A NICE way to take the movie audience on a sightseeing tour of Rome, with a flying side trip to Venice, through the courtesy of CinemaScope, has been devised in "Three Coins in the Fountain," a handsomely colored romance that Twentieth Century-Fox delivered to the Roxy yesterday.The trick is to underpin the picture with flimsy and harmless accounts of the plainly romantic adventures of three American girls in Rome and then chase them with the camera around the Eternal City as they pursue their destinies.It is clear from the very beginning that their destinies will be okay. This is assuredly forecast by the device used for opening the film—which is that the hopeful young ladies cast the traditional coins in the fabled Fountain of Trevi and then wish to remain happily in Rome. Though their various vicissitudes are trying, at one or another point, their futures are never uncertain — else why wishes and why a romance?Their problems are moderately diverting. Jean Peters as a crisp and cool type who is about to chuck her job with an American agency, suddenly falls for a nice Italian boy, played by Rossano Brazzi, and worries around a little with him. Maggie McNamara as a wide-eyed maiden gets her hooks into a fine Italian prince, played by Louis Jourdan, and angles him into true love. And Dorothy McGuire as the loyal, patient secretary of an expatriate author. Clifton Webb, even wangles this unlikely gas-bag into popping the question to her.There's no point in probing the techniques of all these predatory dames, especially those of Miss McNamara, who is a bit of an absolute fraud. John Patrick, who wrote the screenplay from a novel by John H. Secondari, was more concerned with humor than he was with veracity. And so the jokes are limpid, the plot is entirely contrived and the logic is minus zero. The whole thing is as slick as Cellophane.But the city of Rome looks mighty handsome in all the aspects in which it is viewed—and Venice is simply exquisite, especially as seen from the air. The color is excellent in this picture and the wide-screen of CinemaScope is often filled with historic sights and vistas that you might wait weeks to see as they're seen here."Three Coins in the Fountain" is quite clearly a film in which the locale comes first. However, the nonsense of its fable tumbles nicely within the picture frame.

THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN, screen play by John Patrick from a novel by John H. Secondari; directed by Jean Negulesco; produced by Sol C. Siegel for Twentieth Century-Fox. At the Roxy.Shadwell . . . . . Clifton WebbMiss Frances . . . . . Dorothy McGuireAnita . . . . . Jean PetersPrince Dino Di Cessi . . . . . Louis JourdanMaria . . . . . Maggie McNamaraGiorgio . . . . . Rossano BrazziBurgoyne . . . . . Howard St. JohnMrs. Burgoyne . . . . . Kathryn GivneyPrincipessa . . . . . Cathleen NesbittDr. Martinelli . . . . . Vicente Padula