Tennessee Williams

[6] Robert Redford and Natalie Wood headline this Tennessee Williams tale adapted by Francis Ford Coppola and directed by Sydney Pollack. Redford plays a railroad representative who comes to a small Mississippi town during the Great Depression to lay off several of the company’s workers. Despite being the bearer of bad news, Redford develops feelings for the local innkeeper’s daughter (Wood), whose mother is essentially …

[7] A doctor visits a woman in an insane asylum to determine if she requires a lobotomy to forget the horror of seeing her cousin murdered, or if her aunt is pushing for the procedure to cover the truth. Tennessee Williams wrote the play, Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All About Eve, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir) directed the film, and the three leads are played by …

[7] Vivien Leigh and Warren Beatty star in this adaptation of Tennessee Williams’s novel about an aging starlet (Leigh) who becomes a widow while vacationing in Italy. She reluctantly agrees to let a scheming contessa (Lotte Lenya) set her up with a handsome gigolo (Beatty). The two seem at first to have a grounded understanding of their relationship, but things become more complicated when Leigh …

[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] John Huston adapts Tennessee Williams’ play for the big screen, and finds big stars to play the parts. Richard Burton and Ava Gardner deliver great performances as a defrocked priest and a jaded hotel owner, both on the verge of nervous breakdowns, who mingle with libidinous guests at Gardner’s jungle inn south-of-the-border. It’s less stagey than most theater adaptations, even though it stays largely …