This Property is Condemned
Encyclopedia
This Property Is Condemned is a 1966
1966 in film
The year 1966 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Animation legend Walter Disney, well known for his creation of Mickey Mouse, died in 15 December 1966 of acute circulatory collapse following a diagnosis of, and surgery for, lung cancer...

 American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 starring Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...

, Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...

, Kate Reid
Kate Reid
Kate Reid, OC was a Canadian stage, film and television actress.-Life and career:Daphne Kate Reid was born in London, England, the daughter of Canadian parents, Helen Isabel and Walter Clarke Reid, who was a former Bengal Lancer in the Indian army and a retired colonel...

, Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series...

 and Mary Badham
Mary Badham
Mary Badham is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird , for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. At the time, Badham was the youngest actress ever nominated in this category...

 and directed by Sydney Pollack
Sydney Pollack
Sydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting...

. The screenplay was written by Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...

, Fred Coe
Fred Coe
Fred Coe , nicknamed Pappy, was a television producer and director most famous for The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse in 1948-1955 and Playhouse 90 from 1957 to 1959...

 and Edith Sommer. The story was adapted from the 1946 one-act play of the same name by Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...

. The film was released by Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

.

The depression-era story takes place in the fictional Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

 town of Dodson. Owen Legate (Robert Redford), working for the railroad which provides much of the economic base for the town, comes to town on an unpopular errand. Natalie Wood plays Alva Starr, a pretty town flirt who finds herself stuck in this small town and very much attracted to the handsome stranger.

Many (or all) of the scenes of Dodson were actually filmed in the town of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, about 60 miles east of New Orleans.

Plot

The film is a frame story
Frame story
A frame story is a literary technique that sometimes serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, whereby an introductory or main narrative is presented, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories...

 in which an unkempt girl, Willie Starr (Mary Badham
Mary Badham
Mary Badham is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird , for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. At the time, Badham was the youngest actress ever nominated in this category...

), tells the story of her dead sister Alva to Tom, a boy whom she meets on the railroad tracks in the middle of the school day. Willie is wearing Alva's clothes and jewelry, and she and Tom sit on the railroad track while Willie tells Alva's story, which the viewer sees in flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...

.

Willie's story opens as Owen Legate arrives to the small town of Dodson and comes upon the Starr Boarding House
Boarding house
A boarding house, is a house in which lodgers rent one or more rooms for one or more nights, and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months and years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and some services, such as laundry and cleaning, may be supplied. They normally provide "bed...

. A loud party is in progress, and the only person not somehow engaged in the revelry is Willie. Owen befriends Willie, although he is reluctant to answer whether he works for the railroad. Willie introduces Owen to her mother, who rents a room to Owen and explains that the party is for her birthday.

The introductory scene makes it clear that Alva is the "main attraction." In the house, Mama gives change to an older man, Mr. Johnson, who has paid for the beer she is holding in her hand (and presumably the whole party). Mr. Johnson is anxiously waiting for Alva to show up to the party, and Mama is apologizing for Alva's absence. Meanwhile, Alva has been making out with another man, Sydney, behind the house. Owen watches the transaction between Mama and Mr. Johnson as well as a car full of other men who have driven by the house, yelling, "We want Alva! We want Alva!" Willie becomes angry with Lindsey Tate, the ringleader of these men, and threatens to call her Mama. Lindsey replies, "You do that. And tell your Mama if Alva ain't here, we'll take her instead."

When Alva finally arrives at the party, many men greet her and try to get her attention and dance with her. Even Mama's boyfriend, J.J. (Bronson) is after Alva, and he kisses her in the dark. Then the birthday cake is brought in, but when it is time to blow out the candles, Mama grows upset about her age and is unable make a wish. Alva is enlisted to blow out the candles for her and make a wish, much to the delight of the men at the party. It seems fitting since the party was more for Alva than for Mama.

Willie takes Owen into the kitchen for some food as the party is breaking up, and Alva makes a pretense of needing some ice to cool herself off in order to go into the kitchen to meet the stranger. There she launches into a fanciful story about Sydney taking her dancing at the Peabody Hotel
Peabody Hotel
The Peabody Hotel is a luxury hotel in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee. The hotel is well known for the famous "Peabody Ducks" that live on the hotel rooftop, but which make daily treks to the hotel's lobby in a daily "March of Ducks" celebration.- History :...

 in Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

. Willie is entranced, but Owen is skeptical since the story seems to be told in multiple choice format.

