Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Red-125 The Fugitive Kind (1960) was directed by Sidney Lumet. The movie is adapted from the play, "Orpheus Descending," by Tennessee Williams who also was co-writer of the script.In the classic tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, Orpheus is a musician, whose young bride Eurydice dies. Orpheus descends to the Underworld, where his music is so wonderful that he is allowed to bring Eurydice back from the dead. However, just as he is about to succeed, the plan fails, and Eurydice remains in the Underworld. Shortly afterward, Orpheus himself is killed.In the movie, Marlon Brando plays Valentine 'Snakeskin' Xavier, who is a musician, and who is symbolically Orpheus. Val arrives in a small town in the deep South, which, at the time, could certainly serve as a symbol of the Underworld. Anna Magnani plays an Italian shopkeeper, Lady Torrance, who is married to Jabe Torrance, a harsh, evil man, who is fatally ill. She could be Eurydice, although Williams gives us a second lost soul, Joanne Woodward as Carol Cutrere, a rich, beautiful young alcoholic. Woodward is always drunk, and always seductive. I think Williams perceived her as a life force, even if the life she was leading was self-destructive. (I don't see where she fits into the Orpheus and Eurydice tale, but there she is every so often--drunk and unable to drive home because, "The took away my license again.")According to IMDb, Brandon is considered the greatest film actor of the 20th Century. Maybe, maybe not. By the time this film was shot, he was 36, and his face had lost the sharp angles it had had in his earlier great films. He is treated in the film as a man no woman could resist, and maybe that was true in small-town Mississippi, but it was a stretch for me. Brando's great achievement was Method realism, and it didn't work for me in his film.The opening scene shows Val in court, being lectured by a judge. We can't see the judge-- the scene is shot from his POV. We see Brando mumbling his way through the questioning. "Yeah, I had to hock my guitar. I couldn't bear to think of my guitar being in hock, so I kinda broke up the place." "As soon as I get my guitar out of hock, I'm leaving New Orleans." I found the scene painful.The question is, Why see the picture at all? See it for Magnani. Magnani plays a middle-aged woman, who falls in love with Brando, as expected. A reasonable choice for her under the circumstances, but not a wise one. Magnani was often compared to Sohia Loren. They were both Italian, and both beautiful, but that's where the similarity ends. Loren was impossibly beautiful. Magnanii had a beauty that was not impossible. You can imagine her as someone you might encounter, even at the in a mercantile store in the deep South. Her acting was superb. She was a strong person, but the circumstances forced her to be far less than she could have been.Some films from 1960 appear as alive as they did when they were made. The Fugitive Kind feels dated--almost a classic movie whose time has passed. However, it's worth seeing for Magnani's outstanding, exactly right, performance. The film is mostly shot indoors, and will work on DVD. It's a part of movie history, and is worth seeing, but don't expect a timeless masterpiece.Note: Look for Maureen Stapleton as Vee Talbot, who is so downtrodden by her sheriff husband that she has left the real world and escaped into her own world of painting.Note: If you want to see the Orpheus legend truly captured on film, watch Black Orpheus, set in Brazil during Carnival. It's adheres to the Orpheus legend much more closely, and you care more for the characters.

richard.fuller1 I've liked some Tennessee Williams stories, from Rose Tattoo to the more obvious Cat on A Hot Tin Roof and Streetcar, saw the TV version of Bird of Youth, think there was another one of his I saw and liked.But this was terrible! Like some odd retelling of Sweet Bird that needn't have been done.And the performances certainly didn't manage to save it. Brando and Magnani couldn't bring any believability to each other if they tried. It was like they phoned them in. Absolutely terrible! If you like Williams, watch this one with some skepticism. It was just incredibly dull.And the ending was a total letdown. The wonderful jilted husband was the only one who showed any worth.You cheat on your husband with his window just right overhead like that, what do you expect? Terrible film.

blanche-2 Marlon Brando is "The Fugitive Kind" in this 1960 film based on the Tennessee Williams play "Orpheus Descending." Williams adapted the play for the film.Brando plays Val Xavier, a drifter from New Orleans who rolls into the small southern town of Two Ribers, Mississippi with his life's companion, which is his guitar, and a snakeskin jacket. Like William Holden in "Picnic," his very presence shakes things up. He gets a job in a store owned by Jabe Torrence (Victor Jory), who is ill, and his wife, Lady (Anna Magnani), an immigrant. Lady is very unhappy and lonely, and the two embark on an affair. Joanne Woodward is Carol, a drunk who has been banned from most places in town. She's attracted to Val so she keeps hanging around. And Maureen Stapleton is Vee Teasdale, a kind woman who is encouraged in her painting by Val.The fireworks spark between Brando and Magnani, two magnetic, intense performers who come together with a backdrop of violence and bigotry. They are an excellent match, as both are such compelling performers. Joanne Woodward is problematic. She is completely over the top. Where Magnani and Brando choose their moments of outburst, Woodward is overdone and trying too hard throughout. It was up to Sidney Lumet, the director, to temper her performance, but let's face it, he probably had his hands full with Brando and Magnani. Maureen Stapleton gives a great performance as Vee.The film was made in a small town on the Hudson River and gives this dark film a gloomy, dangerous atmosphere.Apparently what went on behind the scenes could have been a film as well. Magnani fell hard for Brando -- and he is absolutely at the height of his looks and sexiness here -- but Brando wasn't feeling it. Apparently he rejected her. Then he started mumbling his dialogue, and since Ms. Magnani didn't actually speak English well and had learned her lines by rote, it was hard for her to pick up her cues. Fun set.Well worth seeing for the acting, but don't watch it if you're feeling even a little depressed. And if you live on a high floor, lock the windows. A real downer.

Bolesroor "The Fugitive Kind" plays like Tennessee Williams' B-side, the second-half of a "Streetcar" double feature... Director Sidney Lumet does a fantastic job tapping into the loneliness, desire, and humanity that were the hallmarks of Williams' writing. And Brando is still smoking from his "Streetcar" heat...Marlon was still in his golden era, and he's the reason to see this movie. His performance here is pure sexual magnetism, as he effortlessly plays a man whose every move oozes eroticism. How much so? At one point in the movie Anna Magnini watches him walk by with a cigarette in his hand and blushes, asking why he's so dirty. At another point, he confesses his gift/curse for being able to "wear women down." Let the levees break...This is the Brando everyone talks about, and every tired cliché is absolutely true: you cannot take your eyes off him. Smoldering, strong, and yet embarrassingly vulnerable- both physically and emotionally. This is the stuff dreams are made of.Joanne Woodward gives a brilliantly naked performance as a beatnik, and she reminded me strongly of Jessica Lange. Anna Magnani is suitably raw, and Victor Jory appropriately evil.The show here is Marlon, and if you don't know why he's considered the best film actor of all time, just take a look at him here.GRADE: B