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George Roy Hill's "Toys in the Attic" (1963)

Lillian Hellman's play about two spinster sisters who have been supporting their loser brother through several failed business ventures opened February 25th, 1960 at the Hudson Theatre and ran for 456 performances. Maureen Stapleton and Irene Worth played the sisters; Jason Robards was their brother, and Rochelle Oliver played his young wife. Arthur Penn directed.

The 1963 film version starred Geraldine Page and Wendy Hiller as sisters Carrie and Anna Berniers, respectively; Dean Martin as their brother Julian, and Yvette Mimieux as his bride. The great Gene Tierney played the role that won Anne Revere as Tony for the stage version.

James Poe adapted the Hellman play for director George Roy Hill, directing his second film here, following his 1962 debut with the adapation of another play -"Period of Adjustment," the Tennessee Williams comedy he directed on Broadway. Hill's next film was 1964's delightful "The World of Henry Orient" (which Hill would eventually direct as a stage musical, "Henry, Sweet, Henry") and, of course, he became a major player with 1969's "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

The movie itself is a talky to-do - but what talk! - about an unusually dysfunctional and repressed family unraveling. In short, a wonderful afternoon at the theater.

Alex Segal's "All the Way Home" (1963)

This piece has something of a legendary history. Based on James Agee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "A Death in the Family," it was first adapted by Tad Mosel for the stage in 1960. It opened at the Belasco Theater on November 30th of that year, with a cast headed by Arthur Hill, Colleen Dewhurt and - now get this - Lillian Gish and Aline MacMahon. Actor's heaven. Again, Arthur Penn directed.

Set in Tennessee in the early 1900's, "All the Way Home" revolves around a man's sudden, accidental death and the ramifications that it has on his family, especially his young son. The play examines the process of mourning and the heartache that makes it almost impossible to heal.

The 1963 film version, directed by Alex Segal, starred Robert Preston as the father, Jean Simmons as his wife, Pat Hingle as his brother and, recreating her Broadway role, the great MacMahon as Aunt Hannah. Michael Kearney played the boy, a role played on Broadway by John Megna, a child actor best known for his role as Dill in the film, "To Kill a Mockingbird." Philip H. Reisman Jr. did the adaptation for this most affecting film.

"All the Way Home" was also filmed twice for televison - first in 1971 with Fred Coe direcing Richard Kiley, Joanne Woodward and (again) Hingle in a teleplay adaptation by Mosel. The second TV version, shot in 1981 by Delbert Mann, starred William Hurt, Sally Field and Ned Beatty. Polly Holliday played Aunt Hannah.

Delbert Mann's "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs" (1960)

There are those who thought that the great playwright William Inge would enjoy the household-name status of Tennessee Williams, given that in the 1950s he wrote such plays as "Come Back, Little Sheba," "Picnic," "Bus Stop" and, in 1957, "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs," all of which were adapted into films. His 1959 play, "A Loss of Roses," became the 1963 film, "The Stripper" and he also wrote the screenplay for Elia Kazan's "Splendor in the Grass" (1961), in which Inge played the small role of of a minister who counsels Natalie Wood.

Kazan also directed the Broadway version of "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs," which opend at the Music Box Theatre on December 5, 1957, with a cast including of Eileen Heckart, Pat Hingle and Teresa Wright. Once again, we have another dysfunctional family drama about a man who, in middle age and out of work, tries to compensate for a lack of self esteem by cheating on his wife with another woman in another town.

The 1960 film, directed by Delbert Mann (again) from Harriet Frank, Jr.'s adapation, starred Robert Preston (again) in the Pat Hingle role, along with Dorothy McGuire, Eve Arden, Angela Lansbury and a young Shirley Knight, an Oscar nominee. Preston, great as always, did this between his stage and film appearances in "The Music Man." He had a great second act, thanks to the success of the musical, giving memorable turns in such titles as "Junior Bonner," "Child's Play," the aforementioned "All the Way Home," "Semi-Tough" and "Mame."

Delbert Mann's "Middle of the Night" (1959)

Paddy Chayefsky's tender play about a young woman looking for a father figure, opened on Broadway on February 8th, 1956 and starred Edward G. Robinson (who won a Tony Award for his performance) and a young actress named Gena Rowlands. It was adapted from a teleplay that Chayefsky wrote for NBC's Philco Television Playhouse that was performed on September 19th, 1954. E.G. Marshall and Eva Marie Saint starred for direcrtor Delbert Mann (yes, again) in the TV version.

When Columbia purchased the film rights in 1959, Chayefsky was part of the package, writing the adaptation of his play (although he toned down the Jewishness of the male lead character).

The ubiquitous Mann once again directed, eliciting unusually subtle performances from Frederic March and Kim Novak as a widower businessman and the much younger secretary with whom he falls in love, deciding against everyone's wishes to marry her.

