The Fugitive Kind
1959 Directed by Sidney Lumet
Synopsis
Val Xavier, a drifter of obscure origins arrives at a small town and gets a job in a store run by Lady Torrence, a sex-starved woman whose husband Jabe M. Torrance is dying of cancer upstairs. Val is pursued by Carol Cutere, the enigmatic local tramp-of-good-family, who covets his snakeskin jacket as much as his body and tries to seduce him in the cemetery. Val is more attracted to the mature Lady and gets her pregnant.
Cast
Genre
Recent reviews
More-
A drifter wanders into a Mississippi town and becomes involved with two women. One a young free spirited drunk and the other an unhappily married older woman whose husband is dying. A bit stagy but filled with great performances from the leads.
-
I stumbled across this at my library without ever hearing about it. "Sidney Lumet film with Marlon Brando," I thought to myself, "this has to be awesome!" I truly thought I had stumbled across some hidden gem. But I found it watching it why I'd never heard of the film; it's not very good. It's never bad mind you, but the story isn't very compelling. Lumet's direction is fine and I like the cast but at the end of the day I just didn't care for this film. It's never unwatchable, but it's never memorable either.
-
I didn't feel that this film held together very well. The film touched on loneliness and people not quite meeting (mentally not physically) but all we were left with was people who might as well have been acting in different films. And they should have made Marlon Brando's character a pianist or double bassist so that he wouldn't have had to carry around an instrument he didn't play, that guitar was just a little sign of how unconvincing the film was.
-
I think Tennessee Williams is a talented writer, but this was not among his best. Neither is it Sidney Lumet's finest moment as director.
There wasn't enough story or conflict for a two hour running time. Good performances, unconvincing story. As another critic notes: Funny how much Brando goes on and on about how much he loves his guitar, but never really plays the damned thing!
The tale of a snakeskin jacket-wearing Marlon Brando may have been the inspiration for David Lynch's road movie Wild at Heart (1990). The bird in the tree reminded me of Blue Velvet (1986) and Twin Peaks intro. -
This had a lot going for it: it was based on a Tennessee Williams play, it was an early directorial effort by Sidney Lumet, and it starred Marlon Brando at the height of his fame. I guess I was expecting something amazing, and while the end result is quite good it wasn’t really elevated much from other Tennessee Williams adaptations of the day, and what’s more it isn’t necessarily based on one of his best works. It was a fairly interesting watch, but it isn’t exactly a new favorite.
-
This is a Tennessee Williams adaptation, as far as Williams goes I really like "Night of the Iguana" the best.
-
Like almost every Tennessee Williams adaptation, "The Fugitive Kind" is hysterically pitched from beginning to end. I tired quickly of all the drunken, horny eccentric southerners in the picture. Marlon Brando is fine and does the best he can with the material.
-
Sidney Lumet's incredible drama that features intense, passionate performances from Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, and Joanne Woodward.