''Terminal Station'' (, released in the United States as ''Indiscretion of an American Wife'') is a 1953
romantic drama
Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...
film directed and produced by
Vittorio De Sica
Vittorio De Sica ( , ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement.
Widely considered one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, four of the fil ...
and starring
Jennifer Jones
Jennifer Jones (born Phylis Lee Isley; March 2, 1919 – December 17, 2009), also known as Jennifer Jones Simon, was an American actress and mental-health advocate. Over the course of her career that spanned more than five decades, she was nomin ...
,
Montgomery Clift
Edward Montgomery Clift (October 17, 1920 – July 23, 1966) was an American actor. A four-time Academy Award nominee, he was known for his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men", according to ''The New York Times''.
He is best remembered f ...
, and
Richard Beymer (credited as "Dick Beymer") in his debut role. It tells the story of the love affair between a married American woman and an Italian intellectual. The title refers to the
Roma Termini railway station
Roma Termini (in Italian, ''Stazione Termini'') is the main railway station of Rome, Italy. It is named after the district of the same name, which in turn took its name from ancient Baths of Diocletian (in Latin, ''thermae''), which li ...
in
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
, where the film takes place. The film was entered into the
1953 Cannes Film Festival.
''Terminal Station'' was the first Hollywood film of Italian director De Sica, as an international co-production with American mogul
David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick (born David Selznick; May 10, 1902June 22, 1965) was an American film producer, screenwriter and film studio executive who produced ''Gone with the Wind (film), Gone with the Wind'' (1939) and ''Rebecca (1940 film), Rebecca'' (1 ...
. The collaboration was fraught with constant and severe creative differences between them that resulted in two different versions of the same film, an 89 minute Italian version and a 72 minute American recut under the alternate title ''Indiscretion of an American Wife''. The experience was such that De Sica never worked with a Hollywood producer again, though he would make future English-language films with American actors.
Plot
While visiting her sister in
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
, Mary Forbes, an American housewife, has a month-long affair with Giovanni Doria, an Italian academic.
Cast
Production
The film is based on the story ''Stazione Termini'' by
Cesare Zavattini
Cesare Zavattini (20 September 1902 – 13 October 1989) was an Italian screenwriter and one of the first theorists and proponents of the Neorealist movement in Italian cinema.
Biography
Born in Luzzara near Reggio Emilia in northern Italy, o ...
.
Truman Capote
Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics ...
was credited with writing the entire screenplay, but later claimed to have written only two scenes.
Patricia Bosworth
Patricia Bosworth (née Crum, April 24, 1933 – April 2, 2020) was an American journalist, biographer, memoirist, and actress. She was a faculty member of Columbia University’s school of journalism as well as Barnard College, and was a winne ...
, ''Montgomery Clift'', p. 244 The film was an
international co-production
A co-production is a joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint vent ...
between De Sica's own company and the
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood ...
producer
David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick (born David Selznick; May 10, 1902June 22, 1965) was an American film producer, screenwriter and film studio executive who produced ''Gone with the Wind (film), Gone with the Wind'' (1939) and ''Rebecca (1940 film), Rebecca'' (1 ...
, who commissioned it as a vehicle for his wife,
Jennifer Jones
Jennifer Jones (born Phylis Lee Isley; March 2, 1919 – December 17, 2009), also known as Jennifer Jones Simon, was an American actress and mental-health advocate. Over the course of her career that spanned more than five decades, she was nomin ...
. The production of the film was troubled from the very beginning.
Carson McCullers
Carson McCullers (February 19, 1917 – September 29, 1967) was an American novelist, short-story writer, playwright, essayist, and poet. Her first novel, ''The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter'' (1940), explores the spiritual isolation of misfits ...
was originally chosen to write the screenplay, but Selznick fired her and replaced her with a series of writers, including
Paul Gallico
Paul William Gallico (July 26, 1897 – July 15, 1976) was an American novelist and short story and sports writer.Ivins, Molly,, ''The New York Times'', July 17, 1976. Retrieved Oct. 25, 2020. Many of his works were adapted for motion pictures. ...
,
Alberto Moravia
Alberto Pincherle (; 28 November 1907 – 26 September 1990), known by his pseudonym Alberto Moravia ( , ), was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation and existentialism. Moravia i ...
and Capote.
