Having served as Tennessee Williams' muse for his 1951 stage play THE ROSE TATTOO, Italian actress Anna Magnani delivers a powerhouse performance of the role written specifically for her--and for which she won a well-deserved Academy Award for Best Actress. Magnani stars as Serafina Delle Rose, a grieving Italian-American widow who has withdrawn from life and expects her budding teenage daughter Rosa (Marisa Pavan) to do the same. But just as Serafina's saintly devotion to her late husband's memory is shattered by the discovery of his marital infidelity, the attentions of an understanding truck driver (Burt Lancaster) promise to reawaken the widow's insular heart to the pleasures of love and life.