This Property Is Condemned (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Sep 12, 2025
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
-
Director
Sydney PollackRelease Date(s)
1966 (July 30, 2025)Studio(s)
Seven Arts Productions/Paramount Pictures (Imprint Films/Via Vision Entertainment)- Film/Program Grade: B-
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: A
Review
[Editor’s Note: This is a Region-Free Australian Blu-ray import.]
Tennessee Williams knew how to create memorable characters and plots in plays emblematic of the Southern Gothic style, many of which were adapted to movies. In This Property Is Condemned, based on his 1946 one-act play of the same name, an outsider comes to a Mississippi railroad town during the Great Depression and stirs up the community with the reason for his visit.
Pre-adolescent Willie (Mary Badham, To Kill a Mockingbird), fairly swimming in a tattered, risqué cocktail dress, teeters along an iron rail of the train tracks opposite the boarded-up and condemned shell of the Starr Boarding House. Her balancing act is interrupted by another youngster, Tom (Jon Provost, TV’s Lassie), and her response to him becomes the framing device and connective tissue for the screenplay.
The Starr Boarding House, where Willie now lives as a squatter, was once a viable business in the town of Dodson where she lived with her mother, innkeeper Hazel Starr (Kate Reid, The Andromeda Strain), and beautiful elder sister, Alva (Natalie Wood, West Side Story). From here, the screenplay flashes back to the day mysterious, handsome Owen Legate (Robert Redford, The Way We Were) arrives in town and encounters Willie. Legate takes a room at her mother’s boarding house and finds a drunken party in progress, presided over by the blowzy Hazel and paid for by Mr. Johnson (John Harding, Meet Me in Las Vegas), an older man who desires the attentions of Alva.
Alva likes to party with many men and resists Hazel’s demand that she keep exclusive company with Mr. Johnson, knowing the lonely man is a sucker who can be prevailed upon for favors his money can provide. When Alva spots Legate, however, she’s attracted and makes a play for him, ignoring amorous railroad worker Sidney (Robert Blake, In Cold Blood) and repelling the unwanted advances of her mother’s boyfriend, J.J. (Charles Bronson, Death Wish). When word gets out that Legate was sent by the railroad to lay off workers, he becomes persona non grata with everyone except Alva, who sees in him an opportunity to leave Dodson behind and head to New Orleans in search of a new life.
Natalie Wood, who had achieved acclaim with West Side Story and Splendor in the Grass in 1961, was eager to show off her dramatic ability after a series of critical and popular duds. She turns in a good performance, but in a film that never reaches the heights of Williams’ best works. With a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Coe and Edith Sommer, the film is best in the early scenes when we meet Hazel, the most authentic Williams character. Brassy, opportunistic, and lacking in morality, she has a self-righteous manner and uses it to keep Alva in her place. Alva tries to be her own person, but Hazel is too strong for her to confront. The stranger, Legate, is the catalyst for change, yet the romance that develops between him and Alva seems contrived, too quick, and not adequately motivated.
Wood infuses Alva with impatience and longing. She does her best to feign interest in Mr. Johnson and the script is deliberately vague as to whether she’s actually been sleeping around. When Alva becomes emotional, Wood overplays, resorting to histrionics. She’s trying hard to make Alva sympathetic, but she’s working with thin material.
Redford, in one of his earliest screen roles, plays it cool as his Legate sizes up Alva and tries to determine what she’s really like. He observes, listens, and adduces before speaking his mind. His comments can be hurtful. When he calls Alva a whore, for example, she’s infuriated, perhaps rightfully so. The film version of Williams’ play is toned down, likely because of the waning Production Code. It might also be that Wood felt playing an actual whore would make Alva an unsympathetic character.
Mary Badham, a native of Alabama, is a natural performer and fits perfectly into the role of Willie. With wonderfully expressive facial reactions and subtle body language, she’s both narrator and character, and conveys charm, spunk, and subtle pathos. She never leans into obvious acting choices to be cute. In fact, the tomboyishness of her Willie is quite endearing.
The film has good moments, but they seem to be more episodes than connecting narrative points. Some padding was done to extend it from its origin as a one-act play, and too often the film drags. There’s crackle in the scenes between Wood and Kate Reid and the scenes between Wood and Redford generate some heat. Bronson and Blake create some tension but blend into the background. It’s Wood’s film, and whenever she’s on screen, she commands it.
