Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (Broadway Theatre Archive)
by Anthony Harvey
(Click here)
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Joanna Miles, Katharine Hepburn, Michael Moriarty, Sam WaterstonDirector: Anthony Harvey
Brand: HEPBURN,KATHARINE
Cinematographer: Billy Williams
Editor: John Bloom
Producer: Cecil F. Ford
Producer: David Susskind
Writer: Tennessee Williams
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 100 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-02-11
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Image Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (Broadway Theatre Archive)
DVD Review: Depends on your preference...
Summary: 1 Stars
I had to read the book/play for a college literature class. Things just arn't as good when they are 'required'. I personally did not like this, but again, it depends on what you like. This followed actually very closely with the written play. It was a good way to get a better visual idea of what was going on.DVD Review: I'm about to commit heresy
Summary: 1 Stars
As much as I've always loved Katherine Hepburn, I simply couldn't watch this for more than 10 minutes. First, she was too much of a Yankee to portray a southerner convincingly, and second... her voice had deteriorated so much by the time this film was made that it was actually painful to listen to her. DVD Review: Katherine Hepburn is the one to see!!! Others are so so
Summary: 4 Stars
It's rare that filmed versions of great theatre plays come across with a sense of feeling and emotion the reader receives from the book. Made in 1973, this Broadway Threatre Achive features a magnificent performance of Katherine Hepburn, and in my opinion, the only really great performance.
The drama focuses on a family living with their illusions and delusions. Amanda, whose husband deserted the family, is delusional about her past life, the gentleman callers, the ones who got away, She lives in the past. Tom, a poet, dreams for more, but works in the warehouse and sees movies all the time. He is a dreamer. Finally, crippled Laura, anxiety-ridden, whose fantasy of life is the small delicate glass animals and the victrola.
Mother is domineering and very critical of Tom, and she has asked Tom to invite a gentleman from the warehouse for dinner, fearing Laura will be an old maid. Amanda's hopes are high.
The Gentleman Caller
Jim was done well, maybe a little too exuberant. Even though Jim was everything in high school, (little mention), he became a warehouse worker, still dreaming for what he was supposed to be.
The Role of Laura - depressing?
When we read drama, we attach a face and personality to the character. The least impressive was the role of Laura. To me, Laura was alive in her own world and hardly concerned about men, but she was more whimsical and innocent. But this actor came as depressed and emotionless, certainly not who Tennessee Williams' created. It isn't until the end that we see more of her obsession with the menagerie.
Sam Waterston ???
Although he wasn't as bad as the actor portraying Laura, I just didn't see this guy as the meek and mild "poet", warehouse low wage earner, and a real loner going to movies all the time. It just didn't fit.
The gem of it all - Katharine Hepburn
There's no doubt that this was an amazing portrayal of the Southern belle Amanda. And to top if off, one of the best scenes were her telephone soliciting, or when she discovers the dream is over for the gentleman caller.
Don't forget to view the previews from other great theatre works. Plus, another version exists on this great play. Glass Menagerie, The directed by Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward stars. I plan to see it soon.
Lauret Taylor - we will never see that performance
According to the Broadway - The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There the legends of Broadway all raved and raved about the performance of Lauret Taylor, as Amanda, in the very early days of theatre. Too bad we may never see that For another grand performance in theatre see Katherine Hepburn in Long Day's Journey Into Night..... Rizzo
DVD Review: The Menagerie -"Perfecta!"
Summary: 5 Stars
I believe I saw this version first; when it aired on television, and had not been aware that a DVD was now available; gloriously, both terribly sad and exquisitely beautiful with K. Hepburn's and other's fine performances. And, atop my "Wish List." An earlier reviewer asked and I will say that the Jane Wyman and Kirk Douglas 1950 version in DVD-R is also available at joesclassicmovies, I saw an adv. for them on Amazon. This Hepburn version, however, as with much of her particularly later work, if you haven't seen it, is not something to continue to have missed. DVD Review: A FAMILY TURNS ON ITSELF
Summary: 5 Stars
Tennessee Williams rightfully takes his place as one of the premier playwrights in the history of the American theater. He relentlessly turned out high quality plays (and other short literary expositions) on subjects that in an earlier day before the 1950's would have not found nearly so receptive an audience. Here Williams, studying a willfully dysfunctional family, relies on a seemingly autobiographical presentation of the life of a faded Southern Belle mother and her two captive children who are fodder to her dreams of renewed grandeur and style when things `get better'. The gist of the better is a suitable husband for her distracted daughter. That those `things' do not get better drives the dramatic tension of the work, as it almost always does in a Williams play.
Williams has a magic knack for getting to the core of human relations, unpretty as they are some times. The mirror, in many cases, may be harder to take than the reality. Here the son's desire to `help' his obviously unworldly sister at the arm twisting behest of Mother by bringing a co-worker to dinner triggers a trail of events that make Sis fall further and further in the battle with reality. Someone once said that in a Williams's production no good turn ever gets rewarded. And that is the case here. While this is not the most compelling of his plays it is well worth looking at or better, reading.
