Rome Adventure (1962)

A librarian (Suzanne Pleshette) decides she's too inexperienced in the matters of love so she quits her job and heads to Rome where she hopes to get more life experience and does she ever find it. Based on the 1932 novel LOVERS MUST LEARN by Irving Fineman and directed by Delmer Daves (3:10 TO YUMA). As cinema, this is a great travelogue of Italy. Beautifully shot by Charles Lawton Jr. (THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI), we're treated to the delights of Rome, Tuscany, Umbria, Verona, Alto Adige and Lake Maggiore in all their splendor. In between the sight seeing, there's a rather pedestrian love story between Pleshette and Troy Donahue. The film pushes the boundaries of belief when both Pleshette and Angie Dickinson battle it out over Donahue. What two of the most charismatic and attractive actresses of the 1960s see in the bland Donahue is anybody's guess! Acting wise, it's Dickinson's wily and manipulative femme fatale that steals whatever's worth stealing here. At least, she's fun in a vamp-ish way. There's a nice score by Max Steiner. With Rossano Brazzi, Constance Ford, Hampton Fancher, Pamela Austin, Gertrude Flynn and Norma Varden.