Vivien Leigh accepts her second Oscar in 1952.
The Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1951 is coming at the end of the month, bringing with it a revisit to the first Tennessee Williams adaptation to catch the Academy's eye. Elia Kazan's A Streetcar Named Desire marked the start of a period when Hollywood couldn't get enough of the American playwright, bringing most of his celebrated texts to the screen in big studio productions that attracted the cream of the talent crop of filmmakers and actors. These projects were incredibly captivating for the latter, with their guarantee of juicy roles prone to critical acclaim. Over just fourteen years, 19 performances were Oscar-nominated, and five won.
Let's explore the list of AMPAS-approved Williams adaptations, find out where one can watch them, and share some Oscar trivia along the way...
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951)
- Best Picture - Charles K. Feldman
- Best Director – Elia Kazan
- ★ Best Actress – Vivien Leigh
- Best Actor – Marlon Brando
- ★ Best Supporting Actress – Kim Hunter
- ★ Best Supporting Actor – Karl Malden
- Best Writing, Screenplay – Tennessee Williams
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White – Harry Stradling Sr.
- ★ Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White – Richard Day & George James Hopkins
- Best Costume Design, Black-and-White – Lucina Ballard
- Best Music, Scoring for a Dramatic or Comedy Picture – Alex North
- Best Sound, Recording – Nathan Levinson
A Streetcar Named Desire is streaming on HBO Max. It's also available to rent from most platforms.
THE ROSE TATTOO (1955)
- Best Picture – Hal B. Wallis
- ★ Best Actress – Anna Magnani
- Best Supporting Actress – Marisa Pavan
- Best Film Editing – Warren Low
- ★ Best Cinematography, Black-and-White – James Wong Howe
- Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White – Hal Pereira, Tambi Larsen, Sam Comer & Arthur Krams *winner*
- Best Costume Design, Black-and-White – Edith Head
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture – Alex North
The Rose Tattoo is available on Apple, iTunes, Redbox, and AMC On Demand.
BABY DOLL (1956)
- Best Actress – Carroll Baker
- Best Supporting Actress – Mildred Dunnock
- Best Adapted Screenplay – Tennessee Williams
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White – Boris Kaufman
Baby Doll is available to rent on Amazon, Google Player, and Youtube.
CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (1958)
- Best Picture – Lawrence Weingarten
- Best Director – Richard Brooks
- Best Actress – Elizabeth Taylor
- Best Actor – Paul Newman
- Best Adapted Screenplay – Richard Brooks & James Poe
- Best Cinematography, Color – William H. Daniels
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is available to rent on Amazon, Google Player, and Youtube.
SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER (1959)
- Best Actress – Katharine Hepburn
- Best Actress – Elizabeth Taylor
- Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White – Oliver Messel, William Kellner & Scott Slimon
Suddenly, Last Summer is available to rent on Amazon, Google Player, and Youtube.
THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE (1961)
- Best Supporting Actress – Lotte Lenya
The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone is available to rent on Amazon, Google Player, Youtube, and Vudu
SUMMER AND SMOKE (1961)
- Best Actress – Geraldine Page
- Best Supporting Actress – Una Merkel
- Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color – Hal Pereira, Walter H. Tyler, Sam Comer & Arthur Krams
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture – Elmer Bernstein
Summer and Smoke is streaming on Kanopy.
PERIOD OF ADJUSTMENT (1962)
- Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White – George W. Davis, Edward C. Carfagno, Henry Grace & Richard Pfefferle
Period of Adjustment is streaming on HBO Max.
SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH (1962)
- Best Actress – Geraldine Page
- Best Supporting Actress – Shirley Knight
- ★ Best Supporting Actor – Ed Begley
Sweet Bird of Youth is available to rent on various platforms like Amazon, Google Player, and Youtube.
THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA (1964)
- Best Supporting Actress – Grayson Hall
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White – Gabriel Figueroa
- Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White – Stephen B. Grimes
- ★ Best Costume Design, Black-and-White – Dorothy Jeakins
The Night of the Iguana is available on various platforms like Amazon, Google Player, and Youtube.
Tennessee Williams himself was nominated twice for his screenplays, but the most popular categories for these films were naturally the acting categories. That, and art direction, surprisingly enough.
WHICH TENNESSEE WILLIAMS FILMS WERE IGNORED?
Another point of interest is to note which films didn't get any Oscar love despite being eligible. For example, the Academy doesn't seem to like The Glass Menagerie at all.
Back in 1950, Irving Rapper directed the first stage-to-screen Williams adaptation. Despite good reviews and a wildly overpromising poster, no one got any nominations. While I wouldn't argue it's as good as the following year's Streetcar, it's still an acting showcase in which theatre goddess Gertrude Lawrence delivers one of her few big screen performances and Kirk Douglas surprises in the role of Jim O'Connor. Despite a stupid happy ending, this mishandled adaptation deserved a pair of nods for Kirk Douglas and the Sound Design.
Decades later Paul Newman directed a version of The Glass Menagerie in 1987. It's a much more faithful interpretation of Williams' first success and features what might very well be the definitive portrayal of Laura Wingfield. Nick Taylor was right when he wrote about Karen Allen's stupendous, Oscar-worthy tour de force.
Other unheralded Williams adaptations include Sydney Pollack's This Property is Condemned with Natalie Wood in a Golden-Globe nominated star turn. Joseph Losey's Boom! was a panned disaster, but the minimalist sets and opulent costumes deserved consideration. Elizabeth Taylor's outfits in that movie are pure drag excellence designed by Karl Lagerfeld with Bulgari jewelry on top. In 1970, Sidney Lumet adapted Tennessee Williams' The Seven Descents of Myrtle into The Last of the Mobile Hot Shots with a screenplay by Gore Vidal. Then, long after Hollywood's Williams mania had subsided, Jodie Markell shot one of the writer's unproduced texts with 2008's The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond.
The oddest case of a snubbed Tennessee Williams movie is Lumet's first foray into the dramaturg's Southern fantasias. Released in 1960, The Fugitive Kind has a veritable smorgasbord of AMPAS-beloved actors in its cast, with Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward, and Maureen Stapleton giving it their all. Sometimes hammy, often beautiful in their despair, these performers make up an astounding quartet. Moreover, the film also features excellent set design, which, as we've seen, was a category where these theatrical adaptations regularly triumphed. Sure, The Fugitive Kind is no masterpiece, but it's better than some of the Oscar-nominated titles -- Looking at you, Summer and Smoke!
Have you seen these movies? Which are your favorites?