L'école des jeunes mariés

A young Jane Fonda, plays an incredibly naive, but good hearted nurse in a military hospital, who meets a Korean war combat pilot and marries (Jim Hutton)with the belief that he is "recovering" from "nervous" condition caused by his combat service. Hutton's actual problem is that he is in denial that he is still a virgin.

The movie based on a Tennesse Williams play is set in a suburban home around Christmas time. Hutton and Fonda arrive unannounced on their still unconsummated honeymoon. Hutton is seeking answers to his marital situation from his old buddy (Anthony Frcanciosa) who is in the middle of a marital problems of his own making. It seems Franciosa's wife suspects that he was influenced to marry her because of her Father's business. A not too difficult assumption to make, since her Father had married her maternal grandmother for the same reason.

The incorrect assumption that Fonda is Franciosa's girl friend makes some funny scenes for an actress not known for comedy.

Jim Hutton is perfect in this role. On the surface he is the all American poster boy of the Air Force pilot. He brings out the serious side of this movie when he finally comes face to face with his own real problem. That being the combat between the sexes which requires a "period of adjustment" whether the relationship is casual,or a life long marriage.

This movie has great acting, its funny yet serious, and it has a plausible yet happy ending. Its B & W without any special effects, about sex, without sex scenes, and does not have a message, other than people do imperfect things because they are imperfect. Their actions are not caused by some failure of the government or their education.

This movie will stand the test of time, because it is about people living in their time, with their customs.

That's my message.

... because it is just so doggone depressing! Only Williams can take Christmas Eve and turn it into a dysfunctional family fest that makes me want to throw myself out of a window, and definitely not have good will towards mankind! I didn't see the opening credits, so at the end it was no surprise who wrote the source material.

Jane Fonda and Jim Hutton play newlyweds Isabel and George Haverstick. And they apparently did not spend enough time together beforehand to see if they were compatible before hastily marrying. George is an inconsiderate jerk towards Isabel. Isabel is whiny and scolding. And each just ratchets up the unpleasantness in the other. They visit George's old Korean War army buddy, Ralph (Tony Franciosa), on Christmas Eve on their honeymoon. But in the meantime Ralph is having his own problems because he married his wife without love or physical attraction five years before, because of her father's money and position and him pushing the union, and she realizes this and has just left him.

So George seems more in love with Ralph and the idea of them running a dude ranch together than with this woman he just married, and the whole thing just turns into a shrill production. Humor is attempted with a bunch of drunken carolers who get more drunken with every house they visit, but by the end of the film they have just worn out their welcome. You can't convince me that there is going to be a happy ending for any of these people any more than you can convince me that there is deep snow in the deep south at Christmas, which in this film apparently there is.

I'd recommend it only for the players - Hutton, Fonda, and Franciosa, - who always turn in good performances like the troopers that they are.

Jim Hutton and Jane Fonda are a pair of newlyweds, she's a nice, but not terribly bright young lady and he's a bit of a blow-hard. But it will all work out they're told because they're just going through a Period Of Adjustment to each other and to their new status as marrieds.

But the viewer might not think so at first when after a minor quarrel mushrooms the two of them arrive unexpectedly at the home of Hutton's Korean War buddy Tony Franciosa on Christmas Eve. But he's having some marital problems of her own. His wife Lois Nettleton has just walked out on him, taking their young son with him. As gently as he can put it, Franciosa's not one for giving marital advice, especially not at this time. But war breeds some interesting bonds and what's an old army pal to do?

Tennessee Williams whose work is usually heavily laden with dramatic angst about sexual issues, takes a lighter tone in Period Of Adjustment and while it might not always work the film does have some good laughs in it. Of course I'm a bit prejudiced with the presence of Anthony Franciosa in the cast, one of the best and most underrated actors around. Jim Hutton also proves to be a good comedian.

I was a bit confused however because the play was written and debuted on Broadway in 1961 where it ran 132 performances. Hutton looks to be a bit young for a veteran just coming from the war and Williams doesn't really date the play as 1953 when the war ended. I'm sure revivals of the play have made appropriate corrections for the Vietnam War, Gulf War, Iraq War whatever war as Hutton's character says they're working on starting now.

Part of the problems that Franciosa and Nettleton are facing is that he really didn't love her when he married the richest girl in town, but was looking for a leg up economically and socially. He's made a bad bargain, now having to be under foot and dominated by Nettleton's parents, John McGiver and Mabel Albertson. Turns out though that McGiver made the same kind of bargain back in the day.

I can't forget a very adroit performance by Jack Albertson as a philosophical police sergeant when the whole kit and kaboodle of the cast winds up in front of him on Christmas Day. If they didn't make his Christmas merry, they sure made it interesting. I think Tennessee Williams borrowed from Garson Kanin in My Favorite Wife drawing from Granville Bates's performance as a judge.

Period Of Adjustment is not one of Tennessee Williams better works, but there's still enough of his ideas in the play to satisfy his admirers, even if they are served on the funny side.

I was totally charmed by this film particularly by the performances of Jane Fonda and Lois Nettleton. Then I thought the style sounded familiar and I saw that it really was a Tennessee Williams play. It was not anything like his great dark masterpieces "Glass Menagerie", "Streetcar Named Desire" etc., and yet i saw a theme consistent with his other works. Although Williams' sexual orientation was famously opposite, he never ceased to explore the power of heterosexuality and its strength as the source of creation. Even in "Streetcar" it is apparent that Stanley Kowalski and Stella really love each other. In the play (but not the movie) they are eventually reconciled as the baby asserts it's presence. Submission to that strong urge is really the theme of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". The performances are top notch. Tony Franciosa from my old Italian neighborhood of East Harlem was quite adept at playing Southerners as was my fellow Fordham University alumnus John MciIver. Serious issues are confronted and us poor males, trying to live up to the demands of machismo are shown sympathy by the truly admirable young women characters who reveal that love and understanding are what they truly expect.

I am amused that this film based on Tennessee William's work got nominated as a comedy for two different cinema awarding bodies. If this is a comedy, so would Albee's "Who is afraid of Virginia Woolf" be termed a comedy. Can this work be called a black comedy? Even this is doubtful--you could call "MASH" a black comedy but not "Period of Adjustment."

The play made me sit up, not laugh. The play may not be of the same caliber as William's other work like "The Night of Iguana" or "The Streetcar named Desire" but it forces the audience to look inwards. Unfortunately, director George Roy Hill in his first regular film effort as a director does not display the capability that he showed in directing his later films ("Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Sting," "A Little Romance," etc.). He fumbles with his editing: the shift of scene from the Baitz' to the Haversticks on stage would have been aided by a curtain or the lights going off, but in this film the switch from Fonda/Hutton to Franciosa/Nettleton is too abrupt and confusing. Yet Roy Hill shows his capability of eliciting fine performances from his cast, especially Jane Fonda (as he did later with Redford, Newman and Lord Laurence Olivier), and the dog!

Viewing this film 40 years after it was made, one cannot but appreciate the values of Tennessee Williams (and George Roy Hill) and the subject under discussion. How many contemporary directors would venture to make a film of the play today?

The film is fine entertainment value for those who like a good play on film (you need cinema to show visual shock of viewing the hearse for the first time, the stage can never provide the same effect).