AMERICAN MASTERS: TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: ORPHEUS OF THE AMERICAN STAGE (TV)
Summary
One in this documentary series that explores the lives and achievements of America's most celebrated native-born and adopted artists and performers. This documentary examines the life and career of Tennessee Williams, using archival photographs, footage from television and film productions, and interviews with Williams and his peers to construct a portrait of the playwright. The program begins with a look at "The Glass Menagerie," much of which is based on Williams' early life, featuring a scene from the 1973 television production with Katharine Hepburn, Sam Waterston, and Joanna Miles. It supplements this performance with a clip of a 1958 interview in which Williams alludes to the autobiographical nature of the work. After Williams and Claudia Cassidy share memories about the play's opening in Chicago, a segment of the 1987 television version with Joanne Woodward and Karen Allen is shown. Author Donald Windham refers to the play's two female leads as representative of Williams's mother and sister, Williams talks in 1976 about his mother's refusal to recognize herself in the role of Amanda, and author Gore Vidal examines the relationship between mother and son. Critic Robert Brustein comments on the lyricism of Williams' writing, and Williams himself reads from the final monologue of "The Glass Menagerie."
In bits from interviews of the 1970s and 1980s, Williams reveals his thoughts about his sexuality, his favorite character, and his work with Elia Kazan. Actress Kim Hunter reads from Kazan's notes about directing "A Streetcar Named Desire"; Vidal explores Williams' fascination with women as victims of society and the groundbreaking exploration of male eroticism in "Streetcar"; Brustein recognizes Williams' agility with language; and scenes from the film version of the play are shown featuring Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Hunter, and Karl Malden. Windham focuses on the interplay between Williams' writing and his homosexuality, and Charles Bowden and Patricia Laurence examine his long relationship with Frank Merlo. Next, Albert Dekker and Jackie Washington are featured in a scene from "Camino Real," one of the playwright's first works to be panned severely by critics, as playwright Edward Albee recalls. A scene from the movie "Baby Doll," with Carroll Baker and Eli Wallach, showcases the only piece Williams wrote explicitly for the big screen, and the author, in a 1958 appearance on "Mike Wallace Asks," responds to the Catholic Church's condemnation of the screenplay's exploration of a woman's sexuality.
In an interview from "The Lively Arts" in 1976, Williams reminisces about his own father, who served as the inspiration for Big Daddy in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Scenes from the movie version of that play, featuring Burl Ives, Paul Newman, Madeleine Sherwood, and Jack Carson, are then shown. Elaine Steinbeck and William J. Smith talk about the failure of "Battle of Angels," and its reincarnation many years later in the film "The Fugitive Kind" is seen in clips with Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, and Victor Jory. Paul Newman and Geraldine Page appear in a segment from the film version of "Sweet Bird of Youth," exhibiting Williams's deepening cynicism; that play is compared to "Summer and Smoke," a scene from which is shown with Page and Laurence Harvey. Williams is shown discussing his thoughts on violence and his dark view of the world, and comments are added by Dilys Powell. Montgomery Clift and Katharine Hepburn appear in highlights of the film "Suddenly Last Summer" (1959); their performance is followed by a scene with Natasha Richardson in a 1992 television-movie version of that work, an example of the extreme violence with which Williams dealt. Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, and Sue Lyon act in scenes from the film version of "The Night of the Iguana," and Frank Corsaro, director of the original stage production, pronounces that play an advanced piece for Williams.
Next, Brustein and Williams both talk about the fullness and freedom of the playwright's characters. Maureen Stapleton, Charles Bowden, Maria St. Just, Windham, and Vidal all examine Williams' addiction to drugs and alcohol and its effects on his work, and Mike Wallace asks Williams about his string of failed productions in the 1960s. Sam Waterston and Joanna Miles are seen in a clip from "Out Cry," and Williams recalls his sister Rose's mental illness and its influence on his fears. In a 1970 conversation on "The David Frost Show," Williams tackles the subject of his homosexuality; this discussion is followed by clip of his "Small Craft Warnings" in which Reed Birney meditates on the plight of the homosexual. The program ends with Williams' final television appearance in 1982 (he died in 1983), an interview in which the playwright discusses the senselessness of life.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by Rosalind P. Walter, 1999.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS WNET New York, NY
- DATE: December 19, 1994 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:27:32
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:58858
- GENRE: Arts documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Playwrights; Biography; Drama - Excerpts; Theater
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 1986-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Susan Lacy … Executive Producer
- Catherine Tatge … Executive Producer
- Susan Lacy … Executive Producer
- Lois Dino … Coordinating Producer
- Alicia Sams … Coordinating Producer
- Merrill Brockway … Producer, Director
- Marianne Bower … Associate Producer
- Brooks Haxton … Writer
- Thomas Wagner … Theme Music by
- Frank Langella … Narrator
- Kim Hunter … Narrator, Readings from Elia Kazan's Notebook by
- Edward Albee
- Karen Allen
- Carroll Baker
- Reed Birney
- Charles Bowden
- Marlon Brando
- Robert Brustein
- Richard Burton
- Jack Carson
- Claudia Cassidy
- Montgomery Clift
- Frank Corsaro
- Albert Dekker
- David Frost
- Ava Gardner
- Laurence Harvey
- Katharine Hepburn
- Kim Hunter
- Burl Ives
- Victor Jory
- Elia Kazan
- Deborah Kerr
- Patricia Laurence
- Vivien Leigh
- Sue Lyon
- Anna Magnani
- Karl Malden
- Frank Merlo
- Joanna Miles
- Paul Newman
- Geraldine Page
- Dilys Powell
- Natasha Richardson
- Madeleine Sherwood
- William J. Smith
- St. Just, Maria
- Maureen Stapleton
- Elaine Steinbeck
- Gore Vidal
- Mike Wallace
- Eli Wallach
- Jackie Washington
- Sam Waterston
- Rose Williams
- Tennessee Williams
- Donald Windham
- Joanne Woodward