Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

lasttimeisaw This is the screen adaptation of Tennessee Williams' namesake play which opened on Broadway in 1951, originally is tailor-made for Magnani, but she rejected it then due to her inadequate English expertise; four years later, she shoulders on this film version helmed by theatrical old hand Daniel Mann, which substantially lives up to everyone's expectation and is crowned as BEST LEADING ACTRESS in the Oscar competition, the film also earns two other wins for BEST ART DIRECTION and BEST BLACK & WHITE CINEMATOGRAPHY for the legendary Chinese-American cinematographer James Wong Howe out of a total 8 nominations.Magnani plays Serafina, an immigrant from Sicily to America to marry with Rosario Delle Rose, an Italian man with a baron lineage, but now is merely a truck driver hauling bananas. They have a fifteen-year-old daughter Rosa (Paven), and Magnani is pregnant with a second child, but an accident soon kills Rosario and it turns out he is engaged in transporting some illegal commodities, what's more devastating, rumour says he had an affair with another woman Estelle (Grey). Indulged in the mourning of her husband and refuses to accept the truth, Serafina has a miscarriage, strains arise between Serafina and the rest of the people in their close-knitted Italian neighbourhood, also with Rosa,who meets a sailor Jack (Cooper) in her high school graduation prom, and they hit it off immediately. Later another young truck driver Alvaro (Lancaster) barges into her life, so can Serafina finally be liberated from past memories and brave a new romance? A hint, THE ROSE TATTOO has a comedic vibrancy which rarely prevails in Tennessee Williams' works. The title refers to the rose tattoo on Rosario's chest, a symbol of carnal temptation which lingers in Serafina's memory after her husband is gone, and not until she meets Alvaro, a young body particularly resembles her dead husband, does she tentatively open up to him and their budding romance is quite a burlesque as they play off a typical forward-man- versus-reserved-woman stunt, until Alvaro bares his chest to show her a rose tattoo, an impending danger seems to be enveloping them even in the film's most farcical set piece, one constantly fears the story would steer to the opposite direction in a jiffy.Magnani commands such a towering impersonation as she brilliantly alternates between attention-grabbing melodrama and outlandish hysteria with effortless artistry, the story is so Italian, and Magnani represents the exemplary virtue of an Italian mother, hot-blooded, honest to her feelings, sensuously attractive but never demeans herself to be flirtatious, and extremely protective towards her child. Lancaster only emerges in the latter half of the film, but shines in his unusually comedic slapstick; Marisa Pavan who also receives an Oscar nomination, unfortunately pales into insignificance by Magnani as a disobedient daughter with an overfamiliar agency on her plate. James Wong Howe's low-key camera faithfully serves to introduce all the movements of the characters, hones up the fluency and consistency of the story without being obtrusive or self-aware. By and large, THE ROSE TATTOO is a potent drama galvanises with a more buoyant flare rather different from Tennessee Williams' customarily neurotic fashioning.

HollywoodVixen90 I fell in love with this movie when I was was quite young actually. Now that I am older, I bought this movie on DVD to add to my collection.I just watched it this afternoon for the first time in several years, and I am glad to say I am still in love with this movie. I never forgot "The Rose Tattoo". Magnani did an AMAZING job in this movie an she truly deserved the Oscar that she won for her role as "Serafina Delle Rose". This movie is full of such wonderful raw emotion. All the hurt that Serafina goes through really gets to you (at least it got to me). If you love classic movies and even if you don't, watch "The Rose Tattoo". It is worth your time and I'm sure you will not forget it.

spammyas 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.

edwagreen 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.