MovieChat Forums > The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961) Discussion > THE ENDING - MAJOR SPOILERS

THE ENDING - MAJOR SPOILERS

posted 19 years ago by Dannybob
42 replies | jump to latest

The new DVD of this movie has just been released. It's good to see this in widescreen, and the DVD is a very good remastering. Even more interesting are the extras, including interviews with Jill St. John and Donald Spoto (who wrote a bio about Williams).

What's interesting is how Spoto and St. John have different interpretations of the strange and very abrupt ending of the film. It's assumed that after she breaks it off with Paolo, Mrs. Stone lets a young male stalker into her apartment and he kills her. Jill St. John didn't think that's what happens to her - the young man becomes the new lover, a less spectacular (if somewhat creepy) man without the fancy trappings of a gigolo or a lady pimp in tow.

Viewing the film again, you can see St. John's point. It was obviously left open for interpretation.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Mikel3 12 years ago

I believe the ending meant she didn't care anymore one way or the other, whether inviting a new lover in or death. When the stranger was entering her room we heard in flash backs Paolo's prediction that she would end up with her throat cut like so many others like her. Perhaps this was the very man who had been committing those other murders. The man she threw her keys to. We also heard a flashback of her saying she didn't care if she died in a few years. In her mind she believed she might be able to hold on to Paolo that long before she was too old or the money ran out and he left her. Since he left her years ahead of her schedule she decided the time to die was now instead of later. I do wonder what would have happened if she had reached her friend on the phone who had just left minutes earlier for NY. Would she have left with her? If so the implication is that she was not ready to die.

Either way, taking a new lover or inviting death, the ending showed Mrs. Stone no longer cared what happened to her. I usually don't care for endings that leave it up to the viewer, in the case it was fitting.

[–] Puckdeestubenfliege 8 years ago

I don't even regard him as a real person. He follows Mrs. Stone, and, yes, Paolo sees him too. He appears, disappears, and doesn't seem to have any human needs like sleeping, eating etc. at all. He is beautiful, tempting, dressed in a grey coat, and utterly pathetic - the personification of suicide.

[–] twilliamson (126) 4 years ago

It's an interesting theory, but I certainly did not think the man coming in at the end was there to kill her. I believe he is her next lover, and she has resigned herself to this new lifestyle of lower and lower-end gigolos. When he put the keys in his pocket, I took it as taking ownership of her apartment. He's moving in and inserting himself into her life so she will keep him up in style like she did the Beatty character. He wants all the trappings of being her lover/companion.