Terminal Station was the first Hollywood film by Italian director De Sica, as an international coproduction with American mogul David O. Selznick. The collaboration was fraught with constant and severe creative differences that resulted in two different versions of the film, an 89-minute Italian version and a 72-minute American recut version under the alternate title Indiscretion of an American Wife. After this experience, De Sica never again worked with a Hollywood producer, although he would continue to direct English-language films with American actors.
Plot
The following synopsis reflects the 89-minute version.
Mary Forbes, an American housewife, has fallen in love with an Italian–American man named Giovanni Doria while visiting her sister in Rome. She arrives at his apartment door but decides not to ring the door bell. Mary hitches a ride to the train station, where she schedules a ride from Milan to Paris and telephones her young nephew Paul to arrive with her luggage. Mary next writes a telegram to Giovanni, expressing her love and pleads for his forgiveness. Mary boards a train compartment but before the train leaves the station, Mary sees Giovanni. He had learned about Mary's departure from her sister after not hearing from her. Their conversation is interrupted by Paul, who has arrived with Mary's luggage. As the train rides away, Mary decides to stay with Giovanni.
Inside the terminal, they converse inside a restaurant where Giovanni reminds Mary she had told him yesterday that she loved him. Mary however felt conflicted as she is married to her husband Howard and has a young daughter, Catherine. Regardless, Giovanni has accepted a professor job at the University of Pisa and fancies living with Mary and Catherine along the Marina di Pisa. Giovanni invites Mary to his apartment, and as they leave the terminal, she sees Paul. Because of her unexpected reunion with her nephew, Mary expresses doubt about continuing their affair. Angered by Mary's indecision, Giovanni slaps her and leaves the station.
Paul and Mary wait for the next train to Paris, and inside the third class, they are seated next to an Italian woman who has gone into labor. Mary helps the woman to a doctor and has Paul watch her three children for her. Meanwhile, Giovanni returns to the station to search for Mary. Before long, Mary instructs Paul to return home, with a promise to have him visit her for Christmas. As Paul leaves the station, Giovanni sees him and asks him where Mary is. Paul refuses to answer Giovanni, who then runs back to the train station. He locates Mary and runs across the tracks, narrowly avoiding being hit by an incoming train.
Mary and Giovanni arrive at a train compartment where they embrace each other. Moments later, they are arrested by the police for public lovemaking and escorted to a nearby police station. As they wait for the police commissioner, Giovanni confronts an officer since Mary will miss her train. An overhead announcer also calls for Mary to reclaim her luggage. When the commissioner arrives, he states their actions require a trial but instead he drops the charges since Mary is a married woman with a child. Giovanni escorts Mary to the station where she reclaims her luggage. Before the train leaves, they bid their final farewells. As Mary's train leaves, Giovanni exits the terminal.
The film is based on the story Stazione Termini by Cesare Zavattini. Truman Capote was credited with writing the entire screenplay, but later claimed to have written only two scenes.[6] The film was an international coproduction between De Sica's own company and the Hollywood producer David O. Selznick, who commissioned it as a vehicle for his wife, Jennifer Jones. The production of the film was troubled from the very beginning. Carson McCullers was originally chosen to write the screenplay, but Selznick replaced her with a series of writers, including Paul Gallico, Alberto Moravia and Capote.[6] Disagreements ensued between De Sica and Selznick, and during production, Selznick would write 40- and 50-page letters to De Sica, who did could not read English.[6]Montgomery Clift sided with De Sica in his disputes with Selznick, claiming that Selznick wanted the film to look like a slick little love story, while De Sica wanted to depict a ruined romance.[7]
During filming, Jones was distracted and saddened by the recent death of her former husband, actor Robert Walker, and badly missed her two sons, who were at school in Switzerland.[8] She had been married to Selznick less than two years at that point, and they were having difficulties in the marriage.
The original 1953 Italian release of the film ran 89 minutes, but it was later reedited by Selznick down to 64 minutes. This was too short to qualify it as a feature film, so Selznick hired singer Patti Page and James Wong Howe filmed her singing the songs "Indiscretion" and "Autumn in Rome"[2] on a soundstage. This unrelated "overture" footage was inserted at the beginning of the film, before the credits, extending its running time to 72 minutes.[9] He also added additional close-ups and insert shots of Jones and Clift, directed by Oswald Morris. Selznick released this version in the United States as Indiscretion of an American Wife[10] (and as Indiscretion in the UK).
Herein it bears a resemblance to another of Signor De Sica's films—"The Bicycle Thief," which likewise pictured a private crisis against the vast backdrop of Rome. But whereas the latter had overtones of real social tragedy, this new film of Signor De Sica implies nothing but a personal mistake. The crisis may be no less painful for the individual person involved, but for the ordinary person who sees it, it has small significance. And this, we're afraid, is the weakness in Signor De Sica's film: the sole contemplation of is[sic] as a lady's—and gentleman's—brief distress over a private indiscretion of which the lady, at least, appears ashamed. For an hour and a half, they thrash the question: shall she go or shall she stay? Shall she cruelly abandon her husband and child back in Philadelphia, or shall she get on the train and highball? It is as open and shut as that.[2]
Montgomery Clift declared that he hated the picture and denounced it as "a big fat failure."[8]
Home video
The two versions of the film have been released together on DVD by the Criterion Collection. A 1998 remake of the film was produced for television under the title Indiscretion of an American Wife.
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