The Fugitive Kind

For the 1937 Tennessee Williams play, see Fugitive Kind.
The Fugitive Kind
Original poster
Directed bySidney Lumet
Screenplay by
Based onOrpheus Descending
1957 play
by Tennessee Williams
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyBoris Kaufman
Edited byCarl Lerner
Music byKenyon Hopkins
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release date
  • April 14, 1960 (1960-04-14) (New York City)
Running time
119 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2.3 million[1]
Box office$2.1 million (US/ Canada)[2]

The Fugitive Kind is a 1960 American drama film starring Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, and Joanne Woodward, directed by Sidney Lumet. The screenplay by Meade Roberts and Tennessee Williams was based on the latter's 1957 play Orpheus Descending, itself a revision of his 1940 work Battle of Angels, which closed after its Boston tryout. Frank Thompson designed the costumes for the film.[3]

Despite being set in the Deep South, the United Artists release was filmed in Milton, New York.[4] At the 1960 San Sebastián International Film Festival, it won the Silver Seashell for Sidney Lumet and the Zulueta Prize for Best Actress for Joanne Woodward.

The film is available on videotape and DVD. A two-disc DVD edition by The Criterion Collection was released in April 2010. It was upgraded to Blu-Ray in January 2020 and includes three one-act plays by Williams (among them This Property Is Condemned, also later adapted for the screen) performed on NBC television network also directed by Lumet.

A stage production took place in 2010 at the Arclight Theatre starring Michael Brando, grandson of Marlon Brando, in the lead role. That particular production used the edited film version of the text as opposed to the original play.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference var was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Rental Potentials of 1960", Variety, 4 January 1961 p 47. Please note figures are rentals as opposed to total gross.
  3. ^ Peter Kihiss (June 7, 1977). "Frank Thompson, Top Designer Of Costumes for Stage and Ballet". The New York Times.
  4. ^ Thomson, David. "The Fugitive Kind: When Sidney Went to Tennessee". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 27 August 2016.