The Sound And The Fury (1959)

A once respected Southern family has fallen onto hard times following several generations of scandal. Currently, the youngest male member of the family (Yul Brynner) attempts to hold what's left of the family together with an iron fist but the rebellious youngster (Joanne Woodward) of the clan clashes with him over his overbearing ways. Like Kazan's film of Steinbeck's EAST OF EDEN, the director Martin Ritt concentrates on the last part of the William Faulkner book and then only very loosely. Faulkner's novels are very difficult to adapt to the screen (as last year's James Franco film adaptation of AS I LAY DYING proved) and Ritt and his screenwriters, Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr., don't even attempt to approximate the novel's complicated prose style. It seems Faulkner's lesser works like THE TARNISHED ANGLES (reputedly Faulkner's favorite of all his film adaptations) and THE LONG HOT SUMMER found transition from page to screen easier. Figuring out the family's structure and their relationship to each other is often very confusing and one wishes for more clarity. Still, as a steamy Southern Gothic (more Tennessee Williams than Faulkner), it's often quite entertaining. The humid score is by Alex North. With Margaret Leighton (a strange choice for the older Caddy but she's good), Stuart Whitman, Jack Warden, Ethel Waters, Albert Dekker and Francoise Rosay.