One of the greatest playwrights of his generation, Tennessee Williams turned his personal sorrows into professional triumphs, writing some of the 20th century's most memorable stage dramas. A closeted gay Southerner, Williams appreciated the subversive power of secrecy, and was very close to his sister Rose, a fragile beauty who as a young woman was diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent much of her life in mental institutions (thinly veiled characterizations of Rose turned up time and again in his plays). Although Hollywood beckoned early, the film versions of Williams' dramas nearly always watered down the dicier aspects of his morally skewed fables. The Tennessee Williams Film Collection boxed set compiles six classic films based on his works: Baby Doll (1956), starring Carroll Baker as a manipulative child bride; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), the riveting tale of a Southern family's greed and mendacity, distinguished by Liz Taylor's powerful performance as “Maggie the Cat”; Night of the Iguana (1964), with Richard Burton as a defrocked clergyman befriended by sultry Ava Gardner in Mexico; The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961), featuring Vivien Leigh as a faded actress tangled up with narcissistic lothario Warren Beatty; Sweet Bird of Youth (1962), starring Paul Newman as a dirt-poor drifter and wannabe who attaches himself to former film star Geraldine Page; and the best of the bunch, the two-disc “special edition” of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), a flawless Elia Kazan-directed adaptation that stars a young Marlon Brando as feral Stanley Kowalski and Vivien Leigh as the delicate, neurotic Blanche DuBois. As a bonus, the set also features the 1973 documentary Tennessee Williams' South. Other DVD extras spread across the films include audio commentaries, a feature-length documentary on Kazan, new and vintage featurettes, screen tests, and more. For superb entertainment and mature storytelling it's hard to beat this set—even the weaker films are better than most of what passes for serious drama today. Highly recommended. (E. Hulse)
Tennessee Williams Film Collection
Warner, 8 discs, 695 min., not rated/PG, DVD: $68.98 Volume 21, Issue 4
Tennessee Williams Film Collection
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