there's the presentation. The director of this movie clearly had about as much interest in the story as I did, because Three Coins in the Fountain plays more like an elaborate video travelogue.

There are literally 5-10 minute montages of images depicting the sites in Rome placed throughout the film. Every time someone steps outside they start up another slideshow of "Places to see in Rome.

" Hey, and as long as I'm complaining, I might as well mention that the title is even false because only 2 of the women actually drop a coin in the fountain. I swear the best part of this movie was just hearing Sinatra perform the theme song.

This was nominated for Best Picture?? Ugh!