It's easy to see why Tennessee Williams himself preferred this version to the 1950 version, in which Gertrude Lawrence portrays Amanda Wingfield as a harridan caricature, often for laughs -- against Williams's own stage direction that "there is much to admire" in Amanda. This is definitely a step up, not least because of the divine Katharine Hepburn, who inhabits the role completely and is convincingly crushed after the Gentleman Caller leaves.
However, like another commenter, I'm amazed at the Emmy wins and nominations piled on this version. If you're looking for a really, really speedy (in every sense of the term) version of The Glass Menagerie, this would be it. Someone seems to have made Miss Hepburn's coffee with about eight shots of espresso to the cup; she plays the role at 45 rpm, with gusts up to 78. Although she's got the accent nailed (e.g. the pronunciation of "boy"), no true Mississippian would speak that fast. The result, too often, is complete unintelligibility, unfortunately in a few pivotal scenes where Miss Hepburn and Sam Waterston, two New Englanders, attempt to impersonate a Mississippi belle and her (presumably) St. Louis-born son.
And speaking of stimulant drugs and garbled lines: Michael Moriarty alternates between a curiously bland affect and jumping around freakishly in his scene with Laura. He, too, speaks so rapidly you begin to suspect he's on speed, or has been threatened with death by ABC studio execs if he runs over a certain time limit. Conversing with Laura is supposed to be like pulling teeth, yet within minutes he's actually hoisted her into the air, kissed her while she's up there, and then allowed her to slide erotically down his chest! That must have been some exciting yearbook photo.
I just don't buy Joanna Miles in this role. Yes, as another commenter noted, she looks like she could be Hepburn's daughter, and the director accentuates this by having them dress similarly and strike near-identical postures in several scenes. But Miles is too normal, too merely shy instead of truly hampered in interacting with the world. Karen Allen, opposite Joanne Woodward as Amanda, does a much better job of portraying Laura's inability to cope. Also, there is a profound flaw in Miles's performance: she doesn't limp. Even slightly. This isn't a PC complaint; it simply makes every line of dialogue about her shame over her old leg brace, or Amanda's diatribe about never using the word "crippled," seem absolutely ridiculous, and ruins our suspension of disbelief.
Waterston really comes out the best here, but his Tom is more hangdog than fierce, and the only way we know that he writes is because of the scene, whose staging is obviously left over from the live version (much like Hepburn's pointing to the portrait of her children's father in the first act on the words "your father," as if they'd be likely to forget who that guy in the photo was), in which Amanda disrupts him. Little is made of the difference between Tom and Jim, which is a much bigger scene in other settings of this play. Waterston gives a brave try at the "Killer Wingfield" speech, but it's still not a patch on Malkovich's.
Summary? Go for the 1987 version unless you're a Hepburn (or Williams) completist, or just enjoy watching actors talk like auctioneers.
However, like another commenter, I'm amazed at the Emmy wins and nominations piled on this version. If you're looking for a really, really speedy (in every sense of the term) version of The Glass Menagerie, this would be it. Someone seems to have made Miss Hepburn's coffee with about eight shots of espresso to the cup; she plays the role at 45 rpm, with gusts up to 78. Although she's got the accent nailed (e.g. the pronunciation of "boy"), no true Mississippian would speak that fast. The result, too often, is complete unintelligibility, unfortunately in a few pivotal scenes where Miss Hepburn and Sam Waterston, two New Englanders, attempt to impersonate a Mississippi belle and her (presumably) St. Louis-born son.
And speaking of stimulant drugs and garbled lines: Michael Moriarty alternates between a curiously bland affect and jumping around freakishly in his scene with Laura. He, too, speaks so rapidly you begin to suspect he's on speed, or has been threatened with death by ABC studio execs if he runs over a certain time limit. Conversing with Laura is supposed to be like pulling teeth, yet within minutes he's actually hoisted her into the air, kissed her while she's up there, and then allowed her to slide erotically down his chest! That must have been some exciting yearbook photo.
I just don't buy Joanna Miles in this role. Yes, as another commenter noted, she looks like she could be Hepburn's daughter, and the director accentuates this by having them dress similarly and strike near-identical postures in several scenes. But Miles is too normal, too merely shy instead of truly hampered in interacting with the world. Karen Allen, opposite Joanne Woodward as Amanda, does a much better job of portraying Laura's inability to cope. Also, there is a profound flaw in Miles's performance: she doesn't limp. Even slightly. This isn't a PC complaint; it simply makes every line of dialogue about her shame over her old leg brace, or Amanda's diatribe about never using the word "crippled," seem absolutely ridiculous, and ruins our suspension of disbelief.
Waterston really comes out the best here, but his Tom is more hangdog than fierce, and the only way we know that he writes is because of the scene, whose staging is obviously left over from the live version (much like Hepburn's pointing to the portrait of her children's father in the first act on the words "your father," as if they'd be likely to forget who that guy in the photo was), in which Amanda disrupts him. Little is made of the difference between Tom and Jim, which is a much bigger scene in other settings of this play. Waterston gives a brave try at the "Killer Wingfield" speech, but it's still not a patch on Malkovich's.
Summary? Go for the 1987 version unless you're a Hepburn (or Williams) completist, or just enjoy watching actors talk like auctioneers.