The Fugitive Kind (1959)

Director:

Sidney Lumet

Writers:

Tennessee Williams (play)
Tennessee Williams (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

1 December 1959 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

...and now the screen is struck by lightning !

Plot:

Val Xavier, a drifter of obscure origins arrives at a small town and gets a job in a store run by Lady Torrence...

Plot Keywords:

Small Town | Jacket | Drifter | Cemetery | General Store

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

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)

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 Companies

• Pennebaker Productions

Distributors

• United Artists (1959) (USA) (theatrical)
• MGM Home Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)

Runtime:

119 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

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

Company:

Pennebaker Productions

Trivia:

Of the cast of the 1957 Broadway production, Maureen Stapleton and R.G. Armstrong made the transition to the screen. While Armstrong reprised his role as Sheriff Talbott, Stapleton took the supporting role of Vee Talbot. Interestingly, Stapleton also was the original Serafina in Williams' "The Rose Tattoo," a role that also was played by Magnani on-screen.

Quotes:

Lady Torrance: Are you a lady's man?
Valentine 'Snakeskin' Xavier: It's been said that a woman can burn a man down... I can burn a woman down.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage (1994) (TV)

Extremely poignant and captivating!

Tennessee Williams was a stunning writer for the theater... The impact of his plays can overwhelm an audience with its superior force...

Written in 1957, "Orpheus Descending" is a reconstruction of Williams' 1940 "Battle of Angels," filmed under Sidney Lumet's direction as "The Fugitive Kind."

Williams subtracted elements of the ancient myth of Orpheus and Euridice to examine the sadistically patriarchal Southern Gothic town and to create a violent plot, involving ruined love, weakness, sex, betrayal, vengeance and lingering hatreds... "Orpheus Descending" shows how social prejudice threatens the lives of identified outsiders...

This classic play is not quite his masterpiece... "A Streetcar Named Desire" is... It lacks some of the regretful charm of "The Glass Menagerie" and the entire impact of "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof." Nevertheless it is a deeply moving work of art...

Williams was known for his compelling dialog and themes that - for their time - often seemed strange or shocking... He vividly suggested the sexual tensions and prevented violence of his tormented character, usually with compassion as well as irony...

The film focuses on a handsome drifter from New Orleans, named Val Xavier, wearing a snake skin jacket - Williams' trademark of a rebel, non-conformist - Val is a "fugitive kind" who comes in off the highway... He is a rural Orpheus who descends to rescue his love, not in Hades precisely, but among the intrigue, chatter, and violence of the hot-tempered town of Two Rivers, Mississippi... He is a wandering guitar player who embarks on an affair with a lonely frustrated unhappy storekeeper's wife Lady Torrance...

Anna Magnani is intelligently sensual and charming as Lady... Joanne Woodward is the hungry grotesque drunken Carol who tries to seduce Val in a cemetery... Both women are so intense, that they force you to become involved with them...

The genuine community provides also interesting watching: Victor Jory, positively magnetic as the brutal oppressive husband Jabe Torrence; the vindictive sheriff R. G. Armstrong; and the soft-hearted Vee (Maureen Stapleton).

Lady Torrence is a study of the immigrant woman who has acquired a patina of resilient toughness but who slowly admits her sensuality... She catches perfectly contradictory emotions of one who is wary of the stranger but who longs for his healing touch...

With handsome magnetism, Brando is no less compelling... He is quite convincing avoiding all the clichés of the drifting Don Juan... With some kind of lucid intensity, he mixes his character's predatory and uncivil arrogance with flashes of sweet tenderness...

The film (definitely worth seeing) is extremely poignant and captivating... The direction is excellent and the action moves very smoothly, never allowing you to relax...