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Natalie Wood & Robert Redford. Perfect.
This is one of Natalie Wood's best dramatic performances. She had been a major star for more than a decade when she made this film so it is hard to believe she was only 27. Her looks were the best they ever were.
Robert Redford was not a major star yet but his performance was equal to anything he did later.
This story is classic Tennessee Williams. I'm sure he only climbed out of a bottle long enough to write it and then crawled right back inside. It revolves around a railroad executive who travels the company line and trims the personnel fat during the great depression. He hits a small southern Mississippi town where one could cut the humidity and poverty with a knife. He has to decide which men to fire and which to keep. Then his very ordered and structured life gets complicated when he stays at a boarding house run by a dysfunctional family. He meets the oldest daughter, Natalie Wood, who is the local beauty. Great credit goes to casting and whoever scouted and selected the site location.
The supporting characters are superb in their roles as examples of the worst people we've ever run into. Everyone except Redford's character is living in total denial. They're all shallow losers.
Weird flick. Great, but weird. Depressing, but weird.
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I was not surprised to learn this was Natalie's favorite of all her films. I am a huge Natalie Wood fan and I can watch this film over and over. As much bad press as I've read about it, I still can't understand why so many don't appreciate this masterpiece. Very good story, great romance, great leads with incredible chemistry. Overall, the acting was wonderful and with an ensemble cast. Natalie never looked more beautiful, and that's saying a lot. There are several scenes I have to pause and rewind, it's just difficult believing anyone could be that beautiful! She is simply mesmerizing every second she is on screen in this film. One of her finest performances as well, if not the best of her career. Natalie is pure magic in this film, and regardless of her character's part in her own troubles, Natalie sucks you in and makes it impossible for you not to care about her character. Notable supporting performances from Robert Blake, Charles Bronson, and Kate Reid among others. It's definitely a southern tragedy, as only Tennesee Williams can tell....but so well done that it's worth it....check it out..
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Unexpected Surprise
I just happened to find this movie on AMC yesterday. I am a very huge Natalie Wood fan myself and I have been dying to check out this movie a long time ago. At first, I thought it was just another romantic movie from the 1960's. But no, this movie is good--a total surprise.
At the beginning, Owen (Robert Redford) is a mysterious stranger who comes to this unknown town for work. He meets this big flirt Alva (Natalie Wood) and she seems to be very fond of him. And later they have an affair but it ends up tragically due to Alva's mother's will.
Redford and Wood have a great chemistry in this movie, which I am quite surprise of. Redford is handsome and calm, yet passion inside. And Wood is absolutely stunning. She was handling her character's transition really well. You can almost feel her agony when her mother "begged" her to stay with a wealthy, lonely old man for "just a tiny bit of time in her life". This is a good movie. A must see. Especially if you're a big fan of Redford and Wood. They are fascinating.
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A classic!
This is one of those dramas that is never dated. No matter how many times I watch it, it never loses its magic. Having memorized virtually every line in the movie, I continue to enjoy it more with each viewing.
The 1966 masterpiece, which takes place in a fictitious small town in Mississippi during the depression, was only released on DVD in late 2003. It should be a part of everyone's collection.
The characters and the setting are remarkable in their realism. Natalie Wood's vulnerable bimbo may be the best role of her career (and is Alva Star a perfect name, or what?). Kate Reid, as the middle aged mother who runs a shabby rooming house and quasi-brothel, delivers a rock solid performance. The younger daughter, played by child actress Mary Badham (of "To Kill a Mockingbird" fame) masterfully brings to the screen a complex blend of childlike naivete and cynical worldliness. Redford is memorable in his role as a newcomer on the scene, a temporary guest who clearly has no idea of the conflicted and tragic relationship he is destined to find with an enchanted-but-stained Natalie Wood and her wretched kin.
Indeed, the entire supporting cast in this torrid Tennessee Williams story put in star-quality performances. Collectively, they make this story unforgettable.
Little sister "Willie" is fond of calling her seductive older sister "the main attraction" - a description that could also be used to describe this amazing film.
