Although a native Mississippian, Thomas Lanier Williams, nicknamed "Tennessee," moved from the state at a young age when his father got a better job in St. Louis. Williams' relationship with the film industry began early in life. In 1925, a young Tom won ten dollars from Loew's St. Louis State Theater for a review of the silent film Stella Dallas. This association with the screen would last throughout his life -- he served as an usher in Manhattan's Strand Theater, worked as a screenwriter for M-G-M in the 1940s, and of course, created the original theatrical material later adapted to the screen.

Williams based the screenplay for Baby Doll (1956) on two of his one-act plays, Twenty-Seven Wagons Full of Cotton and The Unsatisfactory Supper (also called The Long Stay Cut Short). In 1955, famed director Elia Kazan, who had successfully worked with Williams on such projects as A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), asked him to combine the two and add dialogue creating a unified story. Warner Brothers paid for the project, although Newtown Productions, Kazan's own production company, eventually distributed the movie. The title of the screenplay evolved from The Whip Hand to Mississippi Woman and finally to Baby Doll.

Kazan chose to shoot the film in Benoit, Mississippi to give it a sense of authenticity. The location work lasted ten weeks and eventually won the overwhelming goodwill of its citizens. Although the subject matter of the story was risqué, none of its participants anticipated the overwhelming public outcry that followed its release. In fact, the Legion of Decency described the film as "morally repellant." Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York, preached a sermon in December 1956 solely dedicated to Baby Doll's corruptive influences. In contrast, at its opening several reviewers argued that Williams had created multi-dimensional characters that were both good and bad. Critic Arthur Knight commented, "the script makes no effort to reward the good and punish the wicked."

The display features several items related to the film: an annotated typesetting copy of the New Directions publication Baby Doll: The Script for the Film (1956) (cover; sample page); a 1957 English edition of this publication; and a reproduction of our original three-sheet poster for the film.

During the 1940-41 Theater Guild season, stage mishaps and censorship closed the production of Williams' fifth full-length play, Battle of Angels, at its debut. Fifteen years later a revised version entitled Orpheus Descending opened on Broadway to mixed reviews. Two producers, Martin Jurow and Richard Shephard, bought the film rights, and the name changed yet again, this time to The Fugitive Kind (1960).

The title came from one of Williams' early plays. The cast included three Oscar winners (Marlon Brando, Joanne Woodward, and Anna Magnani), and Sidney Lumet directed the script co-written by Williams and Meade Roberts.

Set in Marigold, Mississippi, location shooting actually took place in Milton, New York. Tensions ran high on the set as co-stars Magnani and Brando repeatedly clashed over their roles.

On display is a mimeograph script from the film and an original pressbook.

This Property Is Condemned (1966) features an all-star cast with Natalie Wood, Robert Redford, and Robert Blake. The legendary John Housman and Ray Stark produced the film, and Sydney Pollack directed. Francis Ford Coppola is one of five screenwriters, who describe their work as only "suggested by" the Tennessee Williams play. However, much of the story is the same -- the tale of a railway administrator sent to Dodson, Mississippi to close down the system. There he interacts with the flirtatious Alva who is trapped in a world of hypocrisy and imagination. Reviews proved lackluster.

Due to Vivien Leigh's stunning performance and the close adaptation of the screenplay to the original, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961) was one of Williams' favorite film adaptations. A story of decay and lust, the old world environment of Rome provides an elegant setting. Tragic stage actress Karen Stone (Leigh) flees New York after a disastrous performance as a much too old Juliet from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. She quickly becomes entangled with an Italian gigolo, Paolo (Warren Beatty). Their affair is brief and Paolo soon moves on to other clients leaving Stone to sink lower into depravity.

Shot on location in Rome, director José Quintero had previously only directed theatrical productions, not films. Williams requested Quintero after his successful experience with the off-Broadway production of Summer and Smoke. Initially apprehensive, Quintero credited veteran actress Vivien Leigh for establishing the set's goodwill. During the first day's meeting with the entire crew she told Quintero, "We are with you, aren't we all?"

Featured on display is Vivien Leigh's copy of the screenplay dated November 28, 1960 with handwritten annotations, and a pressbook.

[See also: Summer and Smoke (1961), film poster; pressbook; Period of Adjustment (1962), pressbook]

The story of Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon, a defrocked Episcopal minister, played by Richard Burton, Night of the Iguana (1964) is set in Mexico in 1940. Like many of his other works, Night of the Iguana, grew out of one of Williams' experiences abroad. Williams traveled to Acapulco in 1940 and witnessed the heat, listened to news of the war, and saw the infiltration of the Nazi's into the city. He also remembered some young children capturing a small iguana, tying it up, and fattening it for eating.

The film evolved from the 1946 short story, and its corresponding 1960 play. In the film, Williams used his memory of the captured iguana to symbolize Shannon, a former clergyman trapped by rapacious women who wish to consume him for different reasons. In the end, Shannon realizes that he will never return to the ministry, but finds some relief when, like the iguana, he is released.

Famed director John Huston filmed on location in Puerto Vallarta for three months. The cast included such luminaries as Burton, Deborah Kerr, and Ava Gardner. They endured three months of harsh conditions and two serious accidents. One, in particular, endangered Burton when the bus he and several actors were on almost fell off a mountainside cliff.

The film received both popular and critical praise. It won the 1964 Academy Award for "Best Costume Design," and also received nominations for "Best Actress in a Supporting Role" (Grayson Hall), "Best Art Direction- Set Direction, Black-and-White," and "Best Cinematography, Black-and-White."