The Sound and the Fury (1959)
If you’ve actually read William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, you probably won’t even make it through the 1959 film adaptation. If you do manage to sit through it, you’ll cringe at how ridiculously watered-down it is. The book deals with retardation, castration, and incest. In 1959, there was no way Hollywood could get any of those topics past the censors – so why did they even try? Why not just make a movie about a wild child whose non-related guardian takes more than a fatherly interest in her?
As usual, I found Joanne Woodward to be very irritating and off-putting. I didn’t believe her as a promiscuous rebel who could catch the eye of two attractive fellows, Stuart Whitman and Yul Brynner. She seemed backwards for her age and wholly uninterested in men, neither of which were supposed to be written into her character. Margaret Leighton did her best to impersonate Vivien Leigh as a boozy, Southern floozy, and she seemed to be doing her best to reach the back row of the theater. Stuart Whitman played another version of the previous year’s sexy trumpet player in Ten North Frederick, which was probably frustrating for the talented actor. Jack Warden probably thought he would have had an opportunity to shine, since he played the retarded brother (as did Ethel Waters, since she played his nursemaid), but since that part of the story was so watered-down, neither one was given anything to do. Again, I don’t know why Hollywood bothered to adapt the book at that time. If it had waited until the 1970s, a very faithful adaptation could have been made. Perhaps 20th Century Fox just wanted another sexy vehicle for Yul Brynner, although the end result hardly did him justice. Pick Solomon & Sheba instead if you want a 1959 steamy Brynner drama.
Want to watch it? Click here to see it on ok.ru and thanks "The Projection Room" for posting!
More Yul Brynner movies here!
Be sure and check out Hot Toasty Rag's review of 2015's The Sound and the Fury here!
As usual, I found Joanne Woodward to be very irritating and off-putting. I didn’t believe her as a promiscuous rebel who could catch the eye of two attractive fellows, Stuart Whitman and Yul Brynner. She seemed backwards for her age and wholly uninterested in men, neither of which were supposed to be written into her character. Margaret Leighton did her best to impersonate Vivien Leigh as a boozy, Southern floozy, and she seemed to be doing her best to reach the back row of the theater. Stuart Whitman played another version of the previous year’s sexy trumpet player in Ten North Frederick, which was probably frustrating for the talented actor. Jack Warden probably thought he would have had an opportunity to shine, since he played the retarded brother (as did Ethel Waters, since she played his nursemaid), but since that part of the story was so watered-down, neither one was given anything to do. Again, I don’t know why Hollywood bothered to adapt the book at that time. If it had waited until the 1970s, a very faithful adaptation could have been made. Perhaps 20th Century Fox just wanted another sexy vehicle for Yul Brynner, although the end result hardly did him justice. Pick Solomon & Sheba instead if you want a 1959 steamy Brynner drama.
Want to watch it? Click here to see it on ok.ru and thanks "The Projection Room" for posting!
More Yul Brynner movies here!
Be sure and check out Hot Toasty Rag's review of 2015's The Sound and the Fury here!