The play this is based on, first produced in 1957 (I believe) flopped. Then the great director Sidney Lumet took a stab at it in a loose adaptation film called 'The Fugitive Kind' from 1960 starring Marlon Brando and Joanne Woodward which was also a flop (though has a 7.2/10 rating here at IMDb) though ironically Tennessee Williams has a play from 1937 called "The Fugitive Kind" but the Lumet film was not based on it; but Williams' play 'Orpheus Descending' was a revision of the 1940 work "Battle of Angels". Confusing, no? What's my point to all that? So many, including Williams, tried to make this story work and never could, really. Well, not until a well-worked yet relatively unknown writer/director Peter Hall. His adaptation is closely aligned to Williams' version, and actually works pretty well on screen.This film stars Kevin Anderson as Val Xavier, a singer drifting through town who gets a job at Lady Torrance's store. Lady is played by the great actress Vanessa Redgrave. Lady is married to Jabe who's played by Brad Sullivan, who's dying of cancer and is also the man who killed Lady's father; Lady hates Jabe but remains married to him anyway; though Jabe eventually tells hers, most likely because he's dying. Anne Twomey plays Carol Cutrere who is actually linked to Val in the play but not so much in the film but that she feels like saving him; though there may be one scene where Val alludes to Carol in a flashback scene but it's not entirely clear he's talking of Carol. I felt that, while there are many aspects to the story, this film was about being saved from either the horrific tortures of one's life or to a basic degree being able to free oneself from the constraints of it. The ending of the play and the ending of this film is the same but different. While Lady does get shot by Jabe in both, Val, in the play dies in a building fire where as in the film Jabe sets him on fire reminiscent of how he and the Klan killed Lady's father. I thought that part was a homage, if nothing else. I could be wrong, though. The powerful creativity of this film isn't the acting, or necessarily the direction, it's the poetry of the words which I am sure would come off confusing to some or just link it to one of the few weird films such as those directed by Lynch or Cronenberg. Personally I felt it's sort of like the 1982 film 'Deadly Drifter' (also known as 'Out' which is the title of the novel it's based on) which starred Danny Glover and Peter Coyote. Mainly in the way it moves around: entrancing yet subtle in certain ways. Michael Emerson had his TV & Film debut (played Benjamin Linus on the TV show 'LOST') in this film playing the clown toward the end of the film. It's a very small part and you won't recognize him but I thought it worth mentioning. It's a vibrant film. No lack of excitement. Very well written. As TV films go, it wasn't that bad overall.

After watching this TV-movie on TCM recently, originally produced and aired on its sister network TBS, I couldn't believe that the talents of Vanessa Redgrave and Sidney Lumet created such a poor version of this classic myth. Redgrave, though always beautiful and interesting to watch, is ludicrous as the Italian Lady Torrance. Her accent vacillates between pidgin Italian and cast-upon-the-moors Irish. I couldn't tell what she was saying half the time. Thank God for closed captions. Although I love Redgrave in Blow-Up, Howard's End and Mrs. Dalloway, she was insufferable in this movie. The whole turgid mess was miscast, poorly produced, out-of-focus (literally and figuratively) and just plain awful. And I'm big fan of Tennessee Williams. I had looked forward to watching this movie when I caught it on the TCM schedule, but honestly, if you like Redgrave, Lumet and Williams do yourself a favor and skip this one. It leaves a very bad taste in your mouth, and the tragedy and haunting beauty of the original myth are nowhere to be found.

Somehow I had never seen this. It showed tonight on Turner Classics and Vanessa Redgraves, who was always great, took it to a level I had never seen this or the play before. I hope there is video obtainable of this on the stage with Redgraves and Anderson.When acting is as great as this it legitimizes the profession to do more the pander or entertain. It's both tragic and comic as well as a statement on human stupidity and evil.

Hot diggity dog, is this a great movie! I'm surprised that so few people have heard of it, neither would I if I hadn't found it going cheap.The story deals with your usual southern redneck town full of repressed and frustrated people, typical Williams territory. In this it does a great deal better than such Hollywood formula fare as Mississippi Boring, I mean Burning.Vanessa Redgrave isn't too convincing as an Italian-American, she's just Vanessa Redgrave; but what the hey, that's just right here. She plays (what else) an abused and unhappy grocer trapped in a loveless marriage. Her invalid husband is incapable of loving her; we might be tempted to feel sorry for him, but we know (which she doesn't) that he was responsible for burning her father to death many years before. The image of fire recurs throughout the movie, both as a symbol of sexual passion and as a harbinger of fearsome cruelty. If we recall that Orpheus descended into Hades, this ashcan of a town is effectively hell.Kevin Anderson is very convincing as a southern drifter who conceals a kind heart. Not only that, he does a great job of howling out those Delta blues to his trusty ol' guitar, almost operatic in quality. You just know that something is going to happen to him.Williams combines his usual erotic concerns with a story that involves the Klan, lynching and redneck hypocrisy - and it makes for a more compelling story. I've seen Streetcar and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and I reckon that this is a better movie. The only problem is that the title is too abstract, its relation to the story is too tenuous; something more direct would attract more viewers.