Grab your reading glasses and pour a stiff iced tea (or something stronger), folks. Today we are trekking back to 1960 to discuss The Fugitive Kind.
If you haven’t seen this one, imagine putting Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, and Joanne Woodward in a pressure cooker, setting it to "Deep Fried Southern Melodrama," and waiting for the lid to blow off. Directed by Sidney Lumet and based on a Tennessee Williams play (Orpheus Descending), this movie is sweaty. I mean, truly. I needed a shower just watching these people exist in this humidity.
Here is the lowdown on this clash of the acting titans.
The Plot: Drifters and General Stores
The story follows Val Xavier (Brando), a guitar-playing drifter who looks like he invented the concept of "cool" in his snakeskin jacket. Val is trying to go straight—he’s tired of the party life. He drifts into a small, rainy, claustrophobic town in Mississippi and lands a job at a mercantile store run by Lady Torrance (Magnani).
Lady is an Italian firecracker trapped in a miserable marriage to a dying, hateful man who lives upstairs and knocks on the floorboards with a cane just to be annoying.
Val just wants to keep his head down and work, but this being a Tennessee Williams story, complication arrives in two forms:
The undeniable, simmering tension between him and Lady.
Carol Cutrere (Joanne Woodward), the town’s local "wild child" and alcoholic outcast who wants Val to run away with her to the juke joints.
It is a classic triangle of loneliness, desire, and the desperate need to escape a town that feels more like a prison.
The Good Stuff: Acting Heavyweights
Let’s be honest, you watch this for the faces on the poster.
The Brando Mumble: Val Xavier is peak "Method" Brando. He is quiet, soulful, and moves with the speed of molasses going uphill in January. But, my goodness, the man had magnetism. He manages to play a character who is essentially a symbol (The Wild Free Spirit) and make him feel human.
Magnani the Volcano: Anna Magnani creates a stark contrast. While Brando is understated, she is operatic. Her portrayal of Lady—a woman whose life has been stolen from her—is heartbreaking. She doesn't just say lines; she tears them out of her soul.
Woodward the Firestarter: Joanne Woodward is delightful as the chaotic Carol. She plays the "hot mess" with such tragic energy that you want to hug her and hide the car keys at the same time.
The Themes: Trapped Birds
The movie is heavy on the "Williams tropes." We have the sensitive artist crushed by a brutish society. We have the fading woman grasping for one last shot at love.
The central metaphor is about a bird that has no legs, so it has to spend its whole life on the wing, sleeping on the wind, and only touching the earth when it dies. It’s poetic, it’s tragic, and it’s the kind of thing you can only say if you look like Marlon Brando. If I said that at a dinner party, my wife would just ask me to pass the salt.
The Critique: Where the Paint Peels
Now, as much as I love a good black-and-white classic, The Fugitive Kind isn't perfect. It’s got a few cracks in the foundation.
1. The Pacing is glacial.
Sidney Lumet is a brilliant director (think 12 Angry Men), but he lets this movie drag. There are pauses in the dialogue so long you could balance a checkbook during them. It runs for two hours, but the emotional weight makes it feel like three.
2. The Symbolism is heavy-handed.
Tennessee Williams was a genius, but subtlety wasn't always his strong suit. The snakeskin jacket? We get it, Val. You shed your skin. You're wild. Between the jacket and the legless bird speech, the movie sometimes stops being a story and starts becoming a Poetry Slam.
3. The Chemistry is... weird.
Brando and Magnani reportedly didn’t get along on set, and frankly, you can tell. They are acting at each other rather than with each other. It works for the story in a way (since they come from different worlds), but as a romance? It’s a bit like watching a glacier try to date a volcano. Lots of steam, but very little merging.
4. It is relentlessly depressing.
Look, I don't need every movie to be Singin' in the Rain, but this film doesn't have a single ray of sunshine. It is dark, rainy, angry, and sad. It’s a beautifully made downer. If you are already having a bad week, maybe save this one for later and watch a Cary Grant screwball comedy instead.
The Verdict
Despite its flaws, The Fugitive Kind is worth watching just to see three absolute legends sharing the screen. It’s a masterclass in atmosphere. You can practically smell the stale cigarette smoke and the ozone of the coming storm.
Have you seen it? Do you think Brando’s mumble was charming or annoying? Let me know in the comments!
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