Poseidon-3 Review of The Sound and the Fury

The Sound and the Fury (1959)

Strange blend of Faulkner and Hollywood is fitfully interesting.

[16 January 2007]

One more in a long lineage of classic novels that have been very loosely adapted to the big screen, this colorful, but muddled, film suffers from a lack of focus and from miscasting. Woodward (pushing thirty, but portraying a teenager) plays the disenchanted, restless daughter of a woman who left her the day she was born, leaving her in the hands of a houseful of unhappy, emotionally-damaged relatives. Her uncle Beal is a broken-down alcoholic while her uncle Warden is a mentally deficient man-child. Her step-uncle Brynner runs the house with an iron fist, demanding acquiescence from all of them as his self-important and condescending mother Rosay brays on continuously. Attempting to keep the inhabitants in check is the devoted housekeeper Waters who has lived to see a once-great house decay into shambles as its owners have devolved from prominent citizens of the town into virtual flotsam. An already tense situation is escalated when Woodward takes up with carnival worker Whitman and her long-lost mother Leighton returns after a lengthy sojourn as a kept woman and a prostitute. What is one of the 20th century's most acclaimed literary works becomes a pot-boiling soap opera which has little or no point to it and threatens to break under the weight of some really poor casting decisions. Brynner is highly uncomfortable in this milieu, not aided by a head of artificial hair. He plays his role as if he's still The King of Siam, Bounine or Rameses and, despite his obvious grasp of authority, seems out of place most of the time. Woodward was just simply too old by this time to carry off her part, especially considering that "Peyton Place", a previous Jerry Wald production, had managed to find talented actors who were much closer to their characters' ages. She'd already been playing wives and mothers in other projects! Nonetheless, she does manage to turn in some decent acting throughout. Rosay is way, way over the top, screeching and bellowing every line in an unintelligible growl. At one point she threatens to stay in her room until she dies, as if the audience isn't already cheering for it to happen, and quick! Whitman is rather hunk-a-licious in a role that requires very little beyond that. Beal and Warden aren't displayed to any great effect though they don't embarrass themselves. Waters looks a bit silly in the opening sequence, but thankfully settles in to deliver a nicely grounded performance. There's also a decent cameo by Dekker as Brynner's co-worker/boss. The real draw here is a blowsy, damaged-flower turn by Leighton who brings a sense of tragedy and loss to her role while also staying interesting and captivating. Stepping in as a replacement for Lana Turner (!), she and Woodward bear enough of a resemblance to be believable as mother and daughter despite their differences in nationality. Leighton could just as well be portraying Blanche DuBois here and one can see that she'd have done well in that role also. Almost sure to disappoint fans of the novel, it's a film with a fascinating array of people, but without a strong enough script to support them. It takes quite a while to figure out who is who and who was married to who, and a bit too much is left up in the air. The implied happy ending seems queasy at best, considering the family circumstances of the couple. Still, it's always nice to see stars in action under the old studio system and witness the highly polished productions they churned out and fans of Leighton shouldn't miss this.