"As far as I was concerned," said Wallis, "there was only one actress on earth who could play the tempestuous Italian heroine, the warm, passionate, angry and exciting, utterly feminine Serafina. In no time at all my agent had spoken to his agent and we were in business."Įli Wallach and Maureen Stapleton had just played the two leads magnificently on stage - and would do so again on Broadway - but Wallis knew neither had any box office clout. Quiet, sober, professional, and very personable, he was familiar with my work and liked it, so that when I offered to buy the rights, he agreed on a handshake. I went backstage after the show, knowing Tennessee would be there. Audiences would identify with its earthiness, its sexuality, its deeply felt emotions and naturalistic dialogue. Of the play that night, he recalled later, "I knew at once that I had to buy it. classics as Casablanca (1942) and Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) was now working independently, with a deal at Paramount. Hal Wallis first saw Tennessee Williams's play The Rose Tattoo (1955) on its opening night in Chicago in 1954. Alvaro then clumsily declares his love for Serafina, whereupon, at the urging of the neighboring women, she happily invites him into the house. Rosa, weary of her mother's vigilance and hypocrisy, angrily informs Serafina that she plans to elope with Jack, but when he arrives, Serafina surprises the couple by giving them her blessing. Thinking that Alvaro attacked Rosa, Serafina drives him out. Rosa awakes and runs screaming into Serafina's room. In the morning, a groggy Alvaro sees Rosa asleep on the couch and stares longingly at her face. In the meantime, Alvaro gets drunk and passes out shortly after he arrives at the house. Later, after saying goodbye to Alvaro loud enough for the neighbors to hear, Serafina asks him to return secretly and spend the night. Horrified, Serafina rushes home and smashes the urn containing her husband's ashes. When confronted by Serafina, Estelle defiantly admits that she loved Rosario and publicly displays the tattoo imprinted on her own chest. Alvaro's romantic overtures anger Serafina, but when she learns that he is acquainted with Estelle, she forces him to take her to the woman. Eager to impress Serafina, Alvaro has a rose tattooed on his chest, just as Rosario had done. Later that day, Serafina meets Alvaro Mangiacavallo, a simple-minded Sicilian-born truck driver, whose strong body reminds her of her husband and reawakens her passion. After Jack vows by the Blessed Virgin that he will respect Rosa, Serafina claims that she is satisfied and lets the young people go out together. While gazing at the happy young couple, Serafina's bitterness overcomes her, and she accuses the young man of wanting to violate her daughter's innocence. Rosa introduces Jack to her mother, but Serafina, having heard that morning about Rosario's affair with Estelle, is so preoccupied with her anger and suspicion that she hardly notices them at first. Three years later, Serafina's pretty eighteen-year-old daughter Rosa meets a sailor named Jack Hunter at her graduation dance and falls deeply in love. After suffering a miscarriage, Serafina devotes herself to mourning, even cremating Rosario's body against the dictates of the Church, so that she may keep his ashes in the house. Serafina, who is pregnant with her second child, is also ignorant of Rosario's smuggling activities and is completely possessed by grief when he is killed in a highway explosion while attempting to escape from the police in his truck. Serafina Delle Rose, a seamstress living in an Italian-American community on the Gulf of Mexico, idolizes her husband Rosario, unaware that the truck driver has been having a long-term affair with Estelle Hohengarten, a blonde blackjack dealer.
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