"In A Town Like This..."
An announcement about April Criterion releases says that Sidney Lumet's The Fugitive Kind (1960), an under-appreciated adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending starring Marlon Brando and Anna Magnani, will be among them. We're talking a double-disc special edition with a high-definition digital transfer plus extras, including a documentary about the making of the film and an essay by David Thomson.
Brando's Valentine Xaiver, a guitar-strumming drifter in a snakeskin jacket, was his second and last performance as a youngish moody type in a frankly sexual drama. (Val could've been the older, alienated-hipster brother of Stanley Kowalski -- one who never wrote or kept in touch.) Brando returned to this kind of character in Last Tango in Paris, of course, but as a middle-aged man on a kind of spiritual downswirl.
Joanne Woodward costarred as a heavily mascara'ed wackjob. Victor Jory plays one of Williams' standard-issue Southern sickos -- a symbol of decrepitude and intolerance.
The Criterion email calls The Fugitive Kind a 1959 film. The IMDB says it opened on December 1, 1959 but Bosley Crowther's N.Y. Times review is dated April 15, 1960. It premiered in Los Angeles and sat around for four months before opening in New York?
"At the center of his drama, which grimly and relentlessly takes place in the sweaty and noxious climate of a backwash Louisiana town, there are two brave and enterprising people whose inevitably frustrating fate assumes, from the vibrance of their natures, the shape of tragedy," Crowther wrote. "And because Marlon Brando and Anna Magnani play these two people brilliantly, The Fugitive Kind has a distinction and a sensitivity that are rare today in films.
"Credit, too, Sidney Lumet, who has directed this piercing account of loneliness and disappointment in a crass and tyrannical world. His plainly perceptive understanding of the deep-running skills of the two stars, his daring with faces in close-up and his out-right audacity in pacing his film at a morbid tempo that lets time drag and passions slowly shape are responsible for much of the insistence and the mesmeric quality that emerge."
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on January 18, 2010 at 10:19 AM
comment #1
BizzarroJeffWells
says ...
Hey Wells, do you know, or can you find out, if Criterion is planning to release a Blu Ray set edition of their FANNY & ALEXANDER 5 disc set anytime soon? Been waiting too long for it. I figured, you know, you have some pull and clout and all that. thanks, man.
Posted by BizzarroJeffWells
at January 18, 2010 11:32 AM
comment #2
Chris Willman
says ...
I did an interview with T Bone Burnett recently in which he said that "The Fugitive Kind" was an inspiration for him when he was working on "Crazy Heart," as much as any of the more obvious antecedents. I had to admit I didn't know the film. Burnett discusses it here if you scroll about three-quarters of the way down...
http://new.music.yahoo.com/programs/pepsi-music/blog/5850/t-bone-burnett-finds-the-musical-heart-of-crazy-heart/
Posted by Chris Willman
at January 18, 2010 11:47 AM
comment #3
George Prager
says ...
Did Nic Cage watch this before he suited up for WILD AT HEART?
Posted by George Prager
at January 18, 2010 12:28 PM
comment #4
btwnproductions
says ...
I think FUGITIVE KIND was a WILD AT HEART inspiration. It's not very good but clearly elements of it have lingered.
Posted by btwnproductions
at January 18, 2010 1:03 PM
comment #5
Chase Kahn
says ...
What kind of transfer is on the MGM bare-bones DVD that's readily accessible for THE FUGITIVE KIND?
Posted by Chase Kahn
at January 18, 2010 1:14 PM
comment #6
Chicago48
says ...
OMG, that was a great scene. Never saw the movie. I want to see it.
Posted by Chicago48
at January 18, 2010 3:43 PM
comment #7
lipranzer
says ...
This is definitely a problematic film - part of the problem is Brando and Magnani apparently didn't get along during the making of the film, and unfortunately, it shows on-screen, as they don't work well together - but this is one of the few times between ON THE WATERFRONT and THE GODFATHER where you can tell Brando was taking the material seriously, and that's reflected in his performance. I also liked Joanne Woodward a lot here, and Lumet's restrained direction works well with the material.
Posted by lipranzer
at January 18, 2010 5:26 PM
comment #8
Jack South P.I.
says ...
Lumet tells a story about the making of this film in his great book. It's been awhile but it's basically a horror story about how Brando needed something like 75 takes to do one short scene. He apparently kept tripping over one easy line. Lumet talks about how tense the set was as it dawned on everyone what was happening, no one would look at Brando, etc. All Lumet could do was put a hand on his back and offer support and keep plowing forward. It's a great story.
I wonder how long after that Brando started using cue cards.
Posted by Jack South P.I.
at January 19, 2010 8:43 AM
comment #9
bmcintire
says ...
MGM's release is from a standard-def transfer. The Criterion release will be the first time this one has been in HD.
Why are they not going to release this on Blu-Ray simultaneously? Here's hoping they don't follow the same short-sighted path with NIGHT OF THE HUNTER.
Posted by bmcintire
at January 19, 2010 12:12 PM
comment #10
candyyang80
says ...
Seeksingleparent.com
I found my hubby at the niche interracial dating site named Seeksingleparent.com. As you know thousands of new members join daily to meet dream date in this comfortable community of cultures and ethnicities !!
Posted by candyyang80
at January 21, 2010 7:36 PM