This Property Is Condemned (1966)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Sydney Pollack

Writers:

Tennessee Williams (play)
Francis Ford Coppola (writer) ...

Release Date:

7 October 1966 (West Germany)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Alva wanted out in the worst way.

Plot:

A railroad official, Owen Legate comes to Dodson, Mississippi to shut down much of the town's railway (town's main income)...

Plot Keywords:

Revenge | Railroad | Mississippi | Railroad Track | 1920s

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 1 win

Cast

Natalie Wood	...	Alva Starr
Robert Redford	...	Owen Legate
Charles Bronson	...	J.J. Nichols
Kate Reid	...	Hazel Starr
Mary Badham	...	Willie Starr
Alan Baxter	...	Knopke
Robert Blake	...	Sidney
Dabney Coleman	...	Salesman
John Harding	...	Johnson
Ray Hemphill	...	Jim
Brett Pearson	...	Charlie
Jon Provost	...	Tom
Robert Random	...	Tiny (as Bob Random)
Quintin Sondergaard	...	Hank
Mike Steen	...	Max

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Sweden:11 | West Germany:16 (f) | UK:12 (2004) | UK:X (1966) | Finland:K-16 | USA:Unrated | Singapore:PG | Argentina:18

Filming Locations:

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Grayson Hall was initially considered to play Natalie Wood's mother.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: A wall calendar shows it to be August, 1931. Natalie Wood and Robert Redford go to a movie that didn't come out until October, 1932

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Newhart: This Probably Is Condemned (#1.5)" (1982)

Soundtrack:

Just One More Chance

Why should it be a condemned movie too?

This Property is Condemned was a condemned movie from the day it was made. It didn't win critical acclaim, nobody saw it and still there are only a few people who have even heard of it. And yet it's so beautiful that you really don't need to be persuaded to watch it. From the beginning, and as the story carries us to a condemned love affair between a beautiful and proud young woman who wants the world (but all she gets is all the men around her crawling on her feet) and a man (Robert Redford) that only wants to keep her safe from her pride, we witness the changes that can be brought by just one person, either that is the impact on the small town that Alva (Natalie Wood) lives or on her heart and life. The end is some kind of divine justice that we all want to prevent but no one manages to, but at the same time a lyrical hope in the form of the left behind (and astoundingly good) Mary Badham. A song that Tennessee Williams certainly wouldn't have approved for his book but at the same time what has always stayed in heart from this wonderful film. That and the glass snowstorm.