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Sadly won't be thinkin' pink, clappin' my hands and bonjouring Paris 'till around 2008-9 the way things are at present. So Annie you will have to be Kay, and David, I'm sure the suede loafers fit - you are Fred Astaire. Until then my partner and I will have to continue our great On How to be Lovely whenever we find ourselves in aprons, working on our basal metabolism.

From USA Today

One of America's greatest playwrights, Tennessee Williams, will be honored with a DVD box set arriving in stores April 11.

Warner Home Video's Tennessee Williams Film Collection ($80) includes two-disc special editions of the two most celebrated film adaptations of Williams' plays —Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Streetcar Named Desire— as well as four other films that have never before been available on DVD: Sweet Bird of Youth, Night of the Iguana, Baby Doll and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone. Also included is the CBC documentary Tennessee Williams' South.

Warner's George Feltenstein says the films are remarkably faithful to Williams' original plays, given the era in which they were produced. "The only minor thing that inhibits them — and which is painful for us purists — is that certain censorship issues that existed when some of the earlier films were made affected the fidelity of the original plays," Feltenstein says.

"In the end of A Streetcar Named Desire, Stella goes back to Stanley despite the fact that he destroyed her sister, because her lust is just too strong. But in the movie, she says no, not ever. And of course the relationship between Skip and Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is very skirted around because of the censors at the time."

Extras in the collection include new "making of" documentaries for each film, rare screen tests with stars Marlon Brando, Rip Torn and Geraldine Page, and a 1947 radio broadcast with Brando.

This is shaping up to be a fantastic release all around! Bring it on, Warners!

Full specs from DVD Times. Let the squealing begin, Annie.

[quote]Warner Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of The Tennessee Williams Film Collection for 11th April 2006. This eight-disc DVD set contains the acclaimed film adaptations of one of America's greatest playwrights. The collection, priced at $79.92 SRP, features the long-awaited DVD debuts of Sweet Bird of Youth, Night of the Iguana, Baby Doll and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone along with a newly remastered two-disc Special Edition of A Streetcar Named Desire and single disc Deluxe Edition of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Also included is a bonus disc, the rarely seen feature-length documentary, Tennessee Williams' South. A Streetcar Named Desire is available for $26.99 SRP. All other individual titles are available for $19.97 SRP each.

Bonus materials in this collection include new making-of documentaries for each film, plus expert commentaries, never before seen outtakes, rare screen tests with Brando, Rip Torn and Geraldine Page, a radio broadcast with Brando from 1947 and vintage featurettes. Exclusive to the collection is a special bonus disc, Tennessee Williams' South, a feature-length vintage documentary that includes remarkable interviews with Williams in and around New Orleans, plus great scenes from Williams' plays especially filmed for this documentary, including rare footage of Jessica Tandy as Blanche (the role she created in A Streetcar Named Desire) and Maureen Stapleton as Amanda in The Glass Menagerie.

A Streetcar Named Desire: 2-Disc Special Edition is a celebration of what is, perhaps, Williams' greatest masterpiece. This edition features three minutes of footage that was deleted from the final release version (and thought lost until its rediscovery in the early 1990s) that underscores, among other things, the sexual tension between Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) and Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando), and Stella Kowalski's (Kim Hunter) passion for husband Stanley. The Legion of Decency required these scenes be cut in order for the film to be released.

A Streetcar Named Desire depicts a culture clash between Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh), a pretentious, fading relic of the Old South, and Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando), a rising member of the industrial, inner-city immigrant class. Blanche is a Southern belle whose pretensions to virtue and culture only thinly mask her nymphomania and alcoholism. Arriving at the house of her sister Stella Kowalski (Kim Hunter), Stella fears Blanche's arrival will upset the balance of her relationship with her husband Stanley, a primal, rough-hewn, brutish and sensual force of nature. He dominates Stella in every way, and she tolerates his offensive crudeness and lack of gentility largely because of her sexual need for him. Stanley's friend and Blanche's would-be suitor Mitch (Karl Malden) is similarly trampled along Blanche and Stanley's collision course. Their final, inevitable confrontation results in Blanche's mental annihilation.

The film won Academy Awards? for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Karl Malden), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Vivien Leigh) , Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Kim Hunter), and Best Art Direction -- Set Decoration, Black-and-White. It was also nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Marlon Brando), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White, Best Director, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, Best Picture, Best Sound Recording and Best Writing, Screenplay. In 1999 the film was selected by the United States Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Special Features Disc One:
Commentary by Karl Malden and film historian Rudy Behlmer
Elia Kazan movie trailer gallery
Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)

Special Features Disc Two:
Movie and audio outtakes
Marlon Brando screen test
Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey documentary
5 new insightful documentaries:
A Streetcar on Broadway
A Streetcar in Hollywood
Desire and Censorship
North and the South
An Actor Named Brando

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: Remastered Deluxe Edition - The raw emotions and crackling dialogue of Tennessee Williams' 1955 Pulitzer Prize play rumble like a thunderstorm in this film version whose fiery performances and grown-up themes made it one of 1958's top box-office hits.

