Great Performances (TV Series) Eccentricities of a Nightingale (1976) User Reviews

Not To Be Missed

[baker-9 · 8/10 · 15 August 2002]

After completing "Summer & Smoke," Tennessee Williams revised the play again while in Italy and the result is a rather different piece that he preferred over "Smoke." But the latter was already in rehearsal and then became a hit. "Eccentricities" didn't get a Broadway production until the 1970's, with Betsy Palmer.

This TV version with Blythe Danner - who is superb - is one of the new Broadway Theater Archive videos/DVDs that is truly worth buying. I saw the film version of "Summer and Smoke" with Geraldine Page, but even given the differences between that play and this one, Danner's Alma is more fascinating and moving. It's one of the very best pieces of acting by one of America's most underappreciated actresses. Her laying bare of her soul and defenses as she asks the doctor to take her to a hotel so she can experience love just once is masterfully done.

Frank Langella is scarcely less good as the young doctor who is the subject of Alma's romantic obsession. Neva Patterson as the smug, manipulative mother of the doctor and Louise Latham as Alma's neurotic (mad?) mother are strong as well.

Film and TV adaptations of Williams' work (and the work itself) are variable. But "Eccentricities" can easily take it's place among the best of them.

Been waiting 25 years to see it again!

[awweinstein · 10/10 · 29 April 2001]

Blythe Danner's performance in this film was one of the most memorable I've ever seen, probably the most memorable! Between the part and her acting, it is unforgettable! I cannot recommend it highly enough. Am almost afraid to see it again because of the depth of feeling that she expressed in the words that William's wrote.

One of my favorites

[brenttraft · 10/10 · 12 May 2003]

I'm a big fan of the plays of Tennessee Williams and I have read most if not all of them. This was one of my favorites when I read it and I like it even better now that I've been able to watch a production of it.

All the acting is good, especially Blythe Danner.

In comparison to his other plays, this one seems most closely related to The Glass Menagerie in that is has all of the profound dialog creeping from ordinary conversation and it is sad and sentimental without resorting to being sordid in the way of Suddenly Last Summer or some of his later plays.

I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys the most popular plays of Tennessee Williams!

Danner in excelsis

[Tector · 10/10 · 15 July 1999]

The recent exaltation of Gwyneth Paltrow might conceivably lead to renewed awareness of her extraordinary mother. Maybe someone will merchandise ECCENTRICITIES. Blythe Danner's performance in this film, from PBS' series of filmed American plays, is one of the greatest filmed performances I've ever seen-- a white-hot bit of lunatic romanticism so close to the heart of Tennessee Williams' sensibility. To have seen the scene ending with Danner's whispering, silhouetted in a window, "My love, my love, your light is out-- now I can sleep," should convince anyone that Tom Stoppard should have been writing great scripts for HER.

A Warbling Strangeness

[Rick-8 · 29 June 2003]

**possible spoilers**

Like the proverbial bird in the gilded cage who finally got away, Alma escapes into the arms of her doctor neighbor, a former bad boy, who looks at her in wonder. As a superior American playwright, Tennessee Williams manipulates language in metaphor, illusion, and devastation for turn-of-the-century Mississippi. This revised version of his play, Summer and Smoke, seems more naturalistic than the forbearer. This is a filmed version for PBS and very stagy, but there are close-ups and two shots. Watch for the impersonation of Tennessee himself. If one listens hard enough, the songs of ancestors can be heard.

based on Summer and Smoke

[blanche-2 · 8/10 · 23 October 2013]

Tennessee Williams liked this version of his story better than Summer and Smoke, but found when he arrived with his new play, rehearsals for Summer and Smoke had already begun. This version leaves out the young, vibrant fiancé of John Buchanan, the resulting tragedy of Alma's machinations, and interplay between John Buchanan and his father.

Alma (Blythe Danner) is a spinster during the Victorian era in Mississippi. She teaches voice and sings a little. She lives with her insane mother (Louise Latham) and her minister father (Tim O'Connor). Alma has been in love with John Buchanan (Frank Langella) since childhood. John has just returned from medical school and is staying in town for a while. He's much more world-savvy than Alma, whose life is music, poetry, soft words, and who has accepted her role as an "eccentric." John and his friendly flirtation awaken repressed feelings in her.

I'd say Summer and Smoke and Eccentricities of a Nightingale are both, for me, a little problematic. As someone pointed out, it's second rate Williams but second rate Williams is better than just about anybody, and that is true. His words indeed are poetry, and he evokes that incredible Southern atmosphere.

Summer and Smoke is a story of spiritual love versus physical love; Eccentricities is less clear. Alma wants John to make love to her, to take her to one of those little hotels where you rent a room by the hour - to experience what she has been missing in her own life. For her, it's love, and she knows for John, it's just sex, and she doesn't care.

In Summer and Smoke, John is supposedly a wild man who likes a good time; in Eccentricities, he's polite, kind, and friendly, and while he's been around, it hasn't been all that much, he claims. Langella plays him with a little smile of tolerance and as a complete gentleman. He's not the snob his mother (Neva Patterson) is, at least overtly; he likes Alma though he knows she's not a suitable partner for him.

Blythe Danner is a perfect Williams heroine - fragile, blond, with a fluttery voice and nervous, breathless mannerisms; Alma is probably Blanche Dubois before moving in on Stanley and Stella. I found her performance just a bit frantic, and I think it is because this is basically a filmed play. Sitting in an audience, without those closeups, I doubt I would have found her performance anything but fantastic. The important thing is, we care what happens to her, we want the best for her, but in our hearts, we know she is indeed an "eccentric," and is not going to get it.

I always thought Louise Latham as a young woman would be a great Blanche; she was a stage actress until the 1960s, so it's entirely possible she played it regionally. She's excellent here as Alma's demented mother.

It's a shame we don't have a lot of these plays shown on television any longer.