Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (1973)

Katherine Hepburn is the one to see!!! Others are so so

It's rare that filmed versions of great theatre plays come across with a sense of feeling and emotion the reader receives from the book. Made in 1973, this Broadway Threatre Achive features a magnificent performance of Katherine Hepburn, and in my opinion, the only really great performance.

The drama focuses on a family living with their illusions and delusions. Amanda, whose husband deserted the family, is delusional about her past life, the gentleman callers, the ones who got away, She lives in the past. Tom, a poet, dreams for more, but works in the warehouse and sees movies all the time. He is a dreamer. Finally, crippled Laura, anxiety-ridden, whose fantasy of life is the small delicate glass animals and the victrola.

Mother is domineering and very critical of Tom, and she has asked Tom to invite a gentleman from the warehouse for dinner, fearing Laura will be an old maid. Amanda's hopes are high.

The Gentleman Caller
Jim was done well, maybe a little too exuberant. Even though Jim was everything in high school, (little mention), he became a warehouse worker, still dreaming for what he was supposed to be.

The Role of Laura - depressing?
When we read drama, we attach a face and personality to the character. The least impressive was the role of Laura. To me, Laura was alive in her own world and hardly concerned about men, but she was more whimsical and innocent. But this actor came as depressed and emotionless, certainly not who Tennessee Williams' created. It isn't until the end that we see more of her obsession with the menagerie.

Sam Waterston ???
Although he wasn't as bad as the actor portraying Laura, I just didn't see this guy as the meek and mild "poet", warehouse low wage earner, and a real loner going to movies all the time. It just didn't fit.

The gem of it all - Katharine Hepburn
There's no doubt that this was an amazing portrayal of the Southern belle Amanda. And to top if off, one of the best scenes were her telephone soliciting, or when she discovers the dream is over for the gentleman caller.

Don't forget to view the previews from other great theatre works. Plus, another version exists on this great play. Glass Menagerie, The directed by Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward stars. I plan to see it soon.

Lauret Taylor - we will never see that performance
According to the Broadway - The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There the legends of Broadway all raved and raved about the performance of Lauret Taylor, as Amanda, in the very early days of theatre. Too bad we may never see that For another grand performance in theatre see Katherine Hepburn in Long Day's Journey Into Night.....Marrianne Rizzuto
December 13, 2008

The Menagerie -"Perfecta!"

I believe I saw this version first; when it aired on television, and had not been aware that a DVD was now available; gloriously, both terribly sad and exquisitely beautiful with K. Hepburn's and other's fine performances. And, atop my "Wish List." An earlier reviewer asked and I will say that the Jane Wyman and Kirk Douglas 1950 version in DVD-R is also available at joesclassicmovies, I saw an adv. for them on Amazon. This Hepburn version, however, as with much of her particularly later work, if you haven't seen it, is not something to continue to have missed. December 12, 2008

A FAMILY TURNS ON ITSELF

Tennessee Williams rightfully takes his place as one of the premier playwrights in the history of the American theater. He relentlessly turned out high quality plays (and other short literary expositions) on subjects that in an earlier day before the 1950's would have not found nearly so receptive an audience. Here Williams, studying a willfully dysfunctional family, relies on a seemingly autobiographical presentation of the life of a faded Southern Belle mother and her two captive children who are fodder to her dreams of renewed grandeur and style when things `get better'. The gist of the better is a suitable husband for her distracted daughter. That those `things' do not get better drives the dramatic tension of the work, as it almost always does in a Williams play.

Williams has a magic knack for getting to the core of human relations, unpretty as they are some times. The mirror, in many cases, may be harder to take than the reality. Here the son's desire to `help' his obviously unworldly sister at the arm twisting behest of Mother by bringing a co-worker to dinner triggers a trail of events that make Sis fall further and further in the battle with reality. Someone once said that in a Williams's production no good turn ever gets rewarded. And that is the case here. While this is not the most compelling of his plays it is well worth looking at or better, reading.
May 26, 2007

UP CURTAIN-THE BEST BEGINS

KAtharine at her best. If you like Hepburn, you'll love this Live on broadway classic. An overly ambitious Mother in a quandary on ow to move a very shy daughter on the road o matrimony, (Son-In-Law wanted) in the meantime sonny boy Waterman'sets a record for chain smoking and off to the movies every night. Finally things are looking up, when Brother brings home a co-worker to dinner. Boy meets girl, Mom likes Boy, but Oops boy already spoken for. Mothers upset, Daughters upset, and Brother leaves home for the life of a Sailor. All ends well, except the Fish got away. O well what famiy doesn't have its ups and downs ? May 23, 2007

Not ideal, but the best of what's out there so far on DVD

I have seen several versions of this play on DVD, and I would say that this is the best of what I know to be currently available, mainly because I think Katharine Hepburn is the best Amanda Wingfield. However, I wish Joanna Miles had portrayed a less robust Laura. She doesn't limp; she wears stylish shoes while dashing athletically out the door to the store; she demonstrates no more than an occasional interest in the glass animals that are supposed to be her obsession; under her subdued demeanor I felt enough personal strength from her to deny the sense of despair about her future that is supposed to hang in the air at the end of the play. Perhaps Jane Wyman's Laura should have been in this production rather than being stuck in the 1950 version, with its own lamentable ending. Perhaps this play is too dated to be believable today and they don't make helpless females any more. (TV has sent such types into therapy.) Nevertheless, this is a great late-career performance for Katharine Hepburn, and that's the best reason for owning this DVD, a good companion to "Lion in Winter" and "On Golden Pond." She was born to play this faded Southern belle who has no talent for sales except as the determined purveyor of a lost culture. Her physical fragility plus the trademark Hepburn patrician accent and mannerisms are simply perfect and utterly priceless (whereas Joanne Woodward in the same role is too perky and liberated). Those two veteran "Law and Order" ADAs are also very good in their roles -- Sam Waterston as Laura's restless, henpecked brother and Michael Moriarty as the cheerful and clueless Gentleman Caller. February 18, 2007

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