The Glass Menagerie

"A Glass Menagerie" is a play by Tennessee Williams that has been adapted into various movies, namely a made for television edition starring Katherine Hepburn. The play conveys a captivating story that can only be described as Hepburn's thick southern accent. It just about made the movie for me. The play focuses on a fatherless, poor family featuring a daughter who is incredibly shy, a mother whose sole goal in life is to find a man for her shy daughter, and a son whose hobbies consist of getting drunk and going to see movies. Naturally, this creates some friction within in the family which is highlighted by the arguments between the mother and son, played by the wonderful Sam Waterston. No sarcasm, the chemistry between Waterston and Hepburn make this movie worth watching (and so do the accents). As with many other plays, "A Glass Menagerie" lacks in its climax, which directly precedes the curtain, though the play is by far not the worst offender in this respect. "A Glass Menagerie" blows away any expectations that I had for it, mostly because of the fantastic acting from Hepburn and Waterston, but I also had very little expectations going into the film. If you're a fan of theater I highly recommend this movie, if for nothing except the star power.

Early in the story, a loquacious Amanda (Katharine Hepburn) and her two twenty-something children, Tom (Sam Waterston) and Laura (Joanna Miles), are eating dinner in their dining room. In her long-winded, nervous chatter, Amanda abruptly notices that son Tom is eating too fast. "You must chew your food; animals have secretions … But human beings must chew their food; a well-cooked meal has many delicate flavors, so chew, chew, chew." To which an angry Tom shoots back: "Mother, I have not enjoyed one bite of this dinner because of your constant directions on how to eat it. It's you that makes me rush through meals with your hawk-like attention to every bite I take".

Later, Tom is sitting at a table writing. Amanda comes over and scolds him for his poor posture: "Now why can't you sit up straight … I know what that position does to your internal organs. Now you sit up straight; here I'll show you. Your stomach pressed against your lungs, your lungs pressed against your heart, and that poor little heart gets discouraged 'cause it hasn't got any room left to go on beatin' for you".

But that's Amanda: an overbearing busybody who means well, but dominates those around her. She is so sure of herself and her moral values. Tom feels trapped, not only by his mother but also because of his mundane job at a warehouse. Daughter Laura is crippled and has a dreadful inferiority complex, which makes her shy. She identifies with her tiny glass animals, as fragile as she is.

Set almost entirely indoors in a drab little apartment in St. Louis, "The Glass Menagerie" is a play that conveys a lot of human feelings: anger, guilt, regret, dependency, and emotional damage. There's also a bit of humor. The story takes place during the WWII era of the 1940s. Eventually, Amanda imposes her wishes on Laura as well, as the mother badgers Tom to bring home a "gentleman caller" for Laura, in an effort to prevent Laura from being an old maid. What follows is both inspiring and heartrending.

The claustrophobic script is talky as one would expect for a play. The drab costumes are appropriate given the family's financial straits and the time period. Camera is largely static and functions mainly as a fly on the wall. Casting is very good. Acting is terrific. Hepburn does a wonderful job, except that she talks too fast for a Southern woman. The ending leaves viewers hanging.

With minor exceptions, the script and the performances are marvelous. Yet I'm not sure I would want to watch the film again; it is so depressing, especially toward the end.

Yes, I agree with other reviewers that Hepburn is screechy and everyone talks too fast for believability. It's not a well-done production overall. But I've watched this show several times just to see Sam Waterston as the adult son. He is strikingly beautiful in this version of Glass Menagerie, and he conveys such an air of deep sadness. You can really see the young writer trapped in the box factory or the young man loaded down with the mother, sister, and only the memory of a father. You can almost smell the factory on him, and the discouragement. I find him mesmerizing. His performance reminds me of Dean Stockwell in Long Day's Journey Into Night.

The Glass Menagerie is to plays as Beethoven's "fuer Elise" is to music: it's short and it's seemingly easy to present (it has two female and two male roles, and its author is famous), so it often ends up being done by amateurs, and one gets used to not-very-good versions. So a generally well-done performance, such as this one, is refreshing.

To boot, if you're a fan of Katherine Hepburn, Sam Waterston, Michael Moriarty, or Joanna Miles - and what person in his right mind isn't a fan of all four? - then you need to be familiar with this production, which shows you not only the legendary Hepburn in an interestingly off-type role, but also three more of your favorite actors when they were budding.

Not that this production is perfect. Hepburn, as Amanda, dominates the action entirely too much for my taste, at times reducing the other characters to leaves swirling around the tempest she creates; Waterston sometimes alternates weirdly between a detached Hamlet-like cerebrality and raging tantrums worthy of a young Lear. In other words: the production does not well balance the two characters whose opponency is central to the drama. (It might be argued that Amanda is supposed to dominate the action, and that Tom is supposed to be wimpy, but I disagree. I think Tom's frustrated and repressed manhood needs to be portrayed in such a way as to convey a prodigious, if chained down, load of energy. Remember, this is a self-portrayal of the man who became Tennessee Williams!) True, if you concentrate you can catch some of the subtlety for which Waterston later became justly noted. But he is, so to speak, shouted down by Hepburn, who is entirely too much in focus. It is almost as if this production had been planned as a vehicle for her, and the character of Tom had been treated as a prop.

For my money, the real star of this show is Moriarty's masterful portrayal of the Gentleman Caller. Moriarty does not show us the power-tripping, manipulative bastard often associated with this role, but rather a nice guy who found himself in a compromising situation he never sought, and who tried naively to make the best of his ill-starred encounter with Laura, with the result that he bites off more than he can chew, and hurts Laura all the more by not intending it. The performance here really shines; I was very moved by his awkward feelings of guilt when he realizes his error.

This 1973 version is better than the David Naughton/John Malkovich version. Katherine Hepburn does an excellent job playing the mother who is frustrated by the "generation gap". It also shows Michael Moriarty and Sam Waterston very early in their careers, both went on to win many awards. If you are able to get your hands on this version, it will be worth the search.