"Middle of the Night," voted One of the Year's Ten Best Films by the 1959 National Board of Review, has never been released on home entertainment.

I'm fond of Anthony Drazan's adaptation of David Rabe's Hurlyburly.

What about Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, surely one of the best examples of ensemble acting (although some people find it a bit too stagey).

Many of us have never had the opportunity to see first rate stage versions of plays that were later filmed.

That said, my my favorite Tennessee Williams movie, after "Streetcar", is "Night of the Iguana".

When I was growing up in the 80s, I admit I was hooked on HBO's Playhouse series. I doubt any of these have gotten a video release, but the Margot Kidder/Tim Matheson restaging of William Inge's BUS STOP shows up on the Fox Movie Channel once in a while. These productions, basically plays shot-on-video, were a great way for a kid with limited resources to see otherwise unavailable dramas...

Cold Bishop wrote:The Fugitive Kind (Adapted from Tennessee Williams' Oedipus Descending, and starring BOTH Marlon Brando and Anna Magnani)

jesus the mexican boi wrote:That's Orpheus Descending, but Oedipus, Orpheus... it's all Greek to me.

Cold Bishop wrote: Another film I've heard but have yet to see is Butley, which is of interest for no other reason than I've seen several people comment that Alan Bates gives one of the greatest acting performances on film.

jesus the mexican boi wrote:When I was growing up in the 80s, I admit I was hooked on HBO's Playhouse series. I doubt any of these have gotten a video release, but the Margot Kidder/Tim Matheson restaging of William Inge's BUS STOP shows up on the Fox Movie Channel once in a while. These productions, basically plays shot-on-video, were a great way for a kid with limited resources to see otherwise unavailable dramas.

Belmondo wrote:That said, my my favorite Tennessee Williams movie, after "Streetcar", is "Night of the Iguana".
The movie succeeds in its theme of exploring "the dark night of one man's soul", but it also succeeds in being downright hilarious throughout, and it is my strong opinion that the other big budget, big star versions of Williams' plays from this period could have used a bit more humor as their respective characters contemplate whether or not to slit their throats.
Also, the location shooting in Puerto Vallarta does not detract from the darker issues because director John Huston was smart enough to use black and white, even though color film was the norm by 1964.
When the DVD was released a year or so ago, I remember a rave review in which the critic pointed out that "this was the last great role for all its stars - Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr and Sue Lyon". That may be arguable, but if true, it's a great way to go out.

David Ehrenstein wrote:The master of filmed plays is Alain Resnais.

Yet another of the many black-&-white Columbia films from the 1950s and '60s ignored by Sony is Daniel Mann's 1962 film version of the Peter Shaffer play, "Five Finger Exercise," adapted for the screen by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett.

The backdrop for the film is America (instead of Great Britain, the locale in the play), but that's not the only change introduced here by Goodrich, Hackett and Mann, all of whom toned down the uncomfortable erotic undercurrent of Shaffer's play. Still, there's enough queasiness here to make the piece compelling and definitely worth another look.

Rosalind Russell and Jack Hawkins play a well-heeled couple who hire a German transplant (Maximilliam Shell, fresh off his Oscar win for "Judgment at Nuremberg") to tutor their teenage daugher (Annette Gorman, in her first and last film role), much to the chagrin of their son (Richard Beymer, fresh off "West Side Story") who has a thing for mom and resents all the attention she lavishes on the handsome, rakish German.

The film never had a chance at being great, given the concessions made to the censors at the time, but it's another example of a well-made movie version of a pedigreed play.

"Five Finger Excerise" is one of three consecutive films responsible for making Russell a pariah among New York's Broadway community. She was the theater's darling when she was on the boards in "Wonderful Town" and "Auntie Mame," but all that goodwill was lost when Russell dared to "steal" roles that belonged to other actresses.

In 1961, she took on Gertrude Berg's role in Mervyn LeRoy's film of the Leonard Spigelgass comedy, "A Majority of One" (opposite Alec Guinness), followed in 1962 by "Five Finger Exercise," in which she played the role originated on stage by Jessica Tandy, and by LeRoy's filmization of "Gypsy," in which she dared to do Ethel Merman's role.

Much of the bad press surrounding "Gypsy" at the time of its release, reporedly orchestrated by the vitriolic New York gossip columnist Dorothy Killgalen, had nothing to do with the completed film and everything to do with Russell's participation in it.

"Five Finger Exercise," incidentally, tried out at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. before debuting in New York on December 2nd, 1959 at the Music Box Theatre, running for 337 performances. Aside from Tandy, the play starred Roland Culver (in the Hawkins role), Brian Bedford, Michael Bryant and Juliet Mills (as the ingénue). Sir John Guilgud directed. The play was produced by The Playwrights' Company, headed by Frederick Brisson - the husband, of course, of Rosalind Russell.

Was there any doubt she'd play the role in the film?