CECIL BROWN
297
Williams:
I don 't think it's as awful as that thing in
Titus Andronicus,
do you?
Int.:
I think it's more civilized.
Williams:
It's more metaphorical, isn't it. It horrified me, the film; Sam
Spiegel made the mistake of inviting me to a private screening of it
in his apartment and I walked out in the middle of it. I was so
offended by the literal approach because the play was metaphorical;
it was a sort of poem, I thought-I loved Katharine Hepburn in it
but I didn't like the film, to be honest. The American Film Theater
should have done
Suddenly Last Summer.
Then they would have
caught it with Ann Meacham, Robert Lansing, Hortense Albert. It
would have been beautiful. It was a play that should not have been
made into a film at that period.
Int.:
How did you sell the rights?
Williams:
I sold them over the phone myself. Sam Spiegel, he called me
up and he said ''I'll give you $50,000 and 20% of the profits." I
thought that was a good deal so I said okay. We didn't go through
any agent that time. And do you know he paid me all those profits as
far as I can tell. As far as I know he was perfectly honest with me.
Int.:
What did the terms of the profits come to?
Williams:
Don't know, it was quite a bit.
Int.:
Do you still get residuals from those films?
Williams:
Occasionally.
Int.:
The
Cat
opened again on Broadway and it's doing very well.
What changes have they made in it?
Williams:
I made some changes in the end, not as much as I antic–
ipated.
Int.:
I heard Elizabeth Ashley is very good in it. Is she as good as
Elizabeth Taylor?
Williams:
She is brilliant in i.t. Liz Taylor is no actress. She was a
personality. She was better than usual because she looked so beauti–
ful ; she was directed by Richard Brooks who's a wonderful director
except that at the end he cheats on the material, sweetens it up and
makes it all hunky-dory. Even in
Streetcar
they softened up the end a
little bit; they made Stella decide never to sleep with Stanley again
which is a total contradiction to the meaning of the play; he does, the
meaning of the play is that he does go on with her. And Richard
Brooks wrote a fabulous screen play of
Sweet Bird of Youth
but he
did the same fucking thing. He had a happy end to it. He had
Heavenly and Chance go on together, which is a contradiction to the
meaning of the play.
