A handsome young stranger arrives in a Southern town with unexplained intentions. He secures a room at a bawdy boarding house, where the landlady, Hazel Starr, furnishes room, board, and the pleasures of her daughter to the right customers. Although the daughter's thin, red-satin packaging enhances her physical charms, this is a Tennessee Williams work, and Alva Starr, Hazel's merchandise, seeks enchantment and magic that will help her escape from the seedy surroundings in which she lives. Alva sees the stranger, Owen Legate, as a hope and a way to escape the clutches of her mother and her tawdry life. Alva is a young Blanche DuBois, and the boarding house is the Flamingo Hotel by another name. At times, director Sydney Pollack underscores the parallels between the two Williams plays. Alva arrives in New Orleans by train and emerges from a cloud of steam. Although Alva's arrival occurs in mid film rather than at the beginning, the image is the same that Elia Kazan used to introduce Blanche to New Orleans in "A Streetcar Named Desire." Like Blanche, who retreats to her memories of bygone days at Belle Rive, the family plantation, Alva seeks refuge in a world of her own making. When Alva gazes into a glass snow ball, she imagines herself as part of the cool wintry scene inside.
Natalie Wood was at the height of her physical beauty when she made "This Property is Condemned," and, not long after her performances in "Splendor in the Grass" and "Love With the Proper Stranger," she had the experience and skills to infuse Alva with a depth that conveys the woman's fragility and pain. Robert Redford was solid as Owen, although the part makes no great demands on his talent. Kate Reid, however, is excellent as the amoral mother who seems to have little remorse about selling her daughter for financial gain. In the mid 1960s, the censors probably still had some say, and the proceedings, while not explicit, are clear enough. However, only once is the word "whore" used, where a more precise term might have been appropriate for Alva and another for her unrepentant mother. Mary Badham plays the younger sister, Willie, who is the observer character and anchors the framing structure of the story, which is told in flashback.
While "This Property is Condemned" is not prime Tennessee Williams, the work echoes many of his themes, and even second-tier Williams is superior to first-tier work by lesser artists. James Wong Howe captures the heat and decay of the Depression-era South in his cinematography, and, with somewhat obvious symbolism, Edith Head emphasizes red in her costuming of Natalie Wood during the rooming-house days and white in New Orleans. With Natalie Wood at her best, both physically and performance-wise, and an entertaining Tennessee Williams play as its source material, "This Property is Condemned" is irresistible for Wood and Williams aficionados. For others, the film, which only flags a bit in the second half, is generally engrossing entertainment.
Natalie Wood was at the height of her physical beauty when she made "This Property is Condemned," and, not long after her performances in "Splendor in the Grass" and "Love With the Proper Stranger," she had the experience and skills to infuse Alva with a depth that conveys the woman's fragility and pain. Robert Redford was solid as Owen, although the part makes no great demands on his talent. Kate Reid, however, is excellent as the amoral mother who seems to have little remorse about selling her daughter for financial gain. In the mid 1960s, the censors probably still had some say, and the proceedings, while not explicit, are clear enough. However, only once is the word "whore" used, where a more precise term might have been appropriate for Alva and another for her unrepentant mother. Mary Badham plays the younger sister, Willie, who is the observer character and anchors the framing structure of the story, which is told in flashback.
While "This Property is Condemned" is not prime Tennessee Williams, the work echoes many of his themes, and even second-tier Williams is superior to first-tier work by lesser artists. James Wong Howe captures the heat and decay of the Depression-era South in his cinematography, and, with somewhat obvious symbolism, Edith Head emphasizes red in her costuming of Natalie Wood during the rooming-house days and white in New Orleans. With Natalie Wood at her best, both physically and performance-wise, and an entertaining Tennessee Williams play as its source material, "This Property is Condemned" is irresistible for Wood and Williams aficionados. For others, the film, which only flags a bit in the second half, is generally engrossing entertainment.