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Magnificent Swansong
This was the last of the big Hollywood movies of Tennessee Williams plays, a series of masterpieces which started with 'The Glass Menagerie' (1950) and went on for 16 unforgettable years. And this is certainly one of the best. It is simply packed with talent in every department, directed by Sydney Pollack, script by Francis Ford Coppola, and Oscar-level performances from at least four members of the cast: Natalie Wood, Robert Redford, Kate Reid, and Mary Badham. It is such a tragedy that Mary Badham gave up acting after this, as she was pure magic. Of all Natalie Wood's performances, this is probably the best. What an entrancing and magical creature! I never knew her but I had the great treat of sitting across from her at an adjoining dinner table in the Oak Room of the Plaza one night, and was just as dazzled as could be, and against all protocol and etiquette, simply could not take my eyes off her. She was dining with Lauren Bacall, whom I barely noticed in the penumbra of Natalie Wood's supernatural glow, and as a Bacall admirer that really does say something. Robert Redford has to portray a very quiet, contained character, so has little opportunity for 'big acting' in this film, but he triumphs at understatement, which was always one of his strengths. Another of the knockouts is Kate Reid as the most ravening, selfish, exploitative mother you can imagine. Well, I can, as I have met some like that, and believe me, she is spot on, to make your skin crawl. The Natalie Wood character is a revisiting of the girl in 'The Glass Menagerie', someone trapped, taking refuge in her dreams. She throws herself around, from man to man, basking in admiration because there seems to be nothing else. The motif of the cruelty and violence of a gang of men recurs here, reminding us of 'Suddenly, Last Summer'. This setting is a nowhere town in Mississippi, where the railroad is about to close. These are classic Tennessee Williams themes, but deeply felt and genuine, from the heart. By this time, Tennessee himself was as trapped as Natalie Wood, not in the state of Mississippi, but in another state, one of the mind. Seeing him bleary-eyed at a bar in the 1960s was a sad sight, and his gentle but tragic smalltalk as he sipped whiskey lacked focus. He was in what he knew was His Decline. But he must have been thrilled that this whopping realisation of one of his shorter plays came out just when he most needed a boost to his sagging morale. What a pity that after that, there was only television, what Newton Minnow at the time aptly called 'the Vast Wasteland'. The sadness in the Williams plays, and in the play which he himself lived, called his Life, are truly unbearable. Tennessee was a Great Soul. This film deserves to be on the list of everybody's classics, as it has something that will never die about it.
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A REAL GEM
I happened to catch this on AMC today, as they were having a tribute to Robert Redford. Like most Tennesse Williams play-turned-movies it starts off with us getting to know the characters. Slowly at first, they are hiding something and you can tell. Much similar to the earlier Streetcar Named Desire.
I had never even heard of this movie before viewing it today. I was pleasantly surprised and liked it very much. It gives off a Southern charm, like many have said before. The romance builds perfectly and it's not too lovey-dovey. That's always the good thing about Tennesse Williams, no lovey-dovey stuff. When Natalie Wood gets off the train as she arrives in New Orleans I wondered if it was some kind of tribute to Blanche's first scene in Streetcar.
Natalie Wood and Robert Redford were shining the whole way through, mainly Wood. She was as far off and distant as her character in Splendor in the Grass, and deserved another nomination for her work in this. Robert Redford was probably just becoming a big, big star when he started this. Something along the lines of where Russell Crowe is in his career right now.
All in all an over-looked and great romance. A must for any fan of movies about early southern life.
I had never even heard of this movie before viewing it today. I was pleasantly surprised and liked it very much. It gives off a Southern charm, like many have said before. The romance builds perfectly and it's not too lovey-dovey. That's always the good thing about Tennesse Williams, no lovey-dovey stuff. When Natalie Wood gets off the train as she arrives in New Orleans I wondered if it was some kind of tribute to Blanche's first scene in Streetcar.
Natalie Wood and Robert Redford were shining the whole way through, mainly Wood. She was as far off and distant as her character in Splendor in the Grass, and deserved another nomination for her work in this. Robert Redford was probably just becoming a big, big star when he started this. Something along the lines of where Russell Crowe is in his career right now.
All in all an over-looked and great romance. A must for any fan of movies about early southern life.
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One of the best movies of Natalie's career
This is my favorite Natalie Wood movie. I love her in all of her movies, but this is just the BEST. She just comes across as so REAL in this picture.
It doesn't seem a stretch at all for Natalie to play the character of Alva. The character probably closely models Natalie's life in regard to her search for love and acceptance.
In the movie, Alva has ongoing issues with her mother, as Natalie did in real life.
If you like Natalie at all, you have got to see this movie. I feel it will become one of your favorites as it has mine.
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It is hard to decide what is most outstanding: the atmospheric story and script by Tennessee Williams and Francis Ford Coppola, the gorgeous cinematography by James Wong Howe, the smooth direction by Sidney Pollack, or the dazzling performance by Natalie Wood.