This Property Is Condemned looks as if all the parties involved aspired to greatness but were stuck with a watered-down soap opera that lacks Williams’ poetic touches. Director Sydney Pollack accomplishes some questionable artistic choices. The town looks too clean, too polished. Where’s the dirt and ash on the railroad workers’ clothes? Why is Alva’s hair so perfectly styled? Why does Redford look as if he just stepped out of a fashion ad? Hollywood’s prettification is at odds with the gritty atmosphere that should pervade the film.
This Property Is Condemned was shot by veteran director of photography James Wong Howe on 35mm film with spherical lenses, processed by Technicolor, Hollywood, and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The Blu-ray contains an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. Clarity and contrast are excellent. The color palette tends toward somber tones, in keeping with a hardscrabble town that depends on the railroad for employment. Alva’s pink cocktail dress pops. A slow-moving train pulling into Dodson establishes the location. It’s summer and Hazel turns off lights because “they generate heat and attract bugs,” creating moody, shadowy scenes. The boarding house party is brightly illuminated. Legate’s room is filled with bric-a-brac left behind by Alva’s father, a character never seen. A lengthy helicopter shot pulls back in the final scene as Willie finishes her story and she and Tom go their separate ways.
The soundtrack is English 2.0 LPCM. Optional English subtitles are available. Dialogue is clear and distinct. Natalie Wood speaks with a Southern accent but Kate Reid doesn’t. Sound effects include a train whistle, Legate being beaten up by disgruntled railroad workers, a raging rainstorm, ambient crowd noise at the party, a glass being broken, and car engines. Mary Badham sings Wish Me a Rainbow as she walks along the tracks.
Bonus materials on the Blu-ray release from Imprint Films include the following:
- Audio Commentary by Gillian Wallace Horvat
- Personal Investment: Sydney Pollack on American Cinema and 40 Years in Hollywood (43:06)
- Natalie Wood: A Tribute by Peter Bogdanovich (19:25)
- The Times of Natalie Wood: An Appreciation by Gavin Lambert (31:29)
Audio Commentary – Filmmaker Gillian Wallace Horvat notes that Ray Stark, who had a great track record at the time, set up This Property Is Condemned as an attempt to capitalize on the success of Night of the Iguana. With many of Tennessee Williams’ major works already purchased and made into films, Hollywood was interested in other plays of his. Stark eventually sold the rights to Paramount. The film has only two scenes that use dialogue written by Williams. Because of the extensive changes from his original one-act play, Williams originally wanted his name removed from the credits but relented and allowed his name to appear after he saw the completed film. James Wong Howe, the film’s cinematographer, had also served as director of photography on The Rose Tattoo, another Williams screen adaptation. Commentator Horvat reads the description of Hazel from the original shooting script of This Property Is Condemned and says many drafts of the script were written. Kate Reid and Charles Bronson each received $30,000 in salary, Robert Redford, $90,000, and Natalie Wood, $500,000. Elizabeth Taylor was once considered for the role of Alva, and Ava Gardner and Vivien Leigh were considered for the role of Hazel. Alain Delon was originally supposed to play the role of Owen Legate. According to production notes, Vincente Minnelli was a possible choice for director. Natalie Wood, according to her contract, had a list of the only directors she would work with. Sydney Pollack wasn’t on that list but ended up as the director. Pollack had made a name for himself on TV but was fairly new to feature films. He proved to be a slow director and contributed to the film’s going $850,000 over budget. Producer John Houseman apparently lost interest in the film and was often a.w.o.l. dealing with other projects. Natalie Wood was going through a tumultuous time in her private life during production. A scene in which the characters are drunk wasn’t working, so Pollack encouraged her to have a glass of wine to get in the right frame of mind (she wound up drinking six glasses). Location filming in New Orleans was intended to open up the film and showcase various picturesque locations in that city, but only Jackson Square was used for a major scene between Alva and Legate. The original ending wasn’t used. Instead, an epilogue returns to Willie telling Tom what ultimately happened to Alva.
