Best American Plays (Fourth Series, 1951-1957)

Several of these plays went on to become boxoffice movie hits that included the stars of the 50s. In general, the plays are generally superior to the movie versions. Listed as Best American for years 1952-1963 are: "I Am a Camera"; Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"; "The Rose Tattoo", and Eugene O'Neill's "A Moon for the Misbegotten". Michael Gazzo's, "A Hatful of Rain" tells a story about two brothers and takes place in tenement apartment in New York. A father visits his son, Korean war vet, Johnny Pope and his pregnant wife Celia. Father doesn't know that Johnny is now a morphine junkie, in debt to pushers, heading into a violent world, has lost his job and has an unstable married life. William Inge's popular "Picnic" and "Bus Stop" - Bus Stop, a three-act play has never been as popular as the Marilyn Monroe movie version, and, without a doubt, the play is better. It is a group of lonely people searching for dreams or just living life freely. They come together stranded at a small Midwestern café during a snow storm. Inge's characters are always livid. From Arthur Miller, is "The Crucible" and "A View from the Bridge" an intense family drama and emotion that focuses on perplexing longshoreman, 40-year old Eddie Carbone who has a disturbing inappropriate fixation on his 18 year-old niece. Lawyer Alfieri provides intermittent narration on the unfolding drama with tragic consequences. Others include: "Inherit the Wind", "Tea and Sympathy", "The Cain Mutiny Court-Martial"; "The Matchmaker"; "No Time for Sergeants" and "The Solid Gold Cadillac". Another play that became more popular through the movie version is "The Seven Year Itch", most likely because of Marilyn Monroe. You will get much more out of the book as a middle-age man left alone for the summer and a beautiful young woman rents the apartment upstairs. His imaginations take over. Jan de Hartog's "The Fourposter" is a domestic marital comedy where the fourposter bed is symbolic of the duration and stability of the marriage. The play spans 35 years of a marrage that covers the night of the wedding, pregnancy with labor pains, ever present child-rearing problems, careers, infidelity, and typical hardships with ups and downs placed on a lasting marriage. ....MzRizz