Elizabeth Taylor won the Academy Award for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe," that year and certainly deserved it, but Natalie's performance was as fine as the other nominees: Lynn Redgrave in "Georgy Girl," Vanessa Redgrave in "Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment," Ida Kaminska in "The Shop on Main Street" and Anouk Aimee in "Un homme et une femme" She did receive a Golden Globe best actress nomination for the film.
Robert Redford is laid back here and it works perfectly. He just has to be charming and adorable and he is. In the four great romantic movies he did, "Barefoot in the Park" with Jane Fonda, "The Way We Were," with Barbara Streisand, "Out of Africa," with Meryl Steep, and this one, Redford basically allows his leading actresses to be the focus of every scene. He is at his best when underplaying and interacting and that is what we get here.
Mary Badham, who was nominated as a child for her performance in "To Kill a Mockingbird" shows that she was perhaps the most natural child actress of the 1960's. It is also fun watching Robert Blake and Charles Bronson is small supporting roles.
The movie is absorbing with the type of wonderfully drawn lonely, sexy, and ordinary people with grand illusions that make all of Tennessee Williams works so wonderful.
Don't miss it if you haven't seen it, and see it again if you haven't seen it in a while. It hasn't aged at all.
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Simple and perfect.
Just the kind of light-hearted, easy to watch classic that I absolutely love. It certainly resides in the area of my favorite type of film. Clearly the title of the film has a double meaning, that moreso applies to the character Alva (played beautifully by Natalie Wood) instead of the physical housing property. For lake of a better term, Alva is recognized as the town tease. Everyone loves her and gets to kiss her, but she never loves anyone or lets anyone get close to her. She just vies for attention and appreciation, expecting not to have to give anything in return. But we see that everyone claims her as their property and thinks that they have the right to be with her. When Owen Legate comes to town to lay off a large amount of the workers due to the Depression, a collision occurs between his realistic views and Alva's dreams of happiness and escaping this community. Legate tells her how the audience views Alva, and in return they have a series of verbal arguments that get increasingly more difficult for the audience to watch.
Eventually their overwhelming chemistry gets the best of them, and they become entangled in a love so strong that a misunderstanding breaks Owen's heart and drives them away from each other. But Alva won't let her dreams of escape go. She leaves to New Orleans, where Owen works, and eventually the two of them find their way back to each other. They fall in love, move in together and plan to get married. This happiness brought an immense smile to my face and made me feel at peace with the world. Unfortunately, I knew that something terrible was about to come and it certainly did. The final scene is so painful to watch, I could barely stand looking at it. I watched with a lump in my throat and a tear in my heart, as Alva fled their residence and took off in a sprint down the street of New Orleans. The ending did feel a bit rushed, and after so much joy it was unbearable to have so much sadness poured on at once, but it didn't hinder the film one bit. The film itself really rides on the very capable shoulders of Natalie Wood and Robert Redford. They both deliver brilliant performances that are two of my all time favorites, especially from the beautiful, seductive and emotionally distraught Wood. She was absolutely flawless.
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One of Natalie Wood's best movies
This movie is not as well known as some of Wood's or Robert Redford's movies, but it is a classic to be owned and watched over and over. Wood as Alva shines as only she can. When Redford first sees her eyes in the light of the birthday candles, it will take your breath away. The chemistry of these two actors is better than Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. They sizzle!!! RENT IT OR BUY IT TODAY! It will become one of your favorites! Natalie Wood's eyes alone are worth the price of the movie! One of the best parts is when Wood plays the drunk scene...it is well known that the director had to actually get her drunk to help her with the scene. How funny! She looks like a fun drunk.
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An Incredible Film!
I read each comment about this film before entering this missive. The script made me think I was experiencing a play. Plays require crafted scripts as the audience is limited in what it sees. The first viewing of the film is somewhat disconcerting because of this. I go into a mindset when I view a film. This film does not fit that mindset.
The second, third etc. viewing allowed me to sense its multifacets, and many there are. Made in 1966 the memory of the Great Depression was still intense in many living at the time. Coming of age in the 1960s, it gave be an incite and appreciation of the tragedy of the times and how it wrecked so many lives. The characters come crashing out of the past, their portrayals played so perfectly by not just the main stars but also the supporting cast. The cinematography is nothing short of stunning. Pollack brings all together with unexcelled skill.
