American Plays
List activity
3 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
44 titles
- DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczStarsElizabeth TaylorKatharine HepburnMontgomery CliftA surgeon is assigned the case of a young woman whose aunt wants her lobotomized to cover up a family secret.
- DirectorSidney LumetStarsKatharine HepburnRalph RichardsonJason RobardsAt the end of a long and hot summer day, members of one family gather in a large house. Everyone has something painful and offensive to say, and their silence is even worse.
- DirectorTony RichardsonStarsKatharine HepburnPaul ScofieldLee RemickA well-to-do Connecticut family is upended when the grown daughter's godparents, seized by a nameless terror, decide to come live with them.
- DirectorAnthony HarveyStarsKatharine HepburnSam WaterstonJoanna MilesAmanda Wingfield dominates her children with her faded gentility and exaggerated tales of her Southern belle past. Her son plans escape; her daughter withdraws into a dream world. When a "gentleman caller" appears, things move to crisis point.
- DirectorJonathan KentStarsJessica LangeEd HarrisBen FosterOver the course of a day, a married couple, Mary and James Tyrone, and their two sons, Jamie and Edmund, grapple with Mary's morphine addiction and confront each other over the past in a series of emotionally tense and volatile exchanges.
- DirectorJonathan MillerStarsJack LemmonBethel LesliePeter GallagherEugene O'Neill's award-winning and classic play about a day in the life of a dysfunctional family controlled by their addictions gets a staged version made for TV. Past, present, and future discussions about life, human relations, and family problems are all discussed by the Tyrone family from the early hours in the morning up until the final minutes of the night, revealing failures, lost hopes, possible dreams, and all sorts of memories that prevent them from changing their current sad situation.
- DirectorElia KazanStarsVivien LeighMarlon BrandoKim HunterDisturbed Blanche DuBois moves in with her sister in New Orleans and is tormented by her brutish brother-in-law while her reality crumbles around her.
- DirectorIrving RapperStarsJane WymanKirk DouglasGertrude LawrenceMerchant marine officer Tom Wingfield reminisces about his life in St. Louis where he had lived with his nagging mother Amanda and crippled shy sister Laura.
- DirectorPaul NewmanStarsJoanne WoodwardJohn MalkovichKaren AllenA son longs to escape from his stifling home, where his genteel mother worries about the future prospects of his lame, shy sister.
- DirectorRichard BrooksStarsElizabeth TaylorPaul NewmanBurl IvesBrick is an alcoholic ex-football player who drinks his days away and resists the affections of his wife. A reunion with his terminal father jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsRichard BurtonAva GardnerDeborah KerrAn ostracized Episcopal clergyman leads a busload of middle-aged Baptist women on a tour of the Mexican coast and comes to terms with the failure haunting his life.
- DirectorDaniel MannStarsAnna MagnaniBurt LancasterMarisa PavanA Sicilian seamstress who idolizes her husband must deal with several family crises upon his sudden death.
- DirectorMike NicholsStarsElizabeth TaylorRichard BurtonGeorge SegalA bitter, aging couple, with the help of alcohol, use their young houseguests to fuel anguish and emotional pain towards each other over the course of a distressing night.
- DirectorGerhard KlingenbergStarsHeinz RühmannKäthe GoldChristoph BantzerWilly Loman is an over-the-hill salesman who faces a personal turning point when he loses his job and attempts to make peace with his family: Willy's long-suffering wife Linda, and Biff and Happy, his troubled sons and his life.
- DirectorFranz Peter WirthStarsKurt EhrhardtInge WindschildRobert GrafWilly Loman is an over-the-hill salesman who faces a personal turning point when he loses his job and attempts to make peace with his family: Willy's long-suffering wife Linda, and Biff and Happy, his troubled sons and his life.
- DirectorVolker SchlöndorffStarsDustin HoffmanKate ReidJohn MalkovichAn aging traveling salesman recognizes the emptiness of his life and tries to fix it.
- DirectorLaslo BenedekStarsFredric MarchMildred DunnockKevin McCarthyAn over-the-hill salesman faces a personal turning point when he loses his job and attempts to make peace with his family.
- DirectorIrving ReisStarsEdward G. RobinsonBurt LancasterMady ChristiansDuring WW2, industrialist Joe Keller commits a crime and frames his business partner Herbert Deever but years later his sin comes back to haunt him when Joe's son plans to marry Deever's daughter.
- DirectorRobert DelamereStarsDