Cynthia Lyman

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Possibly it's because I've lived long enough and have been through enough by now, but I saw the main plot points unfolding early on. I was a non-traditional (older) student completing an English major several years ago, and consequently came into close contact with many male professors in the department; however, intimate subject matter notwithstanding, there was a tone of professional decorum and dialogue that was always strenuously and carefully maintained in any encounters away from the classroom. The character of Angela immediately breaches that invisible line in the sand in both behavior and speech, not to mention sharing privately her evocative and erotic prose with her teacher. Because she comes across as simultaneously naive yet jagged at the edges, I saw instantly where the story was going, even if the single word title didn't give it away: Older, jaded, desperately unhappy one-time novelist tethered to an unsatisfying tenured college career meets young manipulative female student filled with angst and barely repressed seething ambition. Predictably dire results were duly bound to follow.

Solid production values combined with Billy Wilder's crisp and clever dialogue along with his direction make this film a classic noir no film lover should miss. The casting of Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray as the lecherous villains are inspired alongside the calculating and methodical Edward G Robinson who plays the insurance investigator providing their formidable foil. Don't miss this movie for the dialogue and performances alone; it is wonderful. A+

I've seen various televised versions along with different staged representations and I have to say, this cast does Williams' classic melodrama proud. Shirley Booth is outstanding as the often grating and complex Amanda and the rest of the cast is equally good. Can you imagine modern stories being upheld and carried on the strength of just four characters, one of whom doesn't appear until the final act but whose appearance nevertheless transforms one of the central female's behavior in such a fashion that the audience gets to witness her long-awaited unfolding before their very eyes? I've heard people classify this play as maudlin and depressing but I think they're missing the slice of life proof of how brief moments of joy can blossom even in the drudgery and darkness of the stagnant every day. Although we can only guess at and imagine Laura's ultimate fate, we are left knowing that she indeed did have her moment with her only love and sometimes the certainty of that alone is enough.