Watch out, spoilers!
—----------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------
“The rebellious and the savage leave their clean skin, their white teeth and bones when they leave. And these amulets pass from one exile to another, from one to another, as a sign that the one who possesses them is walking his rebellious path.
Sidney Lumet's The Fugitive Kind (1960) is an adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descends to Hell, which follows the play rather than offering its own vision, as is often the case today.
The main character Val Zevier (Marlon Brando) is a handsome man from New Orleans, who earns by playing the guitar in nightclubs, who once again gets into the police, decides to stop with questionable occupations, gets on his crumbling car and leaves where his eyes look. On the way, the car stalls, by chance stopping at the house of the sheriff of a small town, and his compassionate wife lets Val into the house and puts him to work in a store whose owner is seriously ill, and his wife needs an assistant. The wife of the owner Leidi (Anna Magnani) is an unhappy married woman, of Italian descent, whose father, along with his vineyard, was burned by local whites for selling alcohol to blacks. Val enjoys great success with the female sex, thanks to which sales grow, but arouses jealousy (and groundless, I must say) in the owner of the store and in the sheriff. Val still breathes unevenly one local girl Carol (Joan Woodworth), who has a bad reputation because of her excessively free behavior, who constantly warns him of the danger in this place and persuades him to go with her. Everything ends badly, as always when people turn on emotions instead of brains, follow their lead and force others to do so. Orpheus did go to Hell, but unlike Orpheus, he never returned to Earth.
The film is shot well, in the style of its time, black and white, the cameraman skillfully uses the light, the actors play well, I especially liked Anna Magnani.