What starts off like a lamb and explodes into the tenseness of a T-Rex is a Southern family drama by the author of "The Little Foxes", Miss Lillian Hellman, who writes of a neurotic family torn apart by emotions that one wants to make them a little too close for comfort, one has abandoned for the desires of the world, and the other sits sadly by watching it all fall apart. Like other plays by Tennessee Williams, William Inge, August Wilson and Horton Foote, the lives of these families are baked in secrets, emotional torture, and the darkness of the soul which can only lead to ultimate destruction through death, abandonment or the most horrific of punishments, the truth.
The story focuses on three siblings-the cheery Geraldine Page who is on the surface sweet but hiding an emotional secret destined to destroy her, the quiet Wendy Hiller who can only shake her head as everything around her drowns, and the gregarious drifter Dean Martin who left home to seek his fortune, and now returns with wife Yvette Mimieux whose mother he apparently took money from to marry her and get Mimieux from under mama's hair. Mama (Gene Tierney) seemingly has her eye on Dean, even though she's got a light skinned black man whom she keeps company with. Yvette is upset when she spots Dean with the abused wife Nan Martin whose husband (Larry Gates) verbally assaults her as if she was the most vile substance under his shoe. "If one of my clients drinks to the point of throwing up on the dining room table, you will sit there and smile", he tells her, and this leads to an even more horrific moment that utilizes an extremely violent visual to bring everything out to a gruesome psychological climax.
These are not happy people, and the seemingly happy relationship between the three siblings is a total lie. Geraldine Page by this time had established herself with two Tennessee Williams stories ("Summer and Smoke" and "Sweet Bird of Youth") as the portrayer of seemingly happy but ultimately miserable heroines, and like the mother in "The Glas Menagerie", she is living in a past which probably never existed for her. Hiller's performance is mostly through her eyes, saying a lot with very little, and she is outstanding. Slightly miscast, Dean Martin is very jarring as their brother, but Mimieux is appropriately fragile as the young wife who doesn't want to see the world fall apart around her but realizes that it is pretty much inevitable.
There's a nice supporting performance by Gene Tierney in the rather small role of Mimieux's mother, still as glamorous as she was in 1944's "Laura" and quite handsome even with just a wisp of gray hair. Poor Nan Martin's character is just on the cusp of being revealed. Dean indicates that there's more to the eye for her than what his wife sees, so it is never really made clear if he is just helping her try to get away from the hateful Gates (in a role far away from his Emmy winning role as kindly patriarch H.B. on "Guiding Light"), and that she is actually truly on the side of the marriage. Where the blame lies for all this drama is never really made clear, but so is the blame in life. Psychological torture knows no villains, even if Gates is obviously cruel and spiteful, and the real villain is a surprise to be held in a climax that is riveting and makes you drop your mouth in shock.
I would love to see what this had to explore as a play as the film is only 90 minutes, and the play was obviously a bit longer. The black and white photography is excellent, as is the set of the house where the two sisters live. Amazing opening credits with a sort of 3-D look get your attention from the start. This is a thinking man's drama, certainly not perfect, but then, the best things in life never really are.
The story focuses on three siblings-the cheery Geraldine Page who is on the surface sweet but hiding an emotional secret destined to destroy her, the quiet Wendy Hiller who can only shake her head as everything around her drowns, and the gregarious drifter Dean Martin who left home to seek his fortune, and now returns with wife Yvette Mimieux whose mother he apparently took money from to marry her and get Mimieux from under mama's hair. Mama (Gene Tierney) seemingly has her eye on Dean, even though she's got a light skinned black man whom she keeps company with. Yvette is upset when she spots Dean with the abused wife Nan Martin whose husband (Larry Gates) verbally assaults her as if she was the most vile substance under his shoe. "If one of my clients drinks to the point of throwing up on the dining room table, you will sit there and smile", he tells her, and this leads to an even more horrific moment that utilizes an extremely violent visual to bring everything out to a gruesome psychological climax.
These are not happy people, and the seemingly happy relationship between the three siblings is a total lie. Geraldine Page by this time had established herself with two Tennessee Williams stories ("Summer and Smoke" and "Sweet Bird of Youth") as the portrayer of seemingly happy but ultimately miserable heroines, and like the mother in "The Glas Menagerie", she is living in a past which probably never existed for her. Hiller's performance is mostly through her eyes, saying a lot with very little, and she is outstanding. Slightly miscast, Dean Martin is very jarring as their brother, but Mimieux is appropriately fragile as the young wife who doesn't want to see the world fall apart around her but realizes that it is pretty much inevitable.
There's a nice supporting performance by Gene Tierney in the rather small role of Mimieux's mother, still as glamorous as she was in 1944's "Laura" and quite handsome even with just a wisp of gray hair. Poor Nan Martin's character is just on the cusp of being revealed. Dean indicates that there's more to the eye for her than what his wife sees, so it is never really made clear if he is just helping her try to get away from the hateful Gates (in a role far away from his Emmy winning role as kindly patriarch H.B. on "Guiding Light"), and that she is actually truly on the side of the marriage. Where the blame lies for all this drama is never really made clear, but so is the blame in life. Psychological torture knows no villains, even if Gates is obviously cruel and spiteful, and the real villain is a surprise to be held in a climax that is riveting and makes you drop your mouth in shock.
I would love to see what this had to explore as a play as the film is only 90 minutes, and the play was obviously a bit longer. The black and white photography is excellent, as is the set of the house where the two sisters live. Amazing opening credits with a sort of 3-D look get your attention from the start. This is a thinking man's drama, certainly not perfect, but then, the best things in life never really are.