The Sound and the Fury

Well the principal casting here is quite bizarre. It's really Yul Brynner who struggles to convince as the Russian-born, adopted, head of the "Compson" family - a supposed southern states gentleman having to come to terms with the fairly profound changes in the local hierarchy and in their own personal, dwindling, fortunes. Despite the fact that most of the rest of this family have long given up and taken to the bottle or just cannot cope with the realities, he is still determined to restore things to a semblance of their former glory. To that end he shares a vision with his niece "Quentin" (Joanne Woodward). She was abandoned by her mother - his flighty sister "Caddy" (Margaret Leighton) - at birth and so has developed an embittered but determined independent steak - and that comes with flaws and numerous errors of judgement! "Compson" is resolved to keep her from both predators and from herself - and a clash of personalities is soon looming! The story here is really quite derivative and the characterisations lightweight, delivering a story that has all the ingredients of a smouldering tale of the American south, but rather forgets to light the fire. Leighton delivers quite strongly here, I thought, as does an on-form Woodward - but in isolation they can't really rescue this from it's over-scripted doldrums. Great title but it disappoints, sorry.