stage play

[6] Rex Harrison and Richard Burton star as aging gay lovers in this stage play adaptation directed by Stanley Donen (Singin’ in the Rain, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers). The two men have been together for twenty years and work together as hairdressers in London’s west side. The romance, if there ever really was one, has gone out. Harrison takes his fear and apprehension about …

[6] Spencer Tracy and Jean Simmons star in this adaptation of an autobiographical stage play by writer/actress Ruth Gordon (Harold & Maude, Rosemary’s Baby). The story centers around teen-aged Gordon’s final year at home with her parents, when she first set her sights on acting while dodging her father’s efforts for her to pursue a more practical line of work. Director George Cukor sticks to …

[6] Director George Cukor (Gaslight, Adam’s Rib) adapts this stage play about a wealthy couple who invite a handful of high society friends for, you guessed it — Dinner at Eight. Everyone’s got a problem or a secret they’re grappling with, and everyone seems to be connected to each other in some way. Lionel Barrymore’s on the verge of losing his shipping company while John …

[7] Marlon Brando stars in Sydney Lumet’s adaptation of Tennessee Williams Orpheus Descending. (Williams co-wrote the screenplay with Meade Roberts.) Brando plays a young man trying to shed his criminal background and start a new life in a new town. But the new town has three women in it who all find Brando alluring. Joanne Woodward plays the reckless party animal, Maureen Stapleton plays the …

[6] An American colonel (Glenn Ford) is tasked with enforcing democracy in a small Okinawan village but slowly begins to embrace the villagers’ hedonistic lifestyle in this off-kilter comedy based on the play by John Patrick. It’s a sweet and exuberant film, though Marlon Brando’s performance as an Okinawan interpreter earns some notoriety. My favorite scene finds Ford being forcibly disrobed by a geisha girl …