IMDb > The Fugitive Kind (1960)

The Fugitive Kind (1960) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
7.1/10   1,292 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 15% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Sidney Lumet
Writers:
Tennessee Williams (play)
Tennessee Williams (screenplay) ...
(more)
Contact:
View company contact information for The Fugitive Kind on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
May 1960 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama | Romance more
Tagline:
...and now the screen is struck by lightning ! more
Plot:
Val Xavier, a drifter of obscure origins arrives at a small town and gets a job in a store run by Lady Torrence... more | add synopsis
Awards:
2 wins more
NewsDesk:
Birthday Suits 11/07
 (From FilmExperience. 7 November 2009, 8:45 AM, PST)

User Comments:
A Bird With No Feet Can't Land Anywhere more (19 total)

Cast

  (in credits order) (verified as complete)

Marlon Brando ... Valentine 'Snakeskin' Xavier

Anna Magnani ... Lady Torrance

Joanne Woodward ... Carol Cutrere

Maureen Stapleton ... Vee Talbot
Victor Jory ... Jabe M. Torrance
R.G. Armstrong ... Sheriff Jordan Talbott
Emory Richardson ... Uncle Pleasant, the Conjure Man
Madame Spivy ... Ruby Lightfoot (as Spivy)
Sally Gracie ... Dolly Hamma
Lucille Benson ... Beulah Binnings
John Baragrey ... David Cutrere
Ben Yaffee ... 'Dog' Hamma
Joe Brown Jr. ... 'Pee Wee' Binnings
Virgilia Chew ... Nurse Porter
Frank Borgman ... Gas Station Attendant
Janice Mars ... Attendant's Wife
Debbie Lynch ... Lonely Girl
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jeanne Barr ... Bit Part (uncredited)
Neil Harrison ... (uncredited)
Herb Vigran ... Caliope Player (voice) (uncredited)
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Directed by
Sidney Lumet 
 
Writing credits
Tennessee Williams (play "Orpheus Descending")

Tennessee Williams (screenplay) and
Meade Roberts (screenplay)

Produced by
Martin Jurow .... producer
George Justin .... associate producer
Richard Shepherd .... producer
 
Original Music by
Kenyon Hopkins 
 
Cinematography by
Boris Kaufman 
 
Film Editing by
Carl Lerner 
 
Art Direction by
Richard Sylbert 
 
Set Decoration by
Gene Callahan 
 
Costume Design by
Frank L. Thompson 
 
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Charles H. Maguire .... assistant director
 
Sound Department
James A. Gleason .... sound (as James Gleason)
Philip Gleason .... sound
 
Stunts
Larry Duran .... stunts (uncredited)
 
Camera and Electrical Department
Saul Midwall .... camera operator
 
Music Department
Kenyon Hopkins .... conductor
 
Other crew
Mart Crowley .... production assistant
 

Production CompaniesDistributors
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Additional Details

Runtime:
119 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Aspect Ratio:
1.66 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono
Certification:
Canada:PG (Ontario) | Brazil:14 | Australia:M (original rating) | Australia:PG (alternate rating) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved
Filming Locations:
Milton, New York, USA more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
"Battle of Angels", the original version of Tennesse Williams play "Orpheus Descending" that the movie is based on, flopped in Boston in 1940 and did not make it to Broadway. The 1957 Broadway production of the reworked play, starring Cliff Robertson and Maureen Stapleton as Val and Lady Torrance, also was a flop. It wasn't until the 1989 revival starring Vanessa Redgrave as Lady Torrance that the play was a success on Broadway. more
Quotes:
Carol Cutrere: Juking? Oh! Well, that's when you get in a car, which is preferably open in any kind of weather. And then you drink a little bit and you drive a little bit, and then you stop and you dance a little bit with a jukebox. And then you drink a little bit more and you drive a little bit more, you stop and you dance a little bit more to another juke box! And then you stop dancing and you just drink and you drive. And then, you stop driving. more
Movie Connections:
Version of Orpheus Descending (1990) (TV) more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
12 out of 16 people found the following comment useful.
A Bird With No Feet Can't Land Anywhere, 26 May 2008
8/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

I suspect that Tennessee Williams probably agreed to change the title of his classically sounding play Orpheus Descending to The Fugitive Kind in order to insure box office. Possibly some of Marlon Brando's fans garnered from The Wild One might pay their admissions thinking they were seeing something like that. I can think of worst ways to be exposed to one of America's most respected playwrights.

This was Brando's second time doing Williams for the screen, the first time being A Streetcar Named Desire. Curiously enough this was Anna Magnani's second time doing Tennessee Williams for the screen as well, she won an Oscar in 1955 for The Rose Tattoo. So the combination of Brando and Magnani seemed a natural for the screen. I don't think The Fugitive Kind is as good as Streetcar or The Rose Tattoo, but the parts are meaty enough roles for both these honored players.

Characters seem to drift in to The Fugitive Kind from other Williams work. Brando's Val Xavier is quite like Chance Wayne in Sweet Bird of Youth, in fact in the review's title is the illusion Brando himself makes of his character. He's an early 30 something drifter with a talent for sex and music, the former probably more than the latter.

Unlike Chance, Xavier doesn't have a female keeper, but he'd like to find one. He passes up liaison with the town trollop played by a third Oscar winner in the cast, Joanne Woodward for the older and married Anna Magnani.

Magnani is trapped in a loveless marriage to a dying Victor Jory, a petty tyrant who runs the town general store. Like Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Jory is dying of cancer at a much more advanced stage of the disease than Burl Ives had. Picture Big Mama from that play hot to trot for Chance Wayne and you've got the essence of The Fugitive Kind.

Joanne Woodward has an interesting part. Part of her loose behavior is in rebellion against the time honored tradition of institutional racism that is the south that Tennessee Williams grew up in. I'm not an expert on Tennessee Williams, but of the works I've seen that are revived frequently, this is the only one where Williams directly brings up racism.

Orpheus Descending on Broadway only ran 68 performances in 1957. Two members from the Broadway cast made it to the screen, R.G. Armstrong as the sheriff repeating his role and Maureen Stapleton who had Joanne Woodward's part on stage, essays the part of the sheriff's wife who also is married to another middle aged tyrant. Considered a lesser work of Williams at first, Orpheus Descending is now revived frequently by stock theater companies everywhere. A critically acclaimed revival on Broadway in 1989 with Vanessa Redgrave and Tammy Grimes and Kevin Anderson helped bring Orpheus Descending into its proper place in the sun.

Maybe if a remake is ever done, it will even be done under its proper original title. Till then we can be well satisfied with this version.

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Shocked (SPOILERS) ajimenezp
How in the hell is this rated only 6.7? danser1
Joanne Woodward boarding_angel
speaks to the fugitive kind in many of us AccidntlTourist
On TCM USA on July 18 at 10.00 PM EST + Aug 29 6.00 AM Lentejuela
chemistry creole_femme
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