ROME ADVENTURE (1962)

At the Briarcroft College for Women, young librarian Suzanne Pleshette has been called before the board because she loaned a student her own personal copy of the racy novel Lovers Must Learn after the college cancelled their order. Pleshette stands up for herself and quits, deciding to head off on an open-ended trip to Rome, hoping to learn a bit about life and love herself. (As is implied over and over, she is still a virgin.) On the boat, she bonds with a nerdy young scholar (Hampton Fancher) who installs himself as her keeper, though he could use a keeper himself, and a dashing middle-aged Italian (Rossano Brazzi) who seems interested in teaching her a bit about life and love. She and Fancher move into a boarding house where they meet Troy Donahue, an American student who seems off-putting at first, though we know it's partly because his sexy, sophisticated lover (Angie Dickinson) has just left him. Pleshette gets a job at a bookstore (and gets good life advice from her boss, Constance Ford) and lets Brazzi flirt with her a bit, telling him that she is just bursting with love, calling it a "natural resource that has never been fully explored" (yes dear, we know you're a virgin) but saying she can't give herself over to love until she hears bells ringing, and with Brazzi, all she hears are tinkles. Slowly, Donahue and Pleshette warm to each other when he takes her sightseeing around Rome. Eventually they take a week-long holiday to see the Italian countryside, staying in a hillside chalet, but she remains pure (she's a virgin, you know). Back in Rome, they try to hide their relationship from the others in the boarding house, and when Dickinson shows up, dressed to the nines and ready to start over again, Pleshette gets gloomy and turns to Brazzi to lose her virginity. But knowing what's been going on, he's too gentlemanly to take advantage of her. She decides to go back to the States; will Donahue come to his senses and realize he makes Pleshette hear bells?

One online reviewer notes that, despite much talk about sex (and virginity), and a very sexy seduction scene during which Donahue runs a feather softly all over Pleshette's face in close-up, this isn't really a sex comedy, nor is it quite a melodrama. In its tone, it's a romantic comedy with dramatic interludes, though in its form, at least in the middle of the movie, it's actually more of a travelogue with lots of shots of Roman and Italian sights. My favorite sightseeing scene is when, in Verona, Pleshette stands on a balcony like Shakespeare's Juliet while Donahue recites Romeo's lines below, much to the amusement of a crowd of tourists. Pleshette, in her first starring role, is quite good, despite some of the drippy dialogue she has to say. Donahue is at the height of his blond handsomeness, but I always think he comes off as a tad unwholesome, like his shiny smile is hiding decadent desires. Frankly, I liked Hampton Fancher better; darkly handsome with a passing resemblance to Anthony Perkins, his character is presented as pleasant but boring. He is mockingly called an "Etruscanologist" but he truly loves his work, and I was sorry his role wasn't expanded, though he has a fun scene as Pleshette's escort on a double date with Donahue and Dickinson which ends badly. Brazzi is fine, if his character is predictable and not quite as sexy as he should be. Dickinson's role is important, though fairly small, but she makes every moment count as one of the most unlikeable bitches in 60s cinema. We're led to believe that her character is both slutty and frigid, I guess meaning she's all come-on and no delivery. Jazz trumpeter Al Hirt has a weird cameo playing an unflattering version of himself, starting a fight in a small jazz club. There is a nice musical interlude with Emilio Pericoli singing "Al Di La"; his version made the Billboard top 10 in the wake of the film. A nice enough 60s romance which doesn’t take itself too seriously. Two last bits of trivia: 1) Hampton Fancher is now better known as the co-writer of Blade Runner and its 2017 sequel; 2) the bookstore set is the same set used for the River City Library in The Music Man. Pictured are Pleshette and Fancher. [TCM]