The Fugitive Kind (1959)

Director:

Sidney Lumet

Writers:

Tennessee Williams (play)
Tennessee Williams (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

1 December 1959 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

...and now the screen is struck by lightning !

Plot:

Val Xavier, a drifter of obscure origins arrives at a small town and gets a job in a store run by Lady Torrence...

Plot Keywords:

Small Town | Drifter | Cemetery | Jacket | General Store

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Marlon Brando	...	Valentine 'Snakeskin' Xavier
Anna Magnani	...	Lady Torrance
Joanne Woodward	...	Carol Cutrere
Maureen Stapleton	...	Vee Talbot
Victor Jory	...	Jabe M. Torrance
R.G. Armstrong	...	Sheriff Jordan Talbott
Emory Richardson	...	Uncle Pleasant, the Conjure Man
Madame Spivy	...	Ruby Lightfoot (as Spivy)
Sally Gracie	...	Dolly Hamma
Lucille Benson	...	Beulah Binnings
John Baragrey	...	David Cutrere
Ben Yaffee	...	'Dog' Hamma
Joe Brown Jr.	...	'Pee Wee' Binnings
Virgilia Chew	...	Nurse Porter
Frank Borgman	...	Gas Station Attendant

Runtime:

119 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Brazil:14 | Australia:M (original rating) | Australia:PG (alternate rating) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Milton, New York, USA

Company:

Pennebaker Productions

Trivia:

Marlon Brando became the first actor to be paid $1 million for a single film when he signed on to appear in the screen-adaptation of Tennessee Williams' "Orpheus Descending". Nearing the end of her contract with MGM, Elizabeth Taylor had earlier signed a $1 million contract with 20th Century-Fox to appear in 'Cleopatra' (1960), breaking that salary threshold in Hollywood.

Quotes:

Carol Cutrere: Juking? Oh! Well, that's when you get in a car, which is preferably open in any kind of weather. And then you drink a little bit and you drive a little bit, and then you stop and you dance a little bit with a jukebox. And then you drink a little bit more and you drive a little bit more, you stop and you dance a little bit more to another juke box! And then you stop dancing and you just drink and you drive. And then, you stop driving.

Movie Connections:

Version of Orpheus Descending (1990) (TV)

Too good for America!

This story flopped as a play and as a film. That's too bad because that happens to be Tennessee Williams' most revealing play about the dark underbelly of racism, violence, vigilantes, lynchings and social injustice in the Deep South. Be warned: This ain't "Gone With the Wind". Its subject matter couldn't have been very popular with American audiences at any time or any place. Even today, Jabe (Hades), the king of the Underworld, where he keeps his Persephone/Eurydice (Lady) prisoner, sounds an awful lot like what George W. Bush will probably sound like in his declining years, uttering curses and maledictions against life, knowledge, science, progress, social change and uppity Negroes. I think the film works because it makes no concession to realism and frankly asserts the story's mythological elements. Lumet, Magnani, Brando, Jory, Stapleton, Armstrong and Woodward make it work and deliver a film and performances that are bigger than life and worthy of the best European art films of the period. Kudos for the set design, the art direction, the music (by Kenyon Hopkins) and the photography. This is a film you can't help but watch in absolute awe at the guts it took.