Having seen this movie when it first came almost forty years ago, I am still struck with emotion when I see it today. I can't say that about many films!
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Great production quality, a sleeper as an American classic.
Looking back you can clearly say that the movie has great production values. Set in Buxton, Mississippi you can still get the feeling of the rhythms of Old South to a great extent. The cast is outstanding. Robert Blake delivers his role with the tension Tennessee Williams would have expected. Charles Bronson was adequate but only briefly portraying the powerful vengeful persona developed later. Redford and Natalie Wood were outstanding.
Yet you can see why this movie was rewritten so many times. The basic split personality was between the scenes in Buxton and then the ending in New Orleans. The film underdeveloped the characters in Buxton (Lin Tate and Mr. Johnson are good examples). Then too much production value was set in New Orleans that delivered little emotional punch to the film.
The themes of the pre-industrial and industrial South were there but could have been developed more. The characters were mostly one dimensional, could have been developed deeper. What the movie did well was portray the hard reality of the depression and industrialization, in this case Owen Legate's character. Redford delivered this in a crystal clear performance.
The part fantasy world of Alva Starr was well portrayed by Natalie Wood but the scripting could not get the balance right. It's a delicate affair to achieve that balance, the frailty and yet the strength deep in the character to overcome that frailty. The scripting toyed with this but in my opinion did not deliver. Alva was young and vibrant, her inevitable doom foreshadowed by Willie. Alva did finally become willful, but the scripting did not let her develop this willfulness or purposefulness further, which in my opinion would have made the movie stronger.
All in all the picture is a good view into the world at that time. The production strengths plus the cast make it enjoyable and a real sleeper as an American classic. To me this movie will age better than "In the Still of the Night" or "Fried Green Tomatoes".
Notably absent is the issue of race but this was never strong in Tennesee William's venue.
The relationship between Legate and Wood is taken to levels that only those Redford and Woods can produce. Legate, not quite hard bitten, ever the realist, still fascinated by Alva, who is so different. Why? Natalie Wood does a good job in portraying the split in her personality -- wanting more, somewhat fanciful, not knowing her complete purpose or the power she has. The sexual tension builds and builds, and is relieved only after Legate gets beaten up.
Willie Starr's role was never quite completely understood by the writers. Somewhat realistic, somewhat childish, somewhat innocent, Mary Badham delivered a good performance but once again the overdone scripting could not give her performance the possibility of growth. Left unanswered: Why would Willie be so faithful to Alva's memory? What did Willie feel when Alva left her and her mother in Buxton?
Best scenes: 1 - Owen Legate and Alva Starr in the converted railcar, Miss Alva. 2 - Hazel Starr's birthday party. 3 - Willie and Owen get two ice cream cones, Owen smashes his into Lin Tate's face.
Improveable scenes 1 -- JJ Nicols' proposal to Alva. Leading up to it and through it has none of the tension or delivery that is felt in the rest of the movie. Compare this to the Lake Ponchartrain scene in "A Streetcar Named Desire". 2 - Hazel telling Owen about Alva. Set in the New Orleans apartment this scene could have been blocked and scripted for more impact. My opinion about filming in New Orleans is to keep the scenery as simple as possible -- "Easy Rider" and the "Pelican Brief" come to mind.
Most hilarious scene 1 -- Skinny dippin' at the swimmin' hole. Better than similar scenes in "Last Picture Show" or "Love Story", in my opinion it's a Southern version of "It's A Wonderful Life" swimming pool scene.
