Customer Reviews

Rome Adventure

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I remember when this movie was released into the theaters that my sister and my mother really loved it. I was too young then, but even on the TV later, I loved it too. The scenery, of Rome all the way to the Italian Alps, and the score by Max Steiner--including the showcasing of the popular song "Al di la"--provide a breathtacking backdrop to the beautiful Troy Donahue and Suzanne Pleshette (it is said their romance that led to their short marriage began on the set) and the even more handsome and romantic Rossano Brazzi. The romance drops into soap opera melodrama, with Angie Dickinson as the evil other woman, but the comic elements are present, with Constance Ford and her St. Bernard a particular relief, as well as the voice of warning (read as foreshadowing). Troy Donahue, no surprise, comes off as stiff, but Suzanne Pleshette, in what is billed as her introduction to the movie screen, turns in a warm and engaging performance. For those of you who enjoy continuity errors, watch the candles in Troy's "symbol of his integrity" as they escape the fight at the bar and head home in the horse-drawn carriage.
If you ever get a chance to see this one, most likely on TV, give it a chance. No special effects, but the guys will like the fight and the girl with the knife.

This is the ultimate in love stories. I've also had this movie as a favorite since I was a teen and was so happy when it was released in DVD. The story is of an independent thinking librarian who "allows" a student to be exposed to a love story. With her job in jeopardy she leaves and goes off to Rome to seek happiness. While there she meets and falls in love with Troy Donahue. The scenery of Rome and Northern Italy is exquisite. She holds out for love and the story ends happily ever after. In these difficult times a fairy tale now and then is a great escape.

I'm writing these comments from a man's point of view. "Rome Adventure" is a movie that most guys today would consider a "chick flick." But let me tell you something: this is a "guy flick" too, even though you may not know it yet.

I'm a red-blooded male who enjoys blood-and-guts action flicks with the best of 'em. "Bombs, bullets, and babes," oh yeah... Yet I turned on the TV one night and this film was just starting, so I watched it. I was mesmerized until the end. The scenery is great, and although I'm not usually too fond of Max Steiner's musical scores, he outdid himself here with a lush hypnotic atmosphere. And oh, what I would give to have an experience like this! I mean, c'mon guys, wouldn't you love to have a thing going with a babe like Suzanne Pleshette, especially in such awesome settings? If not, you must be a total meathead.

To me, the only thing that is weak in this movie is the title, which they could have made a little more interesting. But still, it says it all, and I think that this has got to be one of the most romantic movies ever made. It's never syrupy or sappy. It was made before my time, but 1962 was a good year for it to be released. People did not yet dress like slobs every day. The old sexual stuffiness was loosening up, and the "anything goes" Sexual Revolution had not yet steamrolled everything. In my opinion, the power of life exists when real committed love and uninhibited sexual desire are united in balance. I felt that in this movie.

In this wonderfully dated film, Prudence Bell (Suzanne Pleshette) and Don Porter (Troy Donahue) are romantically involved young Americans in Rome. Prudence is a wisely named and intelligent young woman who in a way, presages the sexual revolution and women's movement that came later in the decade. She's a teacher who left her job after she was reprimanded for giving a student a romance novel. As a schoolteacher traveling alone to Rome, she's a far cry from the lonely spinster Katherine Hepburn played in Summertime (although Rossano Brazzi shows up again in this film) just seven years earlier. But Prudence is still holding out with Don until he commits himself to marrying her. Her opposite, Angie Dickinson, plays Lyda Kent, Don's ex-girlfriend who unlike Prudence, is sexually active and a rival for Don's affections. The adventure of Rome Adventure is really the adventure of young women and their sexuality. The film also is more of a travelogue about Rome and Italy than we would see in films today. These were the days before the advance of mass tourism and Americans didn't take trips to Europe for granted. The sights Prudence and Don see are astonishingly uncrowded by today's standards. Pleshette and Donahue are solidly unpretentious actors who were easy for their young audience to identify with.
A charming period piece of a film.

An excellent movie. I could watch it again and again and again. In fact I have. Beautiful music, especially the main title theme. Whilst Al Di La is lovely; and yes indeed extremely romantic, the main theme music is superb. Scenery is also superb. Suzanne Pleshette is staggeringly beautiful. How could you not want to take her on a holiday around Italy!! Troy Donoghue is a little 'limp' though I felt. But I'm not sure whom I might have replaced him with in 1962?! Certainly NOT an American, as she went to Italy, for 'THE EXPERIENCE', it should have been passed on by a local, maybe Louis Jourdan (but he's French); surely an Italian would be needed! But whom? Suggestions anyone? I disagree with the other review suggesting Cary Grant. Wonderful and all as her was, even then he would have been too old and the wrong cultural background. Rossanno Brazzi was very good in the movie; (but, like Grant), just a little too old for her to create a realistic love interest, especially for 1962. Angie Dickenson smouldered - boy did she smoulder. What wonderful casting to put her opposite the innocence of Pleshette (in her first starring role).

Please please please, where are all the Suzanne Pleshettes' today? Her smile, her eyes, her outfits, the dresses, the 'heels'. Here final outfit when she tries to seduce Rossanoo Brazzi - exquisite! Come on girls - get it together!!! A great shame that Suzanne did not appear in other movies of this ilk, instead of those lame duck movies with Dean Jones. Indeed Suzanne deserved much better in terms of leading roles. A very sad loss when she died in January 2008 from respitory problems. Possibly that awfully sexy voice of hers, was caused by other things!?

This is a mostly enjoyable movie, if a bit sappy and a bit long. Highlights of this movie are the scenery in Rome, Ostia Antica, Lake Maggiore, Verona, and other places in Italy. My favorite scene is of Troy and Suzanne in a Roman restaurant and Emilio Pericoli serendades them with his beautiful rendition of "Al di La"--great song. Rossano Brazzi is always great to watch, and Angie Dickinson looks as good as the Italian scenery.

Rome Adventure is a dated movie, but the scenes of Italy are fantastic and show it when it was less overrun with street vendors and tourists. This copy was brand new and was a great gift.

I feel Troy Donahue was one of the tradgedies of Holloywood.He burst on the secene in the late 50's when love/rommance motion pictures were rapidly giving way to action,adventure,obscentiy,nudity,violence and all the other vulgarities we see today.He displayed Charisma,warmth,and a real screen presense in the films he made.Rome adventure was the film in which His latent talent started to bloom.It was truly tragic He was never given more adult roles with greater physcological depth but was all too often cast as the teenage heart throb.By the mid 60's the type of films in which he was at his best were no longer in vouge and he was discarded.But for a brief period of 5 or 6 years he brought a sensitivity to romance that has not been seen since and rarely before.I look back nostalgically on those years when he was truly the prince of Hollywood.

I saw Rome Adventure when it first came out in the 60's and since have seen it about 28 times and never owned a copy of it. When I saw it was available on Amazon, I immediately bought the DVD so I can watch it 28 more times. It's such a great movie. The background music is lovely, the storyline is like a typical romance novel and the scenery is just terrific. It has a great cast and it's a feel good movie. If you liked the movies back in the 60's, you'll love Rome Adventure. Give it a try.

THIS FILM IS A PURE CLASSIC OF TWO BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE THAT INSPIRE A HEART FELT HUMAN LOVE FOR EACH OTHER THAT LEAVES YOU WITH A MEMORY THAT WILL LAST YOU A LIFE TIME. A MAGNIFICENT MOVIE TO WARM YOUR HEART. WE ALL WOULD HAVE LOVED TO HAVE BEEN THESE TWO LOVELY PEOPLE.