Alva is angered by this, and returns to Sydney. She then launches into a new fantasy about riding the train, the Hummingbird Express, to New Orleans, where Owen has just stated he is from. This is the first of many statements by Alva alluding to Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras
The terms "Mardi Gras" , "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season", in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday...

, and generally to getting out of Dodson some way. Owen sees Sydney kiss Alva from his room, and she sees him watching and goes inside. Both Willie and Alva seem to be curious and a little unnerved that there is a man staying in Papa's room, which has been empty since their father left them. On her way up the stairs Alva pretends she is looking for Willie in order to make an excuse to go into Owen's room. Sheepishly, Alva admits she's never been to the Peabody, but asserts that feeling like she was there is just as good as being there. Owen disagrees, and says, "You know there was a cat once who fell asleep in the sun, and he dreamt that he was a man who fell asleep in the sun who dreamt he was a cat. And when he woke up, he didn't know whether he was a man or a cat." Alva shrugs this off, and begins to talk herself up. Owen propositions her as though she were "included with the room." Alva angrily leaves and goes to her room to cry.

Mama enters the girls' room and tells Alva that she has to go out on a date with Mr. Johnson the next night because Mama "wouldn't like it if he got dissatisfied and moved out right now. Nobody but a conductor
Conductor (transportation)
A conductor is a member of a railway train's crew that is responsible for operational and safety duties that do not involve the actual operation of the train. The title of conductor is most associated with railway operations in North America, but the role of conductor is common to railways...

 can afford to pay what he does for that big old north room." It is clear that Mama deliberately uses Alva to attract men to the boarding house. Alva again escapes into a reverie about getting away from Dodson, and attending a masked ball
Masquerade ball
A masquerade ball is an event which the participants attend in costume wearing a mask. - History :...

 at Mardi Gras. She also mentions the above-ground graves
Saint Louis Cemetery
Saint Louis Cemetery is the name of three Roman Catholic cemeteries in New Orleans, Louisiana. All of these graves are above ground vaults; most were constructed in the 18th century and 19th century....

 in New Orleans, saying that the worst part about being buried underground would be not being able to breathe. This is the first reference to Alva's lung problems, which are also a symbol for the suffocation she feels in the small town and under her mother's control.

The next day Willie, who is skipping Vacation Bible School
Vacation Bible School
Vacation Bible School is a specialized form of religious education which focuses on children. Churches usually hold the week long events during the summer, though the lengths of such programs may vary, and they are sometimes held during other times of the year.-History:The origins of Vacation...

, sees Owen on his way to work. Owen confronts Lindsey Tate, who is again harassing Willie about Alva. Owen shoves strawberry ice cream into Tate's face and heads off to work. Owen does work for the railroad, and he has come to town to lay off several railroad employees due to cutbacks made necessary by the depression.

The next evening, Mr. Johnson is waiting for Alva to get ready for their date, but she is avoiding it. Mr. Johnson buys Alva an expensive gold bracelet, and Alva explains that Mr. Johnson should be giving such gifts to his wife. He tells her that his wife is an invalid who stays in a nursing home just outside Baton Rouge. She makes an excuse to get Mr. Johnson to go inside, then leads Owen into the garden to show him her father's red-headed scarecrow
Scarecrow
A scarecrow is, essentially, a decoy, though traditionally, a human figure dressed in old clothes and placed in fields by farmers to discourage birds such as crows or sparrows from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.-History:In Kojiki, the oldest surviving book in Japan...

.

In the garden Alva says her father just left the family "to find greener pastures." Alva believes her father will come back, but it's obvious that she is hoping in vain. Owen confronts Alva about her arrangement with her Mama, which Alva doesn't want to face and won't admit to. He makes her angry, insinuating that she is a prostitute (but never stating it directly.) In her anger, she runs back to Mr. Johnson, tells him she will accept the bracelet after all, and invites everyone in the house to go skinny-dipping. Mr. Johnson won't go, but Mama, J.J. and the other guests do join Alva.

In the water, J.J. manages to get Alva alone and comes on to her. When she refuses him, J.J. tells Alva that Owen is a "spotter" who has come to lay off most of the town. Alva doesn't believe him, but she runs to Owen's room dripping wet anyway to confront him about it. The two end up spending the night together, and when they wake up most of the boarders have received their pink slips from the railroad company. Since most of the town is out of work, Mama has arranged for the family to accompany Mr. Johnson to Memphis, where he will take care of them. It's understood that he will be seeing a lot of Alva in Memphis.

