Southern melodramas are always heated, and the hot, steamy weather certainly amplifies the rise in temperature of complex relationships. I always think of such textures in film adaptations of "The Cat on the Hot Tin Roof" and "Baby Doll," the latter having raised the ire of the Catholic Legion of Decency. It is no accident that Tennessee Williams wrote both of these terrifically steamy and insightful plays. "This Property is Condemned" is an unusual oddity, as it is on the surface a Tennessee Williams story (based on a one-act play) yet the meatier parts of character development slowly erode rather than enhance. Not to say there isn't enough to like and admire about "This Property is Condemned" yet it actually feels like a one-act play and in a movie, well, you need more than one act.
The setting is Dodson, Mississippi in the 1930's where a young girl walks on the railroad tracks, the precocious Willie Starr (Mary Badham) singing "Wish Me a Rainbow," reminiscing about her older sister, Alva (Natalie Wood). As we flashback to her residence, a boarding house adjacent to the railroad tracks, we keep hearing men chanting the name "Alva" while Willie tries to fend them off. Legate (Robert Redford) arrives in this small town by train, and he has money to pay for a room but nobody knows him or his business. It turns out Legate is in town to lay off railroad workers thanks to severe cutbacks...it is the Depression era after all. Meanwhile, Alva is wanted and kissed by every man, she is the highlight of this boarding house run by her mother, Hazel "Mama" Starr (Kate Reid). Alva has plenty of men groping her and wanting to dance with her but it is Legate's initial resistance that confounds her.
As the story progresses, "This Property is Condemned" holds one's interest and Sydney Pollack directs with ease and a measure of romanticism without shying away from the economic difficulties of the time period. Natalie Wood is purely electric as Alva, emanating the sassiness and sex appeal of a woman whose sole purpose is to make men feel welcome at the boarding house (the play made it very clear she was a prostitute yet watching this movie, she is more like everyone's favorite dance partner). She sees a future beyond the guys who clamor for her attention - she wants to go to New Orleans yet her mother will not allow her to go free. Alva's future almost seems certain when she falls in love with Legate. Once the story shifts to New Orleans, Alva's past with one man she married on a whim, or on a dare, comes back to haunt her and her future with Legate becomes uncertain. This would not seem such an odd way for a Tennessee Williams story to conclude except it feels like a kick in the teeth - the mother returns to retrieve Alva and we hear from Willie in a flashforward about Alva's fate. As written by Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Coe and Edith Sommer, the film suddenly devolves into a hasty resolution that feels like a cheat. Considering it is based on a 25 minute one act play that centered only on Willie and a kid named Tom, this film is overstuffed with too many characters justifying itself as more Williams-centric than the Williams play itself. Ironically, it still resembles a one-act play either way.
"This Property is Condemned" is often spirited, sometimes brassy in tone, and deeply evocative of a time and place in history. It is fun seeing actors like Charles Bronson and Robert Blake, two of Alva's beaus, playing hard-working railroad workers who know they will lose their jobs (excepting Bronson to a certain degree, both actors are in their early prime here before being typecast as tough guys). Natalie Wood has the uncanny ability of making us believe she cares and adores all these men, even if she doesn't seem to have much chemistry with them. I can't say if this film works better than "Inside Daisy Clover" in terms of a long-standing relationship, which also starred Redford, yet I am not sure if Redford is really Alva's type (which may be precisely the point). A far too abrupt ending almost ruins the film but I still give it a pass for what works 6/10 of the way. Tennessee Williams hated it.
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