SUMMER AND SMOKE
US, 1961, 128 minutes, Colour.
Geraldine Page, Laurence Harvey, Rita Moreno, Una Merkel, John, Mclntyre, Thomas Gomes, Pamela Tiffin. Directed by Peter Glenville,
Summer and Smoke is the film version of a Tennessee Williams' play first presented on Broadway in 1948. It was not made into a film until a number of other films had been made of successful plays, e.g. about this time there were versions of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending (The Fugitive Kind), Suddenly, Last Summer, and Sweet Bird of Youth.
Once more we are in the South, in New Orleans. Once more we explore human nature and its oddities in this strange environment and society.
This time Williams has created a parable, almost an allegory, of the struggle of flesh and spirit in a person. But he does not take sides and say that flesh is evil and spirit is good. Rather, in the dramatic conflict of the story and its reversal of roles and values, he shows that there must be some kind of coming to terms of both for satisfactory human existence. This is symbolised in the name of the heroine, Alma. She stresses that this is Spanish for soul. Alma is soul. Her story shows that people who so stress the fact that they are souls break and become lost souls.
Geraldine Page portrays Alma brilliantly and was nominated for an Oscar. This role can be compared with her similar roles in Williams1 Sweet Bird of Youth (1962) and in Toys in the Attic (1963). She repeated it in The Beguiled (1970) and caricatured it in Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice (1969). But she is an excellent actress.
Laurence Harvey acts well in a difficult part. He must represent flesh and evil but change to good. He is quite convincing. Direction is by Peter Glenville, also a noted stage director. His most noted films are Becket and the Comedians.
Summer and Smoke is good Williams and, at times, strong drama.
1. How did the prologue of the film set the New Orleans' scene, set the mood and anticipate the plot and theme?
2. What points was Williams making in this use of angels, statues, eternity and the soul? How did these themes pervade the film?
3. What significance did Alma's being a preacher's daughter have? What overtones of American religious beliefs and attitudes did it introduce?
4. Alma's name meant soul. She stressed that the nature of the soul was that it was real, but unseen and spiritual. Only the body is seen. How was Alma herself just a soul, almost a disembodied spirit and soul? How was John flesh and body?
5. Who was the central character, Alma or John?
6. How was the complexity of Alma 'a personality presented: her conflicts, tensions, illness, sense of unreality; the influence of her mother and their way of life, her snobbishness; her nervousness, old maid, spinster; her singing; her flirting and spying. Alma’s soul activities - the meetings and the readings; genteel, yet ready to break out?
7. How did the reactions of other people to Alma reveal her: Dr. Buchanan, the girl for singing lessons; Nelly; her mother and the hat and her regrets with her mother?
8. How was John presented: talented yet irresponsible, callow and callous, depraved, his attitude to Rosie; his gambling, drinking, sex, the cock-fights, his attitude to his father; his selfishness?
9. How seriously did he take Alma? At the beginning, her meeting, his interest in her health and the condition of her heart and his diagnosis of loneliness?
10. The central part of the plot was the interaction between Alma and Johnny, of soul and body and the reversal of roles. How did this begin and what was the effect: John's taking Alma out, Rosie's jealous dance, the gambling, the cock-fight and Alma's disgust at the blood; his love, her frigidity and fear?
11. What did the party at the Buchanan house show of Johns his gambling and prospective marriage, yet his disgust at his depravity?
12. What was the point of Zachariah's speech about getting what he wanted with money and a gun? Did it make the shooting of Dr. Buchanan more credible?
13. Why did Alma make the phone call - jealousy, hatred, self-righteousness, concern?
14. Was Dr. Buchanan's death necessary? Why did he damn his son? What was the effect of Alma's singing?
15. Was John just in blaming Alma for his father's death? What was the point of his lecture to her on anatomy and desires? How right was he?
16. Was John's reaction to his father's death credible? How was he changed?
17. Why was Alma's reaction to the events seclusion and disillusion? How did this change her?
18. Why did her father lie to John? How much was he to blame for what happened to Alma? Why did he lie to her?
19. How did the sequence with Alma and Hellie 's gift bring the dramatic conflict to a head?
20. How had the death of Dr. Buchanan and the subsequent events changed both Alma and John so that the interaction was not only complete, but that they had each changed positions? Why did Alma lose her soul? Had John gained harmony of body and soul?
21. What was the impact of this scene at the statue where she bids eternity farewell and accepts herself as body? What was your reaction as she picked up the travelling salesmen? What would her future be? Were you sorry?
22. What was the symbolism of summer and smoke, the long hot sumsr and the smoke of heat, smoke as a symbol of the elusive soul and of a smouldering personality?
