After losing the family farm and being run out of town, a
fragile, delusional, aging ex-schoolteacher (Vivien Leigh) moves in her pregnant
sister’s (Kim Hunter) noisy and humid French Quarter flat and finds herself being
bullied, abused, and driven to madness by her crude and brutish brother-in-law
(Marlon Brando). Elia Kazan’s screen treatment of Tennessee Williams’
monumental play is stagy and claustrophobic, while showing its age a bit, but
still daring and potent with Brando’s revolutionizing and sometimes hammed up
performance standing atop a phenomenal cast which also includes the noble and
dopey Maldin.
*** ½ out of ****