Personal Investment: Sydney Pollack on American Cinema and 40 Years in Hollywood – Director Sydney Pollack provides his overview of Hollywood history from the 1960s to the 2000s. He notes that movies represent the foremost export of any American commodity, whereas very few foreign films are shown widely in the United States. Films tend to focus on individuals at odds with society. He started on his road to directing when actor Burt Lancaster told him he should direct. Lancaster arranged a meeting with film executive Lew Wasserman, who said he’d allow Pollack to observe and learn the craft at Universal, a studio then heavily involved in TV production. For four years, Pollack directed episodes of television shows. In his day, movies looked to TV for new blood and Pollack had won Emmys. His first feature film was The Silver Thread in 1965. Pollack discusses the parochial nature of Los Angeles’ film industry, and says 1965 to 1975 was the most interesting decade in American film production, with young directors influenced by the French New Wave moving in new directions and breaking established rules of filmmaking. He speaks philosophically about how movies connect to audiences and how stars help but don’t necessarily guarantee a film’s success. He refers to his own star-driven movies that bombed at the box office. When the studios were bought up by conglomerates, the science of marketing ruled what pictures were made, and replaced individual voices. Movies became homogenized; if something worked, it was duplicated over and over. As a director, “If you’re talented and can do 19 or 20 films, you’re OK.”
Natalie Wood: A Tribute – Filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich tells how he first met Natalie Wood, recalling she was suspicious of him. Twenty years after her death, he made a documentary about the actress and spoke to her daughter and several people who knew her. Revisiting her films, he was struck by what a good actress she was, often better than her movies. Her performances don’t date, and he realized he had underestimated her abilities. She began her career as a child and appeared most notably in Miracle on 34th Street. As with many child actors, Wood had a troubled life with a stereotypical stage mother. Bogdanovich speaks about controversies that arose over Wood’s untimely death. Based on her autopsy, the Los Angeles’ coroner explained what might have occurred and her death was deemed a tragic accident.
The Times of Natalie Wood – Gavin Lambert provides an excellent discussion about Natalie Wood, whom he knew personally. He talks about how very few actresses are able to make an emotional connection with audiences. He cites Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe as two women who accomplished that, and Natalie Wood was another. Lambert has written several biographies about movie stars and worked as an assistant for director Nicholas Ray on Rebel Without a Cause, Bigger Than Life and In a Lonely Place. He speaks about Ray’s self-destructive bent—he was an alcoholic, hard-drug user, and a gambler always in debt. This compelled him to take jobs that didn’t always thrill him. Wood responded to the title role of Inside Daisy Clover because the character reflected her own experiences in Hollywood in many ways. Wood went through a difficult stage when she was in her teens and, according to Lambert, blossomed into a beauty when she was 18. While under contract to Warner Bros., she appeared in routine films, reaching her acting peak in the 1960s. She was a child of a highly dysfunctional family and withdrew from them as soon as she was able to financially. For publicity purposes, however, she maintained that she had a happy childhood. She had a great sense of humor and spent many happy years with husband Robert Wagner. She enjoyed collaboration in performing a role and sought directors who elicited her thoughts on how a role should be played. “She wasn’t aloof or grand at all,” and had an accessible quality. Shortly after she turned 40, Wood began to have career concerns and was looking to theater as a possible move away from films. “She would always try anything.” She enjoyed being challenged. In writing his book about Natalie Wood, Lambert notes that Robert Wagner opened a lot of doors for him by calling people and telling them they could speak to him. Wagner felt Lambert was the perfect biographer because he had known Wood for many years. Lambert speculates about the curious circumstances of Wood’s death but his research has led him to no definitive conclusions about what happened on the boat that critical night.
This Property Is Condemned reminds me of the metaphor of stardom as a streetcar. At each stop, new passengers get on and some get off. The movie stars Natalie Wood, whose film career was on a downturn, and Robert Redford, who was on the rise. The two actors have very good screen chemistry but are manacled by a script that flirts with issues rather than confronting them in a dramatically satisfying manner. Elia Kazan elicited a fine performance from Natalie Wood in Splendor in the Grass a few years earlier. Perhaps if he had been at the helm, This Property Is Condemned could have been truer to the spirit of Tennessee Williams’ play.
- Dennis Seuling