Paul Newman earned his first Oscar? nomination as troubled ex-sports hero Brick. In a performance that marked a transition to richer adult roles, Elizabeth Taylor snagged her second. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture. Also starring Burl Ives (repeating his Broadway triumph as mendacity-loathing Big Daddy), Judith Anderson and Jack Carson, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof sizzles.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is the story of a Southern family in crisis, focusing on the turbulent relationship between Maggie the Cat (Elizabeth Taylor) and Brick (Paul Newman), and their interaction with Brick's family over the course of a weekend gathering at the family estate. Brick, an aging football hero, has neglected his wife and further infuriates her by ignoring his brother's attempts to gain control of the family fortune. Although Big Daddy (Burl Ives) has cancer and will not celebrate another birthday, his doctors and his family have conspired to keep this information from him and his wife. His relatives are in attendance and attempt to present themselves in the best possible light, hoping to receive the definitive share of Big Daddy's enormous wealth.

Oscar nominations were for Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Actor (Newman); Best Actress (Taylor), Best Director (Richard Brooks) and Best Cinematography.

Special Features:
Commentary by biographer Donald Spoto, author of The Kindness of Strangers: The Life of Tennessee Williams
New featurette Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: Somebody Up There Likes Him
Theatrical trailer
Languages: English & Français
Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)

Sweet Bird of Youth - Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Rip Torn, Madeleine Sherwood and Ed Begley recreated their stage roles in this bravura film version which featured Shirley Knight. Begley won Best Supporting Oscar and Page and Knight were nominated. Sex, money, hypocrisy, financial and emotional blackmail are familiar elements in Williams' literary realm and combine powerfully in Sweet Bird of Youth as Chance (Newman) battles his private demons in a desperate bid to redeem his wasted life and recapture his lost sweet bird of youth.

Handsome Chance Wayne (Newman) never found the Hollywood stardom he craved, but he's always been a star with the ladies. Now, back in his sleepy, sweaty Gulf Coast hometown, he's involved with two of them: a washed-up, drug-and-vodka-addled movie queen. And the girl he left behind…and in trouble.

Special Features:
New featurette Sweet Bird of Youth: Broken Dreams and Damaged People
Never-before-seen Geraldine Page and Rip Torn screen test
Theatrical trailer
Languages: English & Français
Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)

Night of the Iguana - With an outstanding cast headed by Richard Burton, Ava Gardner and Deborah Kerr, direction by legendary John Huston and a steamy screenplay, Night of the Iguana pulses with conflicting passions and a surprising edge of knowing humor. Winner of one Academy Award and nominated for three more, the film explores the dark night of one man's soul – and illuminates the difference between dreams and the bittersweet surrender to reality.

In a remote Mexican seacoast town, a defrocked Episcopal priest (Richard Burton), ruined by alcoholism and insanity, struggles to pull his shattered life together. And the three women in his life – an earthy hotel owner (Ava Gardner), an ethereal artist (Deborah Kerr) and a hot-eyed, willful teenager (Sue Lyons) – can help save him. Or destroy him.

Shot just south of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, the tension-filled shoot put that small city on the map. Due in no small part to the presence of non-cast member Elizabeth Taylor, the shooting of the film during 1963 attracted large numbers of paparazzi, made international headlines, and in turn made Puerto Vallarta world-famous.

Special Features:
Commentary by John Huston
New featurette The Night of the Iguana: Dangerous Creatures
Vintage featurette On the Trail of the Iguana
1964 premiere highlights
Theatrical trailers
Languages: English & Français
Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)

Baby Doll - With Baby Doll, as with A Streetcar Named Desire, director Elia Kazan and writer Tennessee Williams broke new ground in depicting sexual situations – incorporating themes of lust, sexual repression, seduction, and the corruption of the human soul.
Time magazine called the film “just possibly the dirtiest American-made motion picture that has ever been legally exhibited.â€

davidhare wrote: I keep forgetting to visit her grave at Montparnasse. The area is frankly not what it used to be when she made A Bout de Souffle.

Montparnasse, yeah, that's where all the cool dead celebs in Paris hang out. I took the tour with the other tourists two years ago and paid my respect to Jim and Oscar. Must go again some time and check it out. I'm such a fucking ghoul.

