Carson McCullers Movies
- 1997
This made-for-TV adaptation of Carson McCullers story features Anna Paquin as Frankie Addams, a 12-year-old tomboy growing up in the deep South in the mid-1940s. Frankie doesn't get along well with most children her age, and she prefers to spend her time with Berenice Brown (Alfre Woodard), the family's housekeeper, and her younger cousin John Henry. However, when Frankie learns that her older sister is getting married -- and that her family may be pulling up stakes and moving away -- she's forced to leave her immaturity behind and, with Berenice's help, begin making her first steps into adulthood. This version of The Member of the Wedding also stars Joanne Pankow and Pat Hingle. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Paquin, Alfre Woodard, (more)
This first film directorial effort of actor Simon Callow is based on a novel by Carson McCullers -- which, in turn, was adapted for the stage by Edward Albee in 1964. Vanessa Redgrave plays a powerful Southern matriarch who, sequestered in her café/general store, holds her home town in the palm of her hand. Redgrave's benevolent despotry is threatened by the arrival of her hunchbacked cousin, Cork Hubbert (in the role played on stage by dwarf actor Michael Dunn), and her jailbird husband Keith Carradine. Unable to remove this threat to her authority by her usual means, Redgrave is reduced to challenging Carradine to a bare-knuckle fight! Carson McCullers' fascination with the disintegration of the Old South coupled with her preoccupation with the grotesque requires delicate handling (as witness Heart Is a Lonely Hunter). Callow works overtime keeping things controlled and tasteful; unfortunately, this results in a very mannered and stilted production, all too obviously betraying its stage origins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vanessa Redgrave, Keith Carradine, (more)
- 1983
First adapted to film in 1952, Carson McCullers' play A Member of the Wedding was restaged for television in a live performance aired December 20, 1982. Dana Hill assumes the role created by Julie Harris back in 1950: Frankie Addams, an awkward 12-year-old girl who feels like a fifth wheel during preparations for her older brother's wedding. Frankie is alternately coddled and scolded by housekeeper Berenice (originally played by Ethel Waters, here essayed by Pearl Bailey), a middle-aged black woman who knows something about being truly alone and friendless. Benjamin Bernouy plays little John Henry, whose ultimate fate provides a jolt of real rather than imagined tragedy to the proceedings. Director Delbert Mann, an old hand at live television, staged A Member of the Wedding at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Based on the novel by Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter stars Alan Arkin as John Singer, who is deaf. Singer moves from a small town in order to be close to his institutionalized friend Antonapoulos (Chuck McCann), who is deaf and mentally impaired. Singer rents a room with a family whose father, Mr. Kelly (Biff McGuire), is unable to earn a living due to a serious injury. His teen-aged daughter Mick (Sondra Locke, in her film debut) is at first resentful of Singer's presence, but he ingratiates himself by introducing her to classical music (which he can "feel," if not hear). Singer likewise tries to brighten the lives of such unfortunates as alcoholic Blount (Stacy Keach Jr., also making his first film appearance), dying black doctor Copeland (Percy Rodriguez), and Copeland's poverty-stricken daughter (Cicely Tyson). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Arkin, Sondra Locke, (more)
- 1967
This dreary story of the latent desires of the sexually repressed and psychologically tormented is taken from the 1944 novel by Carson McCullers. Major Penderton (Marlon Brando) is a hard-driving Army officer married to Leonora (Elizabeth Taylor). The impotent Penderton hides his latent homosexuality under his strict military discipline, while Leonora is having an affair with Lt. Colonel Langdon (Brian Keith), who is married to the troubled Allison (Julie Harris), who slices off her own nipples after a disappointing pregnancy. Private Williams (Robert Forster) is a young recruit who likes to ride naked on horseback. The Major is driven to insane jealousy when he discovers Williams would rather be with Leonora than with him. The idea is good, but the story plays like a sort of discarded (Tennessee Williams) play. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, (more)
- 1952
25-year-old Julie Harris convincingly recreates her Broadway role of 12-year-old tomboy Frankie Addams in the 1952 screen version of Carson McCullers' play. Feeling rejected when her older brother goes off on his honeymoon without inviting her along, Frankie runs away from her middle-class southern home. She endures several other adolescent traumas, not least of which is the sudden death of her bespectacled young cousin John Henry (Brandon De Wilde). With the help of warmhearted housekeeper Berenice Sadie Brown (Ethel Waters), Frankie eventually makes an awkward transition to young womanhood. One of several Stanley Kramer productions released by Columbia in the early 1950s, The Member of the Wedding wisely used several of the original Broadway cast members. Co-starring as a drunken soldier who tries to take advantage of the vulnerable Frankie is former child actor Dick Moore, making his last screen appearance. The Member of the Wedding was remade for television in 1983 (and unofficially "reworked" into the 1991 sleeper My Girl). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Harris, Ethel Waters, (more)
