Adapting Tennessee Williams

It didn’t take long for Hollywood to discover the Broadway sensation Tennessee Williams, pictured in 1940 at right. Just five years after his landmark drama “The Glass Menagerie” took the Great White Way by storm in 1945, Warner Bros. released a high-profile feature version with noted British theater star Gertrude Lawrence, Oscar-winner Jane Wyman and Kirk Douglas.

The results were mixed, and that has been the case with the film and TV versions of Williams’ full-length plays, one-acts, novellas and original screenplays. Because Williams’ plays often dealt with such taboo subjects (for movies, anyway) as sexual addiction and homosexuality, very often his works had to be watered-down and even neutered for the screen to pass the censor’s watchful eye.

Here’s a chronological look at some of Williams’ work done for film and television. Except where noted (*), all are available on VHS and/or DVD.

“The Glass Menagerie”: Williams’ seminal 1945 drama about a dysfunctional family living in pre-World War II New Orleans was brought to the screen in 1950 in this uneven production, which does offer viewers a rare chance to see Lawrence on the screen. Though Lawrence is miscast as the long-suffering Amanda Wingfield, Wyman is perfect as her shy, crippled daughter, Laura. Arthur Kennedy adds just the right touch as Amanda’s angry son, Tom, and Kirk Douglas offers nice support as his friend, Jim O’Connor.*

David Susskind brought the drama to ABC television in 1966 in a production that starred Shirley Booth as Amanda, Pat Hingle as Jim, Hal Holbrook as Tom and Barbara Loden as Laura.*

Perhaps the most satisfying version of “Menagerie” was the 1973 ABC production, also produced by Susskind, that features indelible performances from Katharine Hepburn, in her TV movie debut, as Amanda, Sam Waterston as Tom, Joanna Miles as Laura and Michael Moriarty as Jim. John Barry composed the haunting score, and the whole production was brilliantly directed by Anthony Harvey, who turns this gem into a true memory play.

Paul Newman also directed a lovely if somewhat deliberately paced 1987 feature version starring wife Joanne Woodward as Amanda, Karen Allen as Laura, John Malkovich as Tom and James Naughton as Jim.

“A Streetcar Named Desire”: Perhaps Williams’ best-known drama has also been a filmmakers’ favorite. The best version is the first, Elia Kazan’s riveting 1951 rendition, which reunited three members of the Broadway cast -- Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden -- and Vivien Leigh, who starred in the London production. Even 52 years after its initial release, this sultry melodrama about aging Southern belle Blanche DuBois still packs a wallop. The censors, though, diluted much of the sexual material of the piece, including the ending. However, in the 1990s, material edited from the original film was found in the vaults and put back into the film, helping to clarify several of the characters’ motives.

Far less successful is the 1984 ABC TV version directed by John Erman starring Ann-Margret as Blanche, a miscast Treat Williams as Stanley and Beverly D’Angelo, a bit too dishy, as Stella.

Jessica Lange and Alec Baldwin became the latest actors to try on the roles of Blanche and Stanley in the uneven but generally impressive 1995 CBS TV version. Both Lange and Baldwin played the roles in the popular Broadway revival. Glenn Jordan directed.

“Streetcar” has also inspired a ballet and an opera and in 1998 PBS presented the opera version starring Renee Fleming as Blanche and Rodney Gilfry as Stanley.

“The Rose Tattoo”: This often funny drama about an Italian immigrant widow (Anna Magnani) who falls in love with a beefy Italian truck driver (Burt Lancaster) wasn’t one of Williams’ better plays, but the 1955 film version directed by Daniel Mann is a near-classic due to Magnani’s earthy, Oscar-winning performance. Lancaster, though, just doesn’t seem convincing. Marisa Pavan gives a lovely performance as Magnani’s sweet daughter.

“Baby Doll”: Williams wrote the screenplay for the 1956 comedy drama that brought Carroll Baker to prominence for her performance as a sexy, 19-year-old virgin toying with the affections of two men (Malden and Eli Wallach). Directed by Kazan, the film, though very tame today, was strictly for adults upon release.

“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”: Richard Brooks co-wrote and directed a terrific adaptation of Williams’ play in 1958. Brooks, who began his film career as a writer, was able to capture the spirit of the original while also diluting the play’s gay subtext. “Cat” features Newman in his first Oscar-nominated role as the tortured athlete Brick and Elizabeth Taylor, a fellow Oscar nominee, as his sexually frustrated wife Maggie, the Cat.

