Julie Harris had made her name in the stage version of Carson McCullers' The Member Of The Wedding and later played the same role, Frankie Jasmine Adams in the film version, so presumably that is why she was cast here. Carson McCullers inhabits the same Southern Gothic universe as Tennessee Williams and both Brando and Taylor were famed interpreters of Williams but fourth lead Brian Keith had, so far as I know, no connection with Southern Gothic. For McCullers, who arrived on the scene via a novel top-billing two deaf mutes, there was nothing out-of-the-ordinary in the ding-dongs thrown together here; a woman who cuts her nipples off with secateurs, a soldier who rides naked through the woods and sneaks into the home of an officer to sit on the floor of the bedroom where the officer's wife is sleeping, an impotent officer who collects that same soldier's discarded candy wrappers, a wife who horsewhips him at a party, jes plain folks. It's a long way from The Maltese Falcon and no, Mr. Huston, it don't beat the devil.
Review of Reflections in a Golden Eye
