The Rose Tattoo (1955)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Nice effects though.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

An Italian-American neighborhood in Louisiana is disturbed when truck driver Rosario Delle Rose is killed by police while smuggling. His buxom widow Serafina miscarries, then over a period of years draws more and more into herself, trying to force her lovely teenaged daughter Rosa to do likewise.Anna Magnani won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance, and it also won Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography and received five other nominations including Best Picture and Best Supporting actress for Marisa Pavan. Magnani was apparently hand-picked by Tennessee Williams. I can't say I enjoyed her very much, but clearly Williams was right, or at least knew who was right to impress the Academy.I was surprised by the tattoo theme, especially since early on a woman is shown getting one. This was certainly not the norm in the 1950s. And tattoos were only $2.50? Wow. Even with inflation, that's a steal.

Burt Lancaster's character is the grandson of a Sicilian village's idiot, who raped his grandmother. He happily shares this information with Anna Magnani's character and it helps explain why he is such a BUFFOON. As she notes, he has the body of her hunky beloved husband and the head of of a clown. Attracted to him sexually, she really has to work to get past what an idiot he is, but she manages. The photograph on the cover of the DVD captures her revulsion and desire. Burt Lancaster is well cast in that his physique and athleticism are prominently featured, in counterpoint to the mindlessly happy, drunken, emotional truck driver he plays. A favorite scene is when he is perched atop a mast, singing "happy bird, happy bird," being a complete simpleton and yet being powerfully attractive as he gracefully descends. It's obvious Burt Lancaster is an athlete and an acrobat and a really good actor. The developing relationship between Anna's character and Burt's is the most interesting aspect of this film. Her reactions to him are funny, believable, understandable.

Unfortunately, for Susan Hayward, by 1955 Anna Magnani thought that her English was up to task to play in "The Rose Tattoo." She would go on to win all the major acting awards that year including the Academy Award as best actress. I never forgave Magnani for winning. I always believed that Susan Hayward deserved the honor for "I'll Cry Tomorrow."Magnani goes from a hysterical widow who throws objects around to a woman of lust, who is enamored by a simple truck driver played by Burt Lancaster.It is true that the Magnani showed tremendous changes in emotion in her Oscar winning performance.Well, maybe there should have been a tie.

After hearing about this movie for years I finally saw it in its entirety. What a disappointment!! Burt Lancaster is a character who claims to be the grandchild of the village idiot and whose behavior proves that genetics is a science. His acting is so hackneyed and stereotypical as to be ludicrous and embarrassing. Anna Magnani is over-the-top but sympathetic as the grieving widow who is holding a torch for her husband long after his torch is out. The behavior of the townspeople is more like the inhabitants of a small town in Sicily as filmed by Fellini than the residents of a small town in Louisiana which they are supposed to be. Marisa Pavan is subdued and lovely but interchangeable.