The Last of the Mobile Hot Shots

Brutes and faded belles. Mint juleps and chicory coffee. Sexual propriety and kinky behavior. Old eras shoved aside kicking and flailing by the inevitable new. They’re signposts of a distinctive locale: Tennessee Williams Territory. Based on The Seven Descents of Myrtle, Last of the Mobile Hot-Shots is the 15th Williams work to reach the screen. Sidney Lumet (Network, Dog Day Afternoon) directs this adaptation rich in character and atmosphere. James Coburn, Lynn Redgrave and Robert Hooks star as a raw-edged trio housed in a rundown mansion during an incessant rain—and knotted with racial and sexual animosities. Like the swelling river pushing against a nearby levee, those tensions can’t be contained long. The waters run deep. The emotions run deep.