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Marlon Brando is back in an adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play Orpheus Descending. The cameraman is Boris Kaufman and the director is Sidney Lumet; Marlon’s a classic tomcat drifter in a dangerous parish, who attracts two women. Acting styles mesh, or mix without blending — Anna Magnani and Joanne Woodward each get opportunities to shine. It’s all poetics and symbolism — dig the snakeskin jacket! — in a fairly realistic setting.

The Fugitive Kind

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 515

1960 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 121 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 14, 2020 / 39.95

Starring: Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward, Maureen Stapleton, Victor Jory, R.G. Armstrong.

Cinematography: Boris Kaufman

Film Editor: Carl Lerner

Original Music: Kenyon Hopkins

Written by Meade Roberts, Tennessee Williams from his play Orpheus Descending

Produced by Martin Jurow, Richard Shepherd

Directed by Sidney Lumet

Tennessee Williams sometimes seemed a continuation of William Faulkner’s literary legacy. This story’s...

Each week we take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly of the home entertainment offerings, reviewing and rating the films and the special features packed onto the discs.

Release of the Week

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

Film

The BFI have been working hard on their Masters of Cinema collection, a British equivalent to the Criterion Collection. This is their fifth and final introduction into the John Cassavetes collection which includes Shadows, Faces, A Woman Under the Influence and Opening Night. The story of Cosmo Vitelli (Ben Gazzara – mesmerising), a small strip-club owner who gets in too deep with some murky characters because of his consuming gambling addiction which leaves him $23,000 in the red. The mob then use this as a handle to blackmail him into murdering someone to wipe off some of his debt. It goes behind the scenes of a seemingly successful man...

It has been a year since Sidney Lumet passed away on April 9, 2011. Here is our retrospective on the legendary filmmaker to honor his memory. Originally published April 15, 2011.

Almost a week after the fact, we, like everyone that loves film, are still mourning the passing of the great American master Sidney Lumet, one of the true titans of cinema.

Lumet was never fancy. He never needed to be, as a master of blocking, economic camera movements and framing that empowered the emotion and or exact punctuation of a particular scene. First and foremost, as you’ve likely heard ad nauseum -- but hell, it’s true -- Lumet was a storyteller, and one that preferred his beloved New York to soundstages (though let's not romanticize it too much, he did his fair share of work on studio film sets too as most TV journeyman and early studio filmmakers did).

His directing career stretched well over 50 years,...

Chicago – One of the most recent inductees into the most esteemed collection in the history of DVD is one of the most star-powered dramas of the ’60s with four Oscar-winning actors in Maureen Stapleton, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward, and Marlon Brando, working in collaboration with a script co-written by Tennesse Williams and directed by Sidney Lumet. That “The Fugitive Kind” doesn’t quite live up to that incredible pedigree shouldn’t be too surprising, but it’s still a good addition for classic film collectors.

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.5/5.0

Wannabe film historians who have understandably become enraptured with the best of Sidney Lumet (“12 Angry Men,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” “The Verdict,” many more) and theatre-driven film buffs who know masterpieces like “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “A Streetcar Named Desire” by heart should be warned that expectations for “The Fugitive Kind” must be tempered. I went in to the film expecting to find a lost classic,...