Tennessee Williams Film Collection (A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 Two-Disc Special Edition / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 Deluxe Edition / Sweet Bird of Youth / The Night of the Iguana / Baby Doll / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone)

This is a terrific boxset, collecting six of the films based on Tennessee Williams's plays (plus another disc with the documentary "Tennessee Williams' South"). All the films are transferred with great care, and look quite wonderful. And the films themselves are fascinating, because (with the exception of BABY DOLL), they're invariably sanitized, as the major studios (Warner Brothers, MGM) struggled to constrain the unfettered imagination of one of America's most floridly uninihibited playwrights. Yet Williams' reputation as one of the premiere writers for actors allows some classic performances, starting with Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, one of the most potent displays of Method acting which helped to revolutionize American film and theater. Kazan's hyperbolic direction of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE is tempered in BABY DOLL, possibly the most charming film in the set (with terrific performances from Carroll Baker, Karl Malden, Eli Wallach, and, most hilariously, Mildred Dunnock). It seems incredible that, at the time (1956), BABY DOLL was the most controversial film of its year, with condemnation and cries of "filth" being bandied about. But BABY DOLL is a comic interlude in Williams' career. CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF is the most heavily censored, so that all the talk of mendacity makes the film seem mendacious, because no one is talking about what the film is really about. But all the actors go to town with their Southern accents, especially Elizabeth Taylor and Judith Anderson.But if CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF seems antiseptic, that's nothing compared to SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, which is alternately lurid and dainty. To watch Geraldine Page rip through in an absolutely corrosive and riveting performance is to see one of America's greatest actresses at her peak. THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA is uneven, but, again, some of the performances (in particular, Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, and, especially, Deborah Kerr and Cyril Delevanti) are superb. The long sequence with Burton and Kerr talking about demons and love while Burton is tied in the hammock is one of the most poetic sequences in all of Williams, handled with great insight and power.THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE has worn well with the years, as Vivien Leigh gives an elegant performance as the aging woman desperate for love nad even more desperate for her dignity.Of course, these are all works which could be done now with a greater fidelity to Williams' original texts, but it would be hard to beat the incredible performances, done (in many cases) in the original acting styles of the period (in STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, many of the original Broadway casts were also cast in the films). This is a chance to see some legendary actors in the classic parts which they made famous.

A collection of seven DVDs. Not one scratch on any of them. I have not played them yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing these old films again.

All the DVD’s worked great except the one I wanted most. They gave me a full refund so I’m happy.

Tennessee Williams, along with the sensitivities of fine actors, enables us to empathize and identify with people--people who are recognizable to us. These people are ordinary people with all of their flaws and occasional displays of grace. Williams unflinchingly investigates the experiences that shape personalities. He brings us face-to-face with the rawest human emotions, the demons that sometimes drive each of us, and the compassion that people can feel for even the unattractive, mean, and hurting people with whom we interact. We may not have had the life experience Williams investigates in a play. Williams shows us, however, the many layers of complex weaving that makes a human being. We realize that the characterization in his play is not as cut-and-dried as we first thought. Are we seeing coping techniques and responses that we often mistakenly perceive as character weaknesses? Is submerged pain expressed as physical brutality? We can take with us the revelation that can find within us the ability to be more compassionate people. And that we have just been shown another person's technique for survival. "South" is a revealing interview of Williams and an informative, pleasurable time of watching him describe aspects of his life's work. This set of plays shines with the benchmarks performances of Elizabeth Taylor and Marlan Brando along with the unforgettable portrayals by Vivien Leigh and the inimitable Karl Malden and Burl Ives.

Warning: Multiple disc failures. Granted, I bought this set in 2009, so the quality could be better now. I take good care of my film collection and have had multiple discs fail from this set (2 upon a first attempted viewing). The issue is disc rot. I’ve already tossed The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone and the Night of the Iguana. They’d only play part of the movie before quitting, and the discs were visibly degrading. Now, my favorite film in the collection, Cat on a Hot Tim Roof, only plays to almost an hour in before stopping. Something about the discs causes them to fail (they end up with a visible ring on the backside). I expected this set to be a cherished part of my film library, not to have to toss the films slowly but surely.

I saw everyone of these at the movie theatre in the fifties and sixties except Baby Doll. It turns out that Baby Doll is my favorite. I realize that the film versions were somewhat changed or toned down for the screen but I love everyone one of them. I was raised in the South and a lot of that world depicted here is gone..... culturally. The human qualities of Williams plays, however, still stand and speak volumes. He and O'Neil and William Inge were America's finest playwrights. Most of the time a good job was done for the motion pictures especially by directors John Huston and Elia Kazan....Tennessee Williams's plays were psychological explorations of the human soul.The best here for me are, Night of the Iguana and Baby Doll and of course, "Streetcar". The acting and direction is superb throughout this whole collection...They don't write plays or make movies like this anymore. Not in America. Too real....what we get mainly are comic book movies, with no guts and no soul...they just blow stuff up and make a lot of noise. Americans have always enjoyed stories where problems are solved with violence. There are other stories out there to be told, however...The Glass Menagerie, Suddenly Last Summer and Summer and Smoke are other Williams adaptations that must be purchased separately. They are good as well...