Robert Wagner has said in interviews that Williams really loved his performance as Brick in the 1976 NBC version of “Cat.” And though it’s a different role for the popular actor, the production just doesn’t catch fire. Still, it’s one of the few on-screen pairings of Wagner and his late wife Natalie Wood, who plays Maggie. And it’s a chance to see Laurence Olivier as Brick’s overbearing father, Big Daddy.

In 1985, PBS “American Playhouse” tackled “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” Jessica Lange, though, lacks the urgency of Taylor’s performance as Maggie, but Tommy Lee Jones is just fine as Brick. Rip Torn and Kim Stanley also star.

“Sweet Bird of Youth”: Even though he had to tone down the play’s hot potato themes of abortion and castration, Brooks again does a top-notch adaptation in the 1962 film. Newman gives another gritty performance, this time as Chance Wayne, a handsome young man who returns to his small Southern hometown with a washed up actress (a fabulous Geraldine Page). Both Newman and Page played these roles on Broadway and their chemistry is astonishing. Ed Begley won the Oscar for his supporting role as the town’s tyrannical mayor, Boss Finley.

NBC’s much-ballyhooed 1989 TV version of “Sweet Bird” lays an egg. Nicholas Roeg directed this half-baked adaptation, penned by Gavin Lambert, with an overblown Elizabeth Taylor as the alcoholic actress Alexander Del Lago and a stiff Mark Harmon as Chance Wayne. Rip Torn, though, is pretty juicy in Begley’s old part.

“Orpheus Descending”: A real disappointment in the Williams movie canon is 1959’s “The Fugitive Kind,” based on his play “Orpheus Descending.” Directed by Sidney Lumet, the film revolves around an “entertainer” (Brando) who drifts into a small Mississippi town and begins a romance with an unhappily married Italian immigrant (Magnani).

In 1990, TNT brought together the two stars -- Vanessa Redgrave and Kevin Anderson -- of the popular Broadway revival of “Orpheus Descending” for a provocative, well-intentioned version of the melodrama.

“Suddenly, Last Summer”: Despite Oscar-nominated performances by Hepburn and Taylor, the 1959 version of Williams’ play is a muddle because of the dilution of many of the plot points dealing with madness, homosexuality and even cannibalism. Montgomery Clift plays a psychiatrist but acts as if he needs one.

Twenty-four years later, the complete version of the play made it to PBS’ “American Playhouse” with uneven results despite the presence of Natasha Richardson and Maggie Smith. The fly in the ointment is Rob Lowe, totally out of his element in the Clift role.

“Summer and Smoke”: Page gives one of her best performances in this otherwise stagy 1961 adaptation of his hit gothic drama. She plays a small-town Southern spinster named Miss Alma who loves the handsome, wastrel son (Laurence Harvey) of the town’s doctor.

Williams revised “Summer and Smoke” as “Eccentricities of a Nightingale” and in 1976 PBS aired this acclaimed version directed by Glenn Jordan and starring Blythe Danner and Frank Langella.

“Period of Adjustment”: A rare Williams comedy, this featherweight 1962 version, directed by George Roy Hill, is made palatable by the performances of Jane Fonda and Jim Hutton as newlyweds.

“The Night of the Iguana”: John Huston was in his element directing the 1964 version of Williams’ last great play. Filmed on location in Mexico, the drama deals with a defrocked, dissolute clergyman (Richard Burton) working as a tour guide in Mexico. Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, Sue Lyon and Grayson Hall (an Oscar nominee) star.

“This Property Is Condemned”: Natalie Wood and Robert Redford are ill-fated lovers in this 1966 drama based on a lesser Williams work. Directed by Sydney Pollack, “Property” may be minor Williams, but it’s immensely entertaining thanks to the cast. Francis Ford Coppola was one of the screenwriters.

“Boom”: Williams’ play “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore” was not a success and neither is the 1968 film version. In fact, this overstuffed turkey should have been called “Bust.” “Boom” stars Taylor in truly one of her most annoying performances as a rich writer named Sissy Goforth who lives in a huge villa on an isolated Mediterranean island. Burton plays a mysterious man who arrives uninvited at the island. Noel Coward and Joanna Shimkus also star. “Boom” is John Waters’ favorite movie.

“The Last of the Mobile Hot Shots”: Released in 1969, this mutt of a melodrama, based on his flop “The Seven Descents of Myrtle,” actually had an X rating. Ineptly directed by Lumet, “Hot Shots,” stars Lynn Redgrave and James Coburn as white trash who marry on a television show and go to live on his family’s decrepit plantation.

-- Susan King