Synopsis
The story of a bride. Revealing. Intimate.
An Italian war bride has problems dealing with her husband's possessive mother.
Teresa
Cast
Director
Producer
Writer
Story
Editor
Cinematography
Art Direction
Composer
Sound
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Country
Primary Language
Spoken Languages
Alternative Titles
Тереза, 初恋
Genre
Releases by Date
Theatrical
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USA
18 Feb 1952
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Spain
Releases by Country
Spain
18 Feb 1952
- Theatrical
USA
05 Apr 1951
- Theatrical
Popular reviews
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Fred Zinnemann's ersatz take on Neo-Realism, liberally borrowing grace notes from Bicycle Thieves and Paisan, mixes awkwardly with Hollywood narrative dictates and the psychological bent of post-war American screenwriting, but it achieves an unusual nervous quality that conveys a fleeting feeling for how alienation can arrest time and meaning. At its very best, Teresa is strange and somber in ways that push against the expressive limits of Hollywood fillmmaking and Fred Zimmemann's own liberal humanist temperament. Unfortunately, whenever it flirts with the poetic, Zimmemann comes up with something reliably literal and prosaic to break the spell.
Pier Angeli's tremulous performance epitomizes the sad, tender tone of the movie's best scenes, and if the whole thing had really been about her,…
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A naive and likable journey with two fresh faces in John Ericson & Pier Angeli falling in love during the war and trying to establish their life together post-war. There is a free-flow feeling to the presentation, but I think a little tighter structure would have helped this one. You get very close to the couple and their emotions, but at times it feels a little too much. Still a lot of sweet moments won me over.
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this movie is all stark realism. that first shot of the woman's face at the unemployment office struck me: weary and brisk in medium close up. ruins of Italy juxtaposed against a shabby New York neighborhood. it's a little clunky in its direction and themes but good overall. John Ericson tried his best but...he was a little on the bland side. Lee Marvin had an uncredited role in this, blink and you miss him (not with that gigantic head of his though), and I think he would've been perfectly cast as Phillip: a young WWII vet haunted by his experiences and an uneasy relationship with his parents.
Pier Angeli was so delicately pretty. I think she resembled Audrey a little bit. very earnest, innocent, melancholy. this was a wonderful part for her.
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Fred Zinnemann's psychoanalytical film tells the story of Philip Cass, a young man castrated by a mother who doesn't want him to leave the family home. During the war, he meets a surrogate father, despising his own who has failed to fulfill his role as a father figure, and marries a young Italian girl whom he brings back to the United States at the end of the war.
I like this moment in American cinema when Freudian theories are no longer used solely in detective or mystery films to enable directors to imagine dreams to be decoded, but are put into practice in psychological dramas.
Actress Pier Angeli bursts onto the screen at the height of her 19 years in her first American film, Ralph Meeker plays the laconic psychoanalyst who tries to get John Ericson to verbalize, and Patricia Collinge the archetypal mother who has made the fortune of a myriad of psychotherapists around the world.
A curiosity.
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John Ericson may have had Marlon Brando's looks but none of his talent so his debut performance as a young soldier returning from WW2 with an Italian bride proved not to be the launch-pad for superstardom that it might have been and "Teresa" remains one of the least, and certainly one of the least known, of Fred Zinnemann's films. If it isn't exactly a bad movie it's certainly an unexciting one. The inexperience of both leads shows, (Pier Angeli is Teresa, the young bride), and it's left to the supporting cast, (Patricia Collinge as the clinging mother, Peggy Ann Garner as the sister, Ralph Meeker and Bill Mauldin as soldiers), to try to carry the film. Had it been shorter,…
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A movie of note only because it stars a 19 year old Pier Angeli, who plays an Italian girl who meets an American solider (John Ericson) during the war, and marries him shortly thereafter. Angeli is bright-eyed and radiant, and I loved her conversations with her family in Italian, even if they weren’t subtitled (maybe even more so because they weren’t). Briefly seeing some of the sites in Rome was also nice. Unfortunately, Ericson is not nearly as good as Angeli. His character is admittedly difficult to play and not all that likeable, suffering from panic attacks, lack of confidence, and overall wishy-washiness. I loved how the film is honest in its depiction of war, showing us fear and cowardice,…
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Man meets a woman and falls in love while serving in the army overseas. You've heard it already, it's a familiar setup but otherwise handled well.
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Starting off as a war film, a very confused American soldier with neurotic tendencies, falls for an Italian girl while overseas. They get married and go back to America to live with his family, including his exorbitantly over-bearing mother. I fell in love with the tender scenes between Ericson and Angeli. You can tell they truly loved each other. But his cowardly actions get in the way of their marriage and closeness. He certainly isn't a likable character for me, even though he is very gorgeous. Do they make it? It isn't the very very best of Zinnemann's work, but it's pretty good. The Cinematography deserves mentioning, because it's simply stunning and leaves you wanting more. You also get to…
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"His name is Philip Cass. His occupation is running away."
-voiceover narration as John Ericson runs away from his unemployment check (lol)Teresa is a simple yet effective drama about the troubles of being a war bride, with a few really nice touches. The first love scene between Pier Angeli and John Ericson takes place atop a decommissioned tank surrounded by bombed-out rubble, and I thought that was lovely.
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The way you could probably cut the whole first hour at no loss to the second. Wild how the lead looks like a pretty plausible combination of Marlon Brando and James Dean while possessing not one iota of raw charisma or sexuality.
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I've seen a lot of movies about early 20s malaise and this guy might be the malaisiest.
A lot of wrong notes are played, but every once in a while the right note comes through and it's beautiful and ahead of its time.