THE ROSE TATTOO: Blu-ray re-issue (Paramount, 1955) Kino Lorber

Burt Lancaster and Anna Magnani come a cropper in director, Daniel Mann’s The Rose Tattoo (1955) another blistering descent into Tennessee Williams’ dystopian Southern Gothic sincerely flawed humanity. No bones about it. Williams’ darkly ritualized portraits of moral decay remain riveting fodder for the stage and screen. Alas, still trying to assess the executive logic over at Paramount, photographing the picture in B&W VistaVision – the studio’s patented motion picture hi-fidelity widescreen format, as much of the mise en scene in The Rose Tattoo takes place within the cramped and sweaty little Southern Florida hovel of seamstress, Serafina Delle Rose (Magnani). With few exceptions to ‘open up’ Williams’ original stagecraft, all the pivotal drama takes place in two rooms.  And while Magnani manages to navigate these claustrophobic interiors with a genuine voracity for the expressively ravaged Serafina, the picture’s Achilles heel is Burt Lancaster’s off-kilter caricature of earthy Italian truck driver, Alvaro Mangiacavallo. Lancaster has taken his cue from the Chico Marx school of Little Italy stereotypes, mercilessly to foot-stomp and pummel every loaded line of Williams’ dialogue into a rare, but truly rancid pesto. It takes almost an hour before Lancaster’s character intrudes on the tormented Serafina’s good will. But when Lancaster’s Alvaro appears, he reveals what a cheap little imitation it is, butted against Magnani’s real thing. 

It likely helps, Magnani's parentage and birthplace remained shrouded in mystery. Some sources place her in Rome. But director, Franco Zeffirelli claims Magnani was born to an Italian-Jewish mother and Egyptian father in Alexandria, Egypt. Magnani acknowledged her parents’ marriage in Egypt, but held fast to Porta Pia as her birthplace. Whatever the truth, Magnani learned Catholic contrition and piano at a French convent school in Rome. And while Magnani’s grandparents lavished her with praise and gifts, she preferred to ally with the tough kids on the block, later adding, “I hate respectability. Give me the life of the streets, of common people.”  To pay for her furthering education at Eleonora Duse Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Magnani hit the nightclub and cabaret circuit, earning the moniker, ‘the Italian Édith Piaf’. Though she was never to formally study, her instinctiveness ingratiated her to audiences almost by chance. Discovered by Goffredo Alessandrini (later, her husband), Magnani played for some of Italy’s most noteworthy directors, Nunzio Malasomma, Vittorio De Sica, Roberto Rossellini and Luchino Visconti.

The Rose Tattoo is Magnani’s American debut. Yet, despite winning high praise from critics, and a Best Actress Academy Award, the picture was not a lucrative gateway to bigger and better things in America. After only two more efforts in Hollywood, 1960’s The Fugitive Kind, and 1969’s The Secret of Santa Vittoria, Magnani retired from acting and returned to Italy, appearing only once more before the cameras, this time for Federico Fellini in Roma (1972). The true majesty in Magnani’s acting is intangibly indefinable. She is an entity of life itself, expressing, with considerable ease and devout faith, some deeply tortured wellspring of her own transgressive and raw sexuality, panged bitterness at humanity, and, desperation to escape the chronic pain of existing. When she smiles, it is with the radiant joy of a thousand suns. And when she weeps, it truly is monsoon season on the screen. Never is there a moment in which these titular highs or staggering lows devolves into even a flicker of affectation. She simply ‘is’ in and of the moment, in tandem, earth-shatteringly vivacious and tragic. It hurts to watch her. It is a pleasure to watch her. It is a distinct and sublime joy to experience such a spellbinding presence on the screen, strangely and only indirectly, to draw attention to herself. As such, we feel for her alter ego almost as an afterthought, forgetting they are extensions of Magnani – the woman.

Indeed, Tennessee Williams was over-the-moon to have Magnani as his star, stating publicly that she “…was magnificent as Serafina…as unconventional a woman as I have known in or out of my professional world, and if you understand me at all, you must know that in this statement I am making my personal estimate of her honesty, which I feel was complete. She never exhibited any lack of self-assurance, any timidity in her relations with that society outside of whose conventions she quite publicly existed...she looked absolutely straight into the eyes of whomever she confronted and during that golden time in which we were dear friends, I never heard a false word from her mouth.”

Once having seen Magnani in the screen’s Rose Tattoo it is difficult, if not entirely impossible, to imagine Maureen Stapleton as Serafina on Broadway – the role she originated as Magnani's English was deemed too rough around the edges at the time Williams launched his stagecraft. And while Magnani towers in the film version, there are at least two other performances in the picture worth noting. The first belongs to Marisa Pavan as Rosa Delle Rose, Serafina’s daughter, struggling to be free of her father’s reputation and her mother’s bitterly ruptured piety and passion. The twin sister of Pier Angeli, Pavan – 90-yrs. young and still very much with us - entered into a Paramount contract without any formal training. Although her American debut preceded Magnani’s by nearly 3 years, Pavan’s success in The Rose Tattoo likewise earned her an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress. She lost to Jo Van Fleet in East of Eden, but was similarly nominated and won the Golden Globe. And finally, there is Hartford-born, Ben Cooper as Rosa’s shy and empathetic love interest, Seaman Jack Hunter. A fresh-faced 22 at the time, Cooper’s efficiently dispatched wholesomeness in The Rose Tattoo serves as a romantic bridge by which the violated and now violently mistrusting Serafina is reminded, not all who appear to genuinely love are merely out for all they can get. Largely relegated to supporting roles in westerns thereafter, Cooper’s performance in The Rose Tattoo is unpretentious and wholehearted, especially when he acquiesces to Serafina’s demands to humble himself before the Holy Mother and confide his lack of amorous experience to her.

