Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Courtesy of Turner Entertainment / Warner Bros.

The Warner Archive Collection has packaged Baby Doll, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Sweet Bird of Youth, and A Streetcar Named Desire together in the Tennessee Williams 4-Film Collection. All of the packaged films have previously been released on Blu-ray.

Warner Archive has been rather busy releasing Blu-ray collections with some of the stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Other collections include Errol Flynn, Gene Kelly, James Cagney, Greta Garbo, Gary Cooper, Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Gable, Doris Day, James Stewart, Robert Taylor, Spencer Tracy, Fred Astaire, and Humphrey Bogart. Many of the included films have been previously released on Blu-ray, but it’s nice to have them all together in one set.

I’ve only seen A Streetcar Named Desire, but it goes without saying that the Tennessee Williams 4-Film Collection is a must-own collection for any fan of the writer. It’s worth it alone for the bonus features included with A Streetcar Named Desire.

Tennessee Williams 4-Film Collection.
Tennessee Williams 4-Film Collection. Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Baby Doll

Synopsis

Times are tough for cotton miller Archie (Karl Malden), but at least he has his child bride (Carroll Baker), who’ll soon be his wife in title and truth. The one-year agreement keeping them under the same roof — yet never in the same bed — is about to end. But a game with a sly business rival (Eli Wallach) is about to begin. In Baby Doll, as in A Streetcar Named Desire, director Elia Kazan and writer Tennessee Williams broke new ground in depicting sexual situations — earning condemnation from the then-powerful Legion of Decency. They earned laurels too: four Academy Award nominations, Golden Globe Awards for Baker and Kazan, and a British Academy Award for Wallach. Watch this funny, steamy classic that, as Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide proclaims, “still sizzles.”

Bonus Features

  • Featurette: See No Evil
  • Theatrical Trailer

DIRECTOR: Elia Kazan
SCREENWRITER: Tennessee Williams
CAST: Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach, Mildren Dunnock, Lonny Chapman, Eades Hogue, Noah Williamson, and Some People of Benoit, Mississippi

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Synopsis

“I’m not living with you,” Maggie snaps at Brick. “We occupy the same cage, that’s all.” The raw emotions and crackling dialogue of Tennessee Williams’ 1955 Pulitzer Prize play rumble like a thunderstorm in this film version, whose fiery performances and grown-up themes made it one of 1958’s top box-office hits. Paul Newman earned his first Oscar nomination as troubled ex-sports-hero Brick. In a performance that marked a transition to richer adult roles, Elizabeth Taylor snagged her second nomination. Her Maggie the Cat is a vivid portrait of passionate loyalty. Nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and also starring Burl Ives (repeating his Broadway triumph as mendacity-loathing Big Daddy), Judith Anderson and Jack Carson, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof sizzles.

Bonus Features

  • Commentary by Donald Spoto
  • Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: Playing Cat and Mouse
  • Theatrical Trailer

DIRECTOR: Richard Brooks
SCREENWRITER: Richard Brooks and James Poe
CAST: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Jack Carson, Judith Anderson, with Madeleine Sherwood, Larry Gates, Vaughn Taylor

Sweet Bird of Youth

Synopsis

Handsome Chance Wayne never found the Hollywood stardom he craved, but he’s always been a star with the ladies. Now, back in his sleepy, sweaty Gulf Coast hometown, he’s involved with two of them: a washed-up, drug-and-vodka-addled movie queen and the girl he left behind and in trouble. Paul Newman, Best Actress Oscar nominee Geraldine Page, Rip Torn and Madeleine Sherwood re-create their stage roles, and Ed Begley gives an Oscar -winning portrayal as the town’s corrupt political boss in a bravura film version of Tennessee Williams’ Broadway hit. Sex. Money. Hypocrisy. Financial and emotional blackmail. Familiar elements of Williams’ literary realm combine powerfully as Chance battles his private demons in a desperate bid to redeem his wasted life and recapture his lost sweet bird of youth.

Bonus Features

  • Sweet Bird of Youth: Chasing Time
  • Rip Torn and Geraldine Page Screen Test
  • Theatrical Trailer

DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER: Richard Brooks
CAST: Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Shirley Knight, Ed Begley, Rip Torn, with Mildred Dunnock, Madeleine Sherwood, Philip Abbott, Corey Allen, Barry Cahill, Dub Taylor, James Douglas, Barry Atwater, Charles Arnt, Dorothy Konrad, James Chandler, Mike Steen, Kelly Thordsen

A Streetcar Named Desire

Synopsis

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE: THE ORIGINAL RESTORED VERSION is the film moviegoers would have seen in 1951 had not Legion of Decency censorship occurred at the last minute. Elia Kazan masterfully directs Tennessee Williams’ masterpiece starring Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter. Nominated for an unprecedented 12 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and a winner of four, its contributions to film continue to be celebrated, and it holds a place on the AFI’s list of Top 100 Films.

Bonus Features

  • Commentary with Laurent Bouzereau, Karl Malden, Rudy Behlmer, and Jeff Young
  • Elia Kazan: A Director’s Journey
  • A Streetcar on Broadway
  • A Streetcar in Hollywood
  • Censorship and Desire
  • North and the Music of the South
  • An Actor Named Brando
  • Marlon Brando Screen Test
  • Outtakes
  • Audio Outtakes
  • Trailers

DIRECTOR: Elia Kazan
SCREENWRITER: Tennessee Williams
CAST: Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando, with Kim Hunter, Karl Malden, Rudy Bond, Nick Dennis, Peg Hillias, Wright King, Richard Garrick, Ann Dere, Edna Thomas

The Tennessee Williams 4-Film Collection is available on Blu-ray.

Please subscribe to The Solzy Report and visit Dugout Dirt.