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This was the last of the big Hollywood movies of Tennessee Williams plays, a series of masterpieces which started with 'The Glass Menagerie' (1950) and went on for 16 unforgettable years. And this is certainly one of the best. It is simply packed with talent in every department, directed by Sydney Pollack, script by Francis Ford Coppola, and Oscar-level performances from at least four members of the cast: Natalie Wood, Robert Redford, Kate Reid, and Mary Badham. It is such a tragedy that Mary Badham gave up acting after this, as she was pure magic. Of all Natalie Wood's performances, this is probably the best. What an entrancing and magical creature! I never knew her but I had the great treat of sitting across from her at an adjoining dinner table in the Oak Room of the Plaza one night, and was just as dazzled as could be, and against all protocol and etiquette, simply could not take my eyes off her. She was dining with Lauren Bacall, whom I barely noticed in the penumbra of Natalie Wood's supernatural glow, and as a Bacall admirer that really does say something. Robert Redford has to portray a very quiet, contained character, so has little opportunity for 'big acting' in this film, but he triumphs at understatement, which was always one of his strengths. Another of the knockouts is Kate Reid as the most ravening, selfish, exploitative mother you can imagine. Well, I can, as I have met some like that, and believe me, she is spot on, to make your skin crawl. The Natalie Wood character is a revisiting of the girl in 'The Glass Menagerie', someone trapped, taking refuge in her dreams. She throws herself around, from man to man, basking in admiration because there seems to be nothing else. The motif of the cruelty and violence of a gang of men recurs here, reminding us of 'Suddenly, Last Summer'. This setting is a nowhere town in Mississippi, where the railroad is about to close. These are classic Tennessee Williams themes, but deeply felt and genuine, from the heart. By this time, Tennessee himself was as trapped as Natalie Wood, not in the state of Mississippi, but in another state, one of the mind. Seeing him bleary-eyed at a bar in the 1960s was a sad sight, and his gentle but tragic smalltalk as he sipped whiskey lacked focus. He was in what he knew was His Decline. But he must have been thrilled that this whopping realisation of one of his shorter plays came out just when he most needed a boost to his sagging morale. What a pity that after that, there was only television, what Newton Minnow at the time aptly called 'the Vast Wasteland'. The sadness in the Williams plays, and in the play which he himself lived, called his Life, are truly unbearable. Tennessee was a Great Soul. This film deserves to be on the list of everybody's classics, as it has something that will never die about it.
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CRITICA EN EL PERIÓDICO "LA VANGUARDIA" (19-3-1967)
Si el espectador tiene en cuenta que esta película es la versión filmada de una obra dramática de Tennessee Williams, se lo explicara todo. El discurso y también por el seguro celebrado escritor neorrealista, hurga siempre en la escoria social para extraer los argumentos de sus obras. "Propiedad Condenada" se encuentra, por consiguiente, en la linea de "Un tranvía llamado Deseo" "La rosa Tatuada" etc. Se aleja totalmente de la única obra realmente poética de Tennessee Williams "El zoo de Cristal". En esta nueva historia, transportada al cine, se ha abandonado todo intento de potenciar la trama y ha quedado sólo, en lo que hay en esta, de sensualidad sórdida y miseria moral. Todos los personajes permanecen sin una sola excepción, a esa infrahumanidad cuya vida se configuran por los turbios impulsos del egoísmo y el sexo. La acción transcurre primeramente en una pequeña y miserable población de la Luisiana, y más tarde en Nueva Orleans. De ambos ambientes sólo se nos muestra el lado repelente. Vienen a ser una especie de jungla de asfalto, en la que solo campan por sus fueros las miserias y el vicio. El realizador, Sydney Pollack, no ha echo ningún esfuerzo por elevar la tenebrosa condición del film. Pudo haberse dado un poco respiro, suavizandolo o poetizandolo. Ha optado, sin embargo, por mantenerse fiel al estilo y la temática del autor de la trama. Presenta las cosas con extrema dureza. Una mujer fea y madura, que fue abandonada por su esposo, y que se consuela con un amante que de repelente, da asco verlo, empuja a su hija mayor, una muchacha bonita y ardiente, a aceptar los homenajes carnales de un viejo rico cuya esposa esta paralitica. Por rencor hacia su madre, la hija se casa con el amante de ésta, y el día siguiente, le roba el dinero y escapa a Nueva Orleans. Como puede verse, con lo relatado, no se trata ciertamente una novela rosa. Un leve giro sentimental toma la historia cuando la fugitiva, ya en Nueva Orleans, va a buscar a un joven que vivió como huésped en su casa y del que se ha enamorado. El final no es tampoco agradable. Por fortuna se nos cuenta, y no lo vemos desfilar por la pantalla. Nunca hemos sentido mayor atracción por los argumentos de Tennessee Williams. Hay que reconocer no obstante, que han dado ocasión para realizar con ellos excelentes películas. Casi siempre han tenido intérpretes de verdadera calidad, que han sabido elevarlos y dignificarlos. También los realizadores han estado generalmente afortunados. En "Propiedad Condenada" la realización es cambio mediocre, y la interpretación, sólo brillante por lo que afecta a Natalie Wood, la cual vuelve a ser la muchacha de fuego que hemos visto en tantos otros films. El resto de los interpretes no rebasan la linea discreta. A. MARTÍNEZ TOMAS.
MY WEB PAGE TO NATALIE WOOD