Disagreements ensued between De Sica and Selznick, and during production, Selznick would write 40- and 50-page letters to his director every day, although De Sica knew no English. After agreeing to everything, De Sica has said, he simply did things his way.
Montgomery Clift
Edward Montgomery Clift (October 17, 1920 – July 23, 1966) was an American actor. A four-time Academy Award nominee, he was known for his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men", according to ''The New York Times''.
He is best remembered f ...
sided with De Sica in his disputes with Selznick, claiming that Selznick wanted the movie to look like a slick little love story, while De Sica wanted to depict a ruined romance. "Love relationships are ludicrous, painful, and gigantically disappointing. This couple loves each other but they become unconnected."
During filming, Jones was distracted and saddened by the recent death of her former husband, actor
Robert Walker, and badly missed her two sons, who were at school in Switzerland.
[P. Bosworth, ''Montgomery Clift'', p. 246] She had been married to Selznick less than two years at that point, and they were having difficulties in the marriage.
The original 1953 Italian release of the film ran 89 minutes, but it was later re-edited by Selznick down to 64 minutes. This was too short to qualify it as a feature film, so Selznick hired singer
Patti Page
Clara Ann Fowler (November 8, 1927 – January 1, 2013), better known by her stage name Patti Page, was an American singer. Primarily known for Pop music, pop and Country music, country music, she was the top-charting female vocalist and b ...
, and filmed her singing two Italian-themed songs on a soundstage with
James Wong Howe
Wong Tung Jim, A.S.C. (; August 28, 1899 – July 12, 1976), known professionally as James Wong Howe (Houghto), was a Chinese-born American cinematographer who worked on over 130 films. During the 1930s and 1940s, he was one of the most so ...
and attached this unrelated "overture" footage to the beginning of the film, before the credits, giving it a technical running time of 72 minutes. He also added additional close-ups and insert shots of Jones and Clift, directed by
Oswald Morris. Selznick released this version in the United States as ''Indiscretion of an American Wife'' (and as ''Indiscretion'' in the
UK).
Reception
Clift declared that he hated the picture and denounced it as "a big fat failure."
Critics of the day agreed, giving it universally bad reviews.
The Buffalo Evening News reviewer thought the production “beautifully photographed and technically tip top,” but was less happy with the plot and its unfolding: “Mr. Clift….shows distinct signs, unintentional of course, of wishing the train for Milan and Paris would pull out with Jennifer Jones and release him from the picture. There is much interest…in perusing the station populace….but a station is a poor field d’amour, as many a sailor knows….There is irony in the ogling they receive under arrest but the obvious lady’s obvious innocence allows no great tension as to the outcome. One is really more worried about the fate of Miss Jones’ fur coat, entrusted to a porter.”
[Smith, Ardis. “Rome Rail Terminal is Interest Center in Lafayette Film.” Buffalo Evening News, 17 June 1954.] The two versions have been released together on DVD by
The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of art film, arth ...
. A 1998 remake of the film was made for television under the title ''Indiscretion of an American Wife''.
Accolades
* Nomination for the
Grand Prix of
1953 International Film Festival in Cannes (
Vittorio De Sica
Vittorio De Sica ( , ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement.
Widely considered one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, four of the fil ...
).
* Nomination for the
1955 Academy Award for
Best Costume Design in black and white (
Christian Dior
Christian Ernest Dior (; 21 January 1905 – 24 October 1957) was a French fashion designer and founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, Dior, Christian Dior SE. His fashion house is known all around the world, having gained promi ...
).
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
*
*
''Indiscretion of an American Wife & Terminal Station''an essay by
David Kehr at the
Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of arthouse film distributo ...
{{Authority control
1953 films
1953 romantic drama films
American romantic drama films
American black-and-white films
Italian romantic drama films
Italian black-and-white films
English-language Italian films
1950s Italian-language films
Rail transport films
Films set in Rome
Films shot in Rome
Films directed by Vittorio De Sica
Films with screenplays by Truman Capote
Films based on works by Cesare Zavattini
Selznick International Pictures films
Columbia Pictures films
Films scored by Alessandro Cicognini
1950s American films
1950s Italian films