Description: An American housewife (Jennifer Jones) vacationing in Italy reluctantly decides to put an end to her brief affair with an Italian academic (Montgomery Clift). She flees to Rome’s Stazione Termini, where she bids him farewell, but he begs her to stay. The film’s plot is simple; its production was not. The troubled collaboration between director Vittorio De Sica and producer David O. Selznick resulted in two cuts of the same film. De Sica’s version, Terminal Station, was screened at a length of one-and-a-half hours, but after disappointing previews, Selznick severely re-edited it and changed the title to Indiscretion of an American Wife without De Sica’s permission. The Criterion Collection is proud to present both versions of this controversial release.
Amazon.com: Just as David O. Selznick and Alfred Hitchcock had clashed while filming Rebecca, the meddlesome producer left his Hollywood imprint on the troubled production of Vittorio De Sica's Terminal Station. Selznick's career was fading fast, and while self-exiled in Europe he seized on the notion of melding De Sica's masterful neorealism with a daring but otherwise conventional studio romance, casting big stars in a turgid melodrama about a Philadelphia housewife traveling in Rome (Jennifer Jones, Selznick's wife) who must choose between marital fidelity or illicit passion with a lovestruck Italian (Montgomery Clift) as she prepares to depart from Rome's coldly modern Stazione Termini. After De Sica's 89-minute Terminal Station tested poorly with audiences, Selznick cut the film to 64 minutes (excising most of De Sica's neorealistic atmosphere), added an 8-minute prologue of Patti Page singing two moody ballads to pad the truncated running time, and still failed to attract audiences with his gauchely retitled Indiscretion of an American Wife.
Both versions are included on Criterion's magnificent DVD, allowing latter-day viewers a revealing comparison/contrast between Selznick's commercial taste (glossy and sentimental) and De Sica's artistic vision. Indiscretion turns Jones's overwrought character into a dimensionless focus of guilt and shame, lacking the moral depth of Terminal Station, in which her dilemma is more compellingly explored. Inevitably, only De Sica's version achieves Selznick's original goal: It's a remarkable hybrid of neorealism (with its authentic setting populated by people of all classes, subtly affecting the story) and Selznick's heavy-handed moralizing (with a partial dialogue polish by Truman Capote). Commentary by film scholar Leonard Leff and liner notes by critic Dave Kehr further illuminate this clash of formidable talents, illustrating how both films, gloriously restored, serve the divergent purposes of their creators. --Jeff Shannon
Indiscretion of an american wife. I remember this film from when it first arrived. Patti Page's opening song is poignant and wonderful. The picture is disappointing in black and white. Too cold for a film about love, but not dated. The principals are very believable.
Not Jones and Clift's greatest I eagerly anticipated this movie because I am a fan of both Jennifer Jones and Montgomery Clift. However, I was sorely disappointed because of its snails pace and poor plotting. Definitely a time wasting bore.
Warm and sad, but beautiful beautiful Montgomery Clift is certainly one of the greatest actors in this century. I don't like the love story,because some are not real ,a little seems for me fake, but only this one is different,even If l feel very pain, This movie is full of warm human affection and expresses the then slightly gloomy part of like,
impressive In this DVD set released by the Criterion Collection, there are the two versions of Vittorio De Sica's controverial classic.
While the two versions are one and the same, one is just shorter than the other.
The cut version is known as "Indescretion of an American Wife" and the uncut version is known as "Terminal Station" The film was released internationally in the longer version at 90 minutes and David O. Selznick had 18 minutes cut from the film for the American release.
The film is about a married American woman who is at the train station in Rome and is headed back to the US. While aboad, she had an affair with an Italian man who is now sad to see her go. Her nephew is seeing her off too as she was staying with her sister while there. While at the station, she is caught necking with the man in a detached railroad car by a conductor. They arethen deatined by the police and she is worried that her husband will find out.
The special features are a theatrical trailer, promotional materials and audio commentary on the film by Leonard Leff.
Two great stars but not worth the time. As a fan of both Jones and Clift I was hoping for a hidden treasure here. This short [63 minutes] Italian production seems more like a movie missing its first hour. Both stars give it their best effort but its basically a mess.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
