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| William Redfield and Kim Stanley |
DRAGON COUNTRY (1970 telefilm). Produced and directed by Glenn Jordan. Written by Tennessee Williams.
This taped presentation presents two plays written by Tennessee Williams and which were part of his "Dragon Country" collection. "Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen" is an early minor piece, a character study of a hustler (Alan Mixon of
The Edge of Night) and his girlfriend (Lois Smith), both of whom are clearly living on the edge. He has been abused while being drunk, having cashed his unemployment check, and she has fantasies of a life -- living in a hotel by herself until she becomes an old woman -- that pointedly do not include him. The acting is good, but while the two characters are intriguing enough, Williams doesn't tell us enough about them.
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| Lois Smith and Alan Mixon |
The second, better play is "I Can't Imagine Tomorrow." Kim Stanley (of
The Goddess) lives alone in a large house but she is clearly quite ill, possibly dying, unable to climb the stairs to her bedroom. She is the only friend of William Redfield (of
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), a neurotic, shy and lonely schoolteacher who just stopped going to work one day and lives in a small room in a "mausoleum" of a hotel. Stanley seems to have as much contempt for Redfield as love, and she complains that if she didn't speak there would be silence. She also fears he will be utterly alone if he doesn't meet new people somewhere. Redfield is a sad figure, and Stanley taunts him about how much he would love to move in with her, a notion that she initially seems to reject. But ... Stanley and Redfield offer outstanding performances, making the most of another relatively minor play, but one that is nevertheless compelling and even touching at times, although, again, one wishes we knew even more about the principals. Both plays examine how people are so self-absorbed by their own painful realities that they have difficulty reaching out to another suffering soul. Glenn Jordan also directed
One of My Wives is Missing, which is quite different from this.
Verdict: Some excellent performances make this a worthwhile watch. ***.
2 comments:
Had not heard of this one, but love Lois Smith and Kim Stanley. Very fine actors. (Smith was still working a lot up until True Blood.) True, Tennessee Williams can be uneven; after Streetcar and Cat it's always a gamble, although I have a big fondness for Suddenly last Summer...
-C
Williams is never out and out boring, and he isn't here, it's just that you do expect a lot from a man who could be so excellent in some of his really special plays.
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