Tennessee Williams - Thwarted Talent

Jan. 2, 2010 - NYC - "Loss of a Teardrop Diamond", a movie written by the late Tennessee Williams and just released this week.

A preacher named Mansfield once preached a sermon that really stuck with me, about people who “waste their talent”.

Mansfield said that even before we are born, God has determined our destiny, our calling. It might be music or art or literature. And, of course, He wants us to use it in godly ways, building people up, enlightening them.

But the enemy, aware of our destiny, does everything he can to stop it, to subvert it, to thwart the destiny that God set out for us. Thus we have a Maplethorpe who was an acknowledged creative genius but who, it can be argued, used his photographic genius the wrong way. Or a talented film director who works in pornography. Or a talented leader who becomes a Hitler or a Pol Pot.

Or, one could assert, a talented playwright who writes plays and movies which depict women in roles not entirely likeable. This would be, to continue this stream of thought, the explanation for Tennessee Williams’ misogynistic themes. Williams had the God-given talent for creating believable drama. He had the genius for capturing the minute detail of behavior so that in his dramas, you got more a slice of life. I never thought his stories had a very strong narrative. But then, you’re talking to an old news writer to whom narrative is everything.

In this, the latest Williams creation on the screen, “Loss of a Teardop Diamond”, we see multiple female characters who are harpys, shrews, self-centered little snots whom we want to just slap silly. It had the feel of a low-budget film. No high-dollar performers. No dazzling special effects. The cinematography took some strange turns, changing gthe light during a scene. More a stage lighting technique.

It was delightful to see Ann-Margret. I always felt a connection with her. I have a picture I took when she was on the set of her second movie, “State Fair” with Pat Boone. She and I are about the same age so all the more I marveled at how well preserved she was. (I haven’t held up as well. But then she had more to start with.) Her character, as the rich aunt, was not entirely despicable.

The main character, Fisher Willow, despite some good acting cred and bloodline by actress Bryce Dallas Howard (her father is Ron Howard), turned on the histrionics in “Teardop” so that make you want to commit mayhem. And that’s not all her fault. Well, you could fault her for taking the role. Or you could fault first-time feature film director Jodie Markell.

Or you could go all the way back to Tennessee Williams’ tortured childhood. His father was often gone from the family. As a young boy, his mother discouraged him from playing with other boys. So the females in his scripts were often compared with his mother or his aunt. Fractured statues on the mantelpiece.

Howard died her red hair black and got a page boy cut after Elizabeth Taylor’s in another Williams movie, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”. She said she leaped at the role.

She told the New York Times, “I realized that Fisher Willow is like Blanche DuBois 15 years earlier, when she still has a chance. I felt this is a film about a woman struggling with herself and with whether she’s going to find a way to be happy in traditional Southern society or is going to give herself over to her delusions. That really raised the stakes for me.”

This movie is not something I went to see because I thought I’d like it. I almost never liked any Tennessee Williams movies or plays, even though my ex-wife Elizabeth was in one of his plays in New York. No, I went to see it as a piece of culture, a societal curiosity. The script, set in the 20s, has been sitting in a drawer controlled by the Williams estate since Williams’ death in 1983 and no one had produced it up until now. It’s the first Williams movie in almost 20 years so if for no other reason it’s worth seeing for historic reasons.

Williams was born with a destiny of being a great communicator. And so he communicated.

Just a quick note about some of the supporting characters. Ann-Margret was joined by another film veteran, Ellen Burstyn.

And the handsome young swain, played by Chris Evans, was the attractive hunk that the debutante Fisher wanted. He looked real pretty. And sleepy.
Copyright 2010 James C. Lewis