Tennessee Williams' South

The brutes and the belles. The gadflies and the good ol' boys. The taboos and the profound truths. They're all part of a tennessee state of mind -- a realm of places, personalities and ideas. Williams is front and center for this exploration, reading from his works, placing them in the context of his life, and serving as guide in visits to his career-shaping refuge in New Orleans and his later-day writing quarters in Key West. Also, dramatizations by distinguished actors -- including Jessica Tandy, Broadway's original Blanche DuBois, in a recreation of her A Streetcar Named Desire triumph -- give flesh-and-bone immediacy to some of the writer's famed works. In his own words. In his own places. The resilient character and memorable characters of one of our greatest writers reside in Tennessee Williams' South. Product Description

flawed but valuable

The disc is worth grabbing if only for the opportunity to see Jessica Tandy do a chunk of STREETCAR. She created the part of Blanche (it was written for her), but, because of the omnipresent film, the performance everyone knows is Vivien Leigh's. It is excellent, of course, but it's illuminating to see the different take Tandy brings. Also, there is precious little film of the late great Canadian actor William Hutt, and the chance to see him should be precious to anyone in the theatre. The excerpts from the plays are not great cinema, but they do offer flashes of undiluted Williams. And then there's Williams himself, playing host to his own life. There are all sorts of ways to pick this program apart for what it lacks, but what it offers cannot be replaced or duplicated by anything elsewhere. October 21, 2007

Williams' South

Tennessee Williams is interviewed in Key West and New Orleans, and talks about his childhood, family, religion, race relations in the south, his eccentricies and demons and his love for Chekhov. His observations are often illuminating and provide good analysis for some of his writings. He also reads some of his poetry and prose (the poem from "Night of the Iguana" and "Life Story" and a section from "The Glass Menagerie"). This odd film also contains dramatic pieces at intervals with Williams commenting on the characters and their motivations. The dramatic clips are about 5 minutes each and include Burl Ives in a scene from "The Last of my Solid Gold Watches," Jessica Tandy in "A Streetcar Named Desire," William Hutt in "Small Craft Warnings," Colleen Dewhurst and John Colicos in "Night of the Iguana," and Maureen Stapleton, Michael York, James Naughton and Carol Williard in "The Glass Menagerie." June 24, 2006

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