the middle aged mother who runs a shabby rooming house and quasi-brothel, delivers a rock solid performance. The younger daughter, played by child actress Mary Badham of "To Kill a Mockingbird" fame masterfully brings to the screen a complex blend of childlike naivete and cynical worldliness. Redford is memorable in his role as a newcomer on the scene, a temporary guest who clearly has no idea of the conflicted and tragic relationship he is destined to find with an enchanted-but-stained Natalie Wood and her wretched kin.Indeed, the entire supporting cast in this torrid Tennessee Williams story put in star-quality performances. Collectively, they make this story unforgettable.Little sister "Willie" is fond of calling her seductive older sister "the main attraction" - a description that could also be used to describe this amazing film.

in this movie, which I am quite surprise of. Redford is handsome and calm, yet passion inside. And Wood is absolutely stunning. She was handling her character's transition really well. You can almost feel her agony when her mother "begged" her to stay with a wealthy, lonely old man for "just a tiny bit of time in her life". This is a good movie. A must see. Especially if you're a big fan of Redford and Wood. They are fascinating.

simply mesmerizing every second she is on screen in this film. One of her finest performances as well, if not the best of her career. Natalie is pure magic in this film, and regardless of her character's part in her own troubles, Natalie sucks you in and makes it impossible for you not to care about her character. Notable supporting performances from Robert Blake, Charles Bronson, and Kate Reid among others. It's definitely a southern tragedy, as only Tennesee Williams can tell....but so well done that it's worth it....check it out..

southern Mississippi town where one could cut the humidity and poverty with a knife. He has to decide which men to fire and which to keep. Then his very ordered and structured life gets complicated when he stays at a boarding house run by a dysfunctional family. He meets the oldest daughter, Natalie Wood, who is the local beauty. Great credit goes to casting and whoever scouted and selected the site location.The supporting characters are superb in their roles as examples of the worst people we've ever run into. Everyone except Redford's character is living in total denial. They're all shallow losers.Weird flick. Great, but weird. Depressing, but weird.

about the scenes filmed in New Orleans.Natalie Wood was gorgeous as usual and I think this is one of Robert Redford's best roles. I highly recommend this classic film. I gave it a 9 out of 10.

comes to no good end before she dies, and since it is vaguely insinuated that her mother is a prostitute herself the way the men at the boarding house treat her, always slapping her backside , I wondered myself if this is not where she was headed when she ran out of the apartment into the rain, hysterical with shame & guilt. I hope her mother felt good that she was able to keep her daughter from becoming a better person than herself, even if that meant destroying her.A simple, pleasant old film with good acting and two very attractive leads. Worth watching.

Give this film a chance and you might be surprised. Natalie never looked better.

and costumes were excellent, especially Alva's home-made skin-tight clothes, the huge rooming house, the streets of New Orleans.The mom Kate Reid was also very well done. She humanized what could have been a monster character. After all, she and the kids were abandoned by her husband, and she was trying to support everyone in an era when there was no social welfare support, and apparently no relatives to turn to. Her pimping of Alva is not all that unusual in such circumstances, nor Alva's conflicted feelings towards her mom and her felt duty to help support the family and keep a full house at the inn. Williams was brave to explicate these real human dynamics, and to show compassion for all the characters.Poor Willy is the final victim, abandoned and unsupported after Alva's premature death. One would hope Owen could've recovered his innate humanity and helped Willy out, if only as his final link to Alva. It's possible he self-destructed and closed up when his angel woman was revealed by mom to have done considerable wrong in the eyes of the society of that time. He was a man of his time, after all, and women were either angels or whores. Today Alva's 'crimes' would be fixed relatively easily and with little or no condemnation. People make mistakes and do some bad things to each other, but they can be forgiven. Perhaps forgiveness was not Owen's strong suit.The movie is directed very well. It's well paced and leaves you concerned for the fates of all the characters. Nice of Willy and the screenwriters to mention what happened to momma and Alva. The film is so engaging that we'd like to know what happened to Owen too, and why Willy ended up alone, abandoned in the railroad town the family fled.