Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 138: Another Trip to Tennessee

So far on the 1950s leg of the Oscar Challenge we've had two Tennesse Williams adaptations Cat on a Hot Tin Roof which saw Oscar nominations for Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman and A Streetcar Named Desire which had three acting wins and a fourth nomination. Next up another film adapted from a Williams play and once again it wins one of its actors an Oscar, in this case Anna Magnani who scooped the Lead Actress prize for her role as the fiery Serafina. The film sees Serafina's life crumble after her husband dies she becomes a recluse and then finds out that he was both a smuggler and was having an affair. At the same time she has to deal with the fact that her daughter is growing up and has started a relationship with a likeable sailor chap. After Serafina has a mini-breakdown and a confronation with the local priest she ends up meeting Burt Lancaster's trucker Alvaro who is looking for a place to stay. The second half of the film looks at the unconventional friendship between Serafina and Alvaro and whether their flirtation would turn into something more. The finale of the film sees Alvaro accidentally end up in bed with Serafina's daughter and then after he disgraces her by shouting up on top of a telephone pole she welcomes into the house as the film ends.

Like with all adaptations of Williams' plays the film suffers from a very stagy atmosphere. True out of the three I've seen The Rose Tattoo probably has more scenes that are outside of the home including an odd scene with Serafina's daughter Rosa and her boyfriend Jack having a brief conversation by the sea which seems very out of place and slows down the action somewhat. However the best thing about The Rose Tattoo is Mangini's performance, if ever anyone wanted to see the literal meaning of screen presence then they should watch her turn as Serafina. From beginning to end she owns every scene she appears in tearing up her house, madly walking through the town or simply in a state of shock she is brilliant at everything she does in this film. On the basis of this she more than deserved her Oscar for Best Actress beating more familiar names such as Katharine Hepburn and Susan Hayward. Marisa Pavan is also fairly impressive as Rosa who has a romantic subplot and is able to hold her own in her scenes with Mangini however I was quite disappointed by Lancaster's fairly broad trucker. Overall The Rose Tattoo is another Williams adaptation which relies on its performers to carry the film as it is pretty static filmic wise however for me with the exception of Magnini's tour-de-force Serafina there isn't much to latch onto here and there is a definite reason why this hasn't stood the test of time in the same way that Streetcar or Tin Roof has.