Description of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (Broadway Theatre Archive)
After what producer David Susskind called "the longest wooing for a part in a lifetime of dealing with stars," four-time Oscar winner Katharine Hepburn (On Golden Pond) made her television dramatic debut as the indomitable, overbearing matriarch, Amanda Wingfield, in Tennessee Williams' poignant 1945 memory play, which reteamed her with director Anthony Harvey (The Lion in Winter). "The Glass Menagerie" portrays a mother whose preoccupation with her past as a Southern belle and her unrealistic dreams for her children's futures threaten to smother her painfully shy daughter (Joanna Miles) and her aspiring writer son ("The Killing Fields'" Sam Waterston). Michael Moriarty plays the gentleman caller whose visit offers false hope and disrupts the family's precarious balance. 1973-74 Emmy Awards - Best Supporting Actor, Michael Moriarty; Best Supporting Actress, Joanna Miles.Katharine Hepburn, one of the great American actresses, stars in this film adaptation of one of the greatest American plays, Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie. Hepburn plays Amanda Wakefield, a faded Southern belle now living in a small urban apartment, where she suffocates her two children--her restless son Tom (a very young Sam Waterston) and her painfully shy daughter Laura (Joanna Miles)--with her incessant mixture of insistent cheer and guilt. After much prodding from Amanda, Tom finally brings home a friend from his workplace, in the hopes that he might strike up a romance with reclusive Laura. The result is one of the sweetest and most heartbreaking scenes ever written. Hepburn's steely will and sudden vulnerability make her ideal for the domineering mother, but the entire cast--including Michael Moriarty as the "gentleman caller"--is superb; Moriarty and Miles deservedly won Emmy awards for their performances. --Bret Fetzer
General DVDs
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Bestsellers in General DVDs
Twilight (Two-Disc Special Edition)Universal; Release date: 2009-03-21; DVD
Best price: $15.88
Price in other shops:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Full-Screen Edition)Release date: 2009-12-08; DVD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
Lost: The Complete Fifth SeasonRelease date: 2009-12-08; DVD
Best price: $36.99
Price in other shops:
The Proposal (Single Disc Widescreen)BUENA VISTA HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2009-10-13; DVD
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops:
![Angels & Demons [Blu-ray] Image](/images/Angels-Demons-Blu-ray-B002O5M4SU-X.jpg)
Angels & Demons [Blu-ray]SONY PICTURES HOME ENT; Release date: 2009-11-24; DVD
Best price: $18.90
Price in other shops:
Four ChristmasesNEW LINE HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2009-11-24; DVD
Best price: $12.66
Price in other shops:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Two-Disc Limited Special Edition + Digital Copy)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2009-12-08; DVD
Best price: $19.99
Price in other shops:
Julie & JuliaRelease date: 2009-12-08; DVD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
Angels & Demons (Single-Disc Theatrical Edition)SONY PICTURES HOME ENT; Release date: 2009-11-24; DVD
Best price: $11.99
Price in other shops:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Widescreen Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2009-12-08; DVD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Biography - Tennessee Williams: Wounded Genius (A&E DVD Archives)A&E; Release date: 2005-04-26; DVD
Best price: $2.54
Price in other shops:
Six Characters in Search of an Author (Broadway Theatre Archive)Release date: 2002-06-25; DVD
Best price: $13.33
Price in other shops:
Tennessee Williams Film Collection (A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 Two-Disc Special Edition / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 Deluxe Edition / Sweet Bird of Youth / The Night of the Iguana / Baby Doll / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone)WILLIAMS,TENNESSEE; Release date: 2006-05-02; DVD
Best price: $38.97
Price in other shops:
Tartuffe (Broadway Theatre Archive)MOFFAT,DONALD; Release date: 2003-04-15; DVD
Best price: $13.30
Price in other shops:
Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh (Broadway Theatre Archive)ROBARDS,JASON; Release date: 2002-01-15; DVD
Best price: $17.46
Price in other shops:
Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten (Broadway Theatre Archive)ROBARDS,JASON; Release date: 2002-04-23; DVD
Best price: $17.28
Price in other shops:
Long Day's Journey Into NightRepublic Pictures; Release date: 2004-05-11; DVD
Best price: $8.16
Price in other shops:
Death of a Salesman/ Private ConversationsHOFFMAN,DUSTIN; Release date: 2003-01-28; DVD
Best price: $16.77
Price in other shops:
A Doll's HouseBLOOM,CLAIRE; Release date: 2003-03-04; DVD
Best price: $7.37
Price in other shops:
Death of a Salesman (Broadway Theatre Archive)COBB,LEE J.; Release date: 2002-04-16; DVD
Best price: $13.47
Price in other shops: