The Fugitive Kind

The Fugitive Kind
by Sidney Lumet

The Fugitive Kind
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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward, Marlon Brando, Maureen Stapleton, Victor Jory
Director: Sidney Lumet
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 121 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-11-08
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)

Movie Reviews of The Fugitive Kind

Movie Review: If there was a moral to this story...
Summary: 5 Stars

In The Fugitive Kind, Tennessee Williams gave us a conflict between fugitives from morality and bigots. For whom would you pull?

Williams mishandled Anna Magnani. I would have given a different explanation - or no explanation at all - for the presence of "Lady Torrance" in Two River County, Louisiana. "Daughter of an Italian wine maker" explained Magnani's accent, but Two River County seemed more suited for whisky distilleries than for "Italian wine gardens."

Did the original story, with Maureen Stapleton as Lady Torrance, include an Italian wine garden?

If the bigots of Two River County hated a "dego" (slur against Italians used by Williams), then why did they wait until he sold "wine" to 'black people' before they attacked?

No character, especially one played by Anna Magnani, would spend the day working after learning a crucial secret about that attack.

Williams had struggles other than writing-in Magnani, including an obscure prejudice against people who did not accept his "fugitive kind."

The first time I saw The Fugitive Kind I had no empathy for Jabe Torrance. The writer distracted me by using Jabe's bigotry. Having watched The Fugitive Kind for the second time, I think more about Jabe's marriage to Lady, a woman who married for property.

The writer initially convinced me bigotry prevailed, but Valentine Xavier and Lady Torrance would have pushed any reasonable person to his limits. If there was a moral to this story, then it was, "Do not antagonize proven homicidal psychopaths with sexual misconduct."

Jabe's brethren took his side. Were we to understand the bigotry of a relatively isolated, homogenous society prevailed? Could better men than bigots not defeat drifters and thieves (Val in his way, Lady in hers)?

Reading about Williams having Elvis in mind to play Val (instead of Brando) makes me rethink his ambitions. In "King Creole," Elvis took on juvenile delinquents and their mob boss in Louisiana - released July 2, 1958. Did Williams originally hope Elvis would be a fugitive from morality in Louisiana in The Fugitive Kind, released December 1, 1959?

The original ambition might explain why Brando carried a guitar everywhere without playing the thing: frustrating. On the other hand, Elvis might have sung too many songs. (Imagine Elvis in his final scene singing, "I'm just a hunk, a hunk of burning love.")

No Elvis. More Magnani. Better.

Tennessee William's ability to write monologue for female characters was impressive. Nothing made The Fugitive Kind more tragic than the short-lived passions of Lady Torrance.

Five stars: Brando and Magnani could make any writing a work of art. The entire cast was superb. Three stars: Tennessee Williams was in over his head with Magnani. Using bigots as protagonists and moral-fugitives as antagonists was a no-win situation from the start and thus was cheating for a tragedy.

Summary of The Fugitive Kind

Oscar ? winners Marlon Brando (On the Waterfront), Anna Magnani (The Rose Tattoo), Joanne Woodward (The Three Faces of Eve) and Maureen Stapleton (Reds) lead the stellar cast of this Southern Gothic "sizzler" (Los Angeles Times) based on the Tennessee Williams play Orpheus Descending. Thanks to "brilliant" (The Film Daily) performances, The Fugitive Kind "sets one's senses to throbbing" (The New York Times). Valentine "Snakeskin" Xavier (Brando) is a handsome drifter with a guitar.and a past. Taking a job as a store clerk in Two Rivers, Mississippi, his strong and silent demeanor attracts not only the local party girl (Woodward), but also the shopkeeper's exotic wife (Magnani). Soon, this explosive love triangle will ignite a powder keg of fury that could rock this small town to its very core.

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