We are introduced to Serafina Delle Rose, a Sicilian seamstress, living in a sweaty hovel near the Gulf of Mexico. Pregnant with their second child and furiously devoted to her truck-driving husband, Rosario (Larry Chance), Serafina is too blind to see Estelle Hohengarten (Virginia Grey) as Rosario’s lover.  Estelle asks Serafina to make a silk rose-colored shirt for her guy while she runs off to get a rose tattoo on her chest to match Rosario’s. Despite Serafina’s quiet protestations he should remain home this evening, Rosario departs and is killed when his truck overturns and bursts into flames while attempting to elude police on a smuggler’s run. When Father De Leo (Sandro Giglio) and a contingent of the local women arrive to break the news, Serafina collapses and miscarries. Fast track, three years later, and the once vibrant Serafina has become a veritable recluse in her home, much to her daughter, Rosa’s embarrassment. While Father De Leo and Rosa’s school teacher (Dorrit Kelton) desperately try to get Serafina to come out of her shell, a local woman, Bessie (Jo Van Fleet) exposes Rosario's infidelity for all to hear. Shamed, Serafina confronts Father De Leo who refuses to corroborate or deny the claim. In the meantime, Rosa becomes enamored with shy seaman, Jack Hunter who, under Serafina’s rigid interrogation, confesses he is still a virgin. Serafina forces Jack to vow this before a statue of the Virgin Mary, and further, to respect Rosa's innocence from now on.

At a local fete, Alvaro takes pity on Serafina’s enduring grief, driving her home in his banana truck. To compensate his time, Serafina offers to sew his torn shirt. Serafina also loans Alvaro the rose silk shirt. The two agree to a cordial dĂ©tente later in the afternoon. Unaware of its significance, Alvaro returns, having impulsively tattooed a rose on his chest.  Disgusted, and believing this to be a blatant insult, Serafina attempts to throw Alvaro out of her home, but then, demands he drive her to the seedy nightclub where Rosario and Estelle first met and became lovers. Estelle reveals her own tattoo to Serafina. The two women fight, but are pried loose from one another by Alvaro, who takes Serafina home. Realizes her whole life’s deification of Rosario to be a tragic lie Serafina destroys the urn containing his ashes. She also invites Alvaro to visit her again. This time, he arrives severely intoxicated. Humiliated, Serafina leaves Alvaro to sleep off his drunken stupor on her sofa.

Returning home in the middle of the night, Rosa is surprised by this stranger sleeping on the sofa and Alvaro, still drunk, mistakes Rosa for Serafina, attempting to kiss her. An outraged Serafina drives Alvaro from the house. But the following morning, she is surprised to discover Alvaro seated atop of a boat mast outside her home, playfully begging for forgiveness. Serafina and Rosa are embarrassed by this public display. Jack returns, sincerely to ask for Rosa’s hand in marriage. It is willingly given and the young couple rush off together to begin their lives anew. Reconciling her own heart, Serafina calls Alvaro down from his perch, putting the morbid curiosity of her neighbors to shame by suggesting to Alvaro they ‘pick up’ where they left off the night before. As Serafina and Alvaro enter the house, the player piano strikes up a lively tune, eclipsed by their laughter.

Despite its illustrious pedigree and Magnani’s luminous central performance, The Rose Tattoo is a wet noodle on the screen. VistaVision does not enhance this presentation and neither does Daniel Mann’s thoroughly static direction – too cleverly devoted to the proscenium of Tennessee Williams’ original stagecraft. While there are some interesting and occasionally vibrant vignettes scattered throughout the picture, these never entirely gel into one cohesive and narratively satisfying bit of passionately wrought conjecture and contemplation. Rather than building on Magnani’s groundswell, the story just seems to run on – and on – with intermittent splashes of brilliance arriving well ahead of the thoroughly predictable dĂ©nouement. After the initial setup, Mann just settles into the play without any pictorial embellishment to move the plot along. The best moments revolve around the tug-o-war between Serafina, Rosa and Jack’s burgeoning acceptance by Serafina as the man who will take over from her. But again, it’s not enough to make The Rose Tattoo anything better than a diverting and occasionally dull and stilted exercise in finding love and understanding where only moments before each appeared to be in very short supply.

The Rose Tattoo gets reissued to Blu via Kino Lorber, cribbing from the identical transfer Paramount peddled to Aussie indie label, ViaVision’s Imprint two years ago. Nothing to see here, folks. The 1080p transfer is better than expected, but not nearly as good as it might have been. Given this is VistaVision, the results here are solid without ever rising to a level of impressiveness. This is an ‘old’ master, marketed for third-party distribution without the added care applied to truly make it outstanding. The grayscale has been solidly reproduced. Fine detail is there. But again, it’s not as razor-sharp as it could have been. Age-related artifacts are limited. The image is generally smooth but never entirely crisp. One wishes Paramount had taken the high road here. The 2.0 mono is adequate for this dialogue-driven plot. Extras include an audio commentary featuring Julie Kirgo and Peter Hankoff. This replaces the one by Alan K. Rode on the ViaVision. We also lose ViaVision’s featurette, featuring filmmaker, Rob Nilsson extoling the virtues of Magnani’s acting. Bottom line: The Rose Tattoo on Blu is recommended for fans of the grand Magnani. The Blu-ray is competently rendered. Others may wish to steer clear of its languid melodrama. It’s just not that good of a movie. Regrets.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

2.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

3.5

EXTRAS

1

 

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