Fugitive Kind/Dvd, Criterion Collection, DVD

Four Academy Award winning actors - Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward, and Maureen Stapleton - sink their teeth into this enthralling drama, which brings together the legendary talents of director Sidney Lumet and writer Tennessee Williams. A smoldering, snakeskin-jacketed Brando is Val Xavier, a guitar-strumming drifter trying to go straight. He finds work and solace in a southern small-town variety store run by Lady Torrance (Magnani), who's lonely, sexually frustrated, and abused by her vile, deathly ill husband, and who proves as much a temptation for Val as local wild child Carol (Woodward). Lumet captures the intense, fearless performances and Williams's hot-blooded storytelling and social critique with his customary restraint, resulting in a drama of uncommon sophistication and craft.