Meanwhile, Owen buys Alva a ticket to go with him to New Orleans. As he is on his way into the house to give Alva the good news, he overhears Mama telling her friend about the Memphis arrangement with Mr. Johnson. Knowing that Owen spent the night with Alva, Mama plays up the fact that Alva is "just wild to go" to Memphis. Owen is hurt and yells at Alva about it, above Alva's pleas not to listen to Mama. Owen leaves for New Orleans, and Alva is left alone with Mama and Mr. Johnson.

Mama, J.J., Alva, and Mr. Johnson go out to "celebrate" their new arrangement, and in her hurt and anger, Alva gets drunk. She begins to openly confront J.J. about his constant pursuit of her, and gets him to admit in front of Mama that he'd rather be with Alva than with Mama. Alva marries J.J. that night out of spite, but steals his money and their marriage license the next morning and runs away to New Orleans while J.J. is still asleep.

Finally free of Dodson and Mama, Alva tours New Orleans. The film contains several scenes of New Orleans landmarks including Bourbon Street
Bourbon Street
Bourbon Street is a famous and historic street that spans the length of the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana. When founded in 1718, the city was originally centered around the French Quarter...

, Jackson Square, and Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain is a brackish estuary located in southeastern Louisiana. It is the second-largest inland saltwater body of water in the United States, after the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and the largest lake in Louisiana. As an estuary, Pontchartrain is not a true lake.It covers an area of with...

. Alva eventually finds Owen in New Orleans, and they are happy together. She misses her sister, Willie, however, and sends Willie a postcard inviting her to join Owen and Alva in New Orleans.

One day Alva and Owen come home to find Mama in the house. Alva is terrified because she hasn't told Owen about her marriage to J.J. Mama takes control of the situation and tells Alva to get her coat, but Owen stands up to her. Mama reveals to Owen that Alva married J.J., which Owen doesn't believe until he sees the look on Alva's face. Alva runs out into the rain, crying.

The film cuts back to Willie and Tom on the railroad tracks, and Willie explains that Alva died of "lung affection" (probably tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

) which had been alluded to earlier in the film. (In the scarecrow scene, Alva mentions that she sometimes has trouble catching her breath.)

Differences between play and film

The one-act play by Tennessee Williams, This Property is Condemned contained only the outer frame of the film's story, and Alva is not in it. She is only discussed by Willie on the railroad track. The entire play takes place on the railroad track. Coppola, Coe, and Sommer had to add considerable details to Alva's story to adapt it for film.

Cast

  • Natalie Wood
    Natalie Wood
    Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...

     as Alva Starr
  • Robert Redford
    Robert Redford
    Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...

     as Owen Legate
  • Charles Bronson
    Charles Bronson
    Charles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series...

     as J.J. Nichols
  • Kate Reid
    Kate Reid
    Kate Reid, OC was a Canadian stage, film and television actress.-Life and career:Daphne Kate Reid was born in London, England, the daughter of Canadian parents, Helen Isabel and Walter Clarke Reid, who was a former Bengal Lancer in the Indian army and a retired colonel...

     as Hazel Starr
  • Mary Badham
    Mary Badham
    Mary Badham is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird , for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. At the time, Badham was the youngest actress ever nominated in this category...

     as Willie Starr
  • Alan Baxter as Knopke
  • Robert Blake
    Robert Blake (actor)
    Robert Blake is an American actor who starred in the film In Cold Blood and the U.S. television series Baretta. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted for the 2001 murder of his wife, but on November 18, 2005, Blake was found liable in a California civil court for her wrongful death.-Early...

     as Sidney
  • Dabney Coleman
    Dabney Coleman
    Dabney Wharton Coleman is an American actor, best known for his roles in 9 to 5, WarGames, You've Got Mail, Sworn to Silence, The Beverly Hillbillies and as the voice of Principal Peter Prickly in Recess and Recess: School's Out.-Early life:Coleman was born in Austin, Texas, the son of Mary...

     as Salesman
  • John Harding as Johnson
  • Ray Hemphill as Jim
  • Brett Pearson as Charlie
  • Jon Provost
    Jon Provost
    Jon Provost is a former child actor of film and television. He is best known for his role as young Timmy Martin in the CBS series, Lassie....

     as Tom
  • Robert Random
    Robert Random
    Robert Random , usually billed as Bob Random, is a Canadian-born character actor, who appeared in both movies and television from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s.-Television and film roles:...

     as Tiny
  • Quintin Sondergaard
    Quintin Sondergaard
    Quentin Charles Sondergaard, known primarily as Quintin Sondergaard , was an American actor principally active on television westerns from 1957-1970...

     as Hank
  • Mike Steen as Max
  • Bruce Watson as Lin Tate

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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