Good news about Streetcar. Mmm.. I saw it for the first time this fall when the cinemateque I work at screened it in a series about “male desireâ€

Wonderful to note the absence of a Richard Schickel commentary from this set, especially Streetcar.

Night of the Iguana has commentary by John Huston??
Shall be interesting.........

Jeff wrote:Full specs from DVD Times. Let the squealing begin, Annie.

Thank you so much, Jeff! And if that isn't already the boxset of the year, it comes pretty close. Absolutely fantastic extras - I really couldn't ask for anything more. It's close to perfection!

Solaris wrote:Night of the Iguana has commentary by John Huston??
Shall be interesting.........

Technically, Walt Disney is also dead but that didn't prevent him from doing an audio-commentary on the Fantasia DVD...

This is not on the level of the Peckinpah box set for me but it is not that far off. Looks to be great.

New release date is now May 2, 2006.....here's the press release:


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

THE TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
FILM COLLECTION DEBUTS MAY 2
A Streetcar Named Desire New 2-Disc Special Edition
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Deluxe Edition
- Both Digitally Remastered -
Sweet Bird of Youth
Baby Doll
The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
Night of the Iguana
- Remastered and New to DVD -
Tennessee Williams' South
Revealing Rarely-Seen Feature Documentary Available
as Part of Boxed-Set Collection

Stars include young Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Vivien Leigh, Paul Newman, Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, Geraldine Page and Warren Beatty

Extras Include Insightful New Making-Of Documentaries for Each Film, Expert Commentaries, Rare Screen Tests, Film/Audio Outtakes, Spotlight on Marlon Brando and More

Burbank, Calif. – The Tennessee Williams Film Collection -- an eight-disc DVD set containing the acclaimed film adaptations of one of America's greatest playwrights – debuts May 2 from Warner Home Video. The collection, priced at $79.92 SRP, features the long-awaited DVD debuts of Sweet Bird of Youth, Night of the Iguana, Baby Doll and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone along with a newly remastered two-disc Special Edition of A Streetcar Named Desire and single disc Deluxe Edition of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Also included is a bonus disc, the rarely seen feature-length documentary, Tennessee Williams' South. A Streetcar Named Desire is available for $26.99 SRP. All other individual titles are available for $19.97 SRP each.

One more month...

they should do a digipak or thinpaks.

go-on warner you can do it!

godardslave wrote:they should do a digipak or thinpaks.

Digipaks would be kind of unpractical (I would need a whole corridor floor to lay it down...) but thinpaks would be great (thought I don't see Warner doing it as yet or even ever).

Our DVD shelves are sure looking cluttered, aren't they just?

The official artwork is taking awful long...I wonder why. It's now been almost over a month that the press release has been out...It shouldn't take this long to copy and paste those original posters onto the DVD covers...

Here's the artwork!

http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/ ... ction.html

Seems I was right on the money again about the covers. But what I really love about the new artwork is the boxset design: be-au-ti-ful! Finally, they're starting to get things right!

Annie Mall wrote:Seems I was right on the money again about the covers. But what I really love about the new artwork is the boxset design: be-au-ti-ful! Finally, they're starting to get things right!

Hmmmm...? Taste is a very subjective beast. (lol)

Does anyone know if Cat will have a remastered transfer? I see no mention of that anywhere and although the current version is pretty good, there's always room for improvement what with all the new technologies being made today. Fingers crossed that it is.

the price for the Tennessee Williams Collection has been changed to $68.92.

An $11 drop? That is good news. And maybe this is further evidence that it will be packaged in slim cases as mentioned in another thread. We'll see.

Annie Mall wrote:An $11 drop? That is good news. And maybe this is further evidence that it will be packaged in slim cases as mentioned in another thread. We'll see.

... and with a 30% off ($47.99), comes to $8 a piece. Not to shabby.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was on TCM last night. Watched it for the first time and loved it.. mainly for the way the luminous Liz prances about inside that big house. Very sexy. Not being familiar with the play, I kept wondering why Brick kept his distance from Maggie especially when she was so hot and right in her prime....

But after considering about Williams' tendency to deal with "the Other" in most of his plays, didn't the film (like Kazan's Streetcar Named Desire) bypass or skip over Brick's love for that dead best friend?

Michael wrote:Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was on TCM last night. Watched it for the first time and loved it.. mainly for the way the luminous Liz prances about inside that big house. Very sexy. Not being familiar with the play, I kept wondering why Brick kept his distance from Maggie especially when she was so hot and right in her prime....

The gay theme was toned down for the movie. It was explicit in the play or at least more explicit than in the movie (haven't read it). As most of Tennesse Williams film adaptations were.

I'm not sure if the film really toned down the gay theme..bleaching itself of the gay theme is more like it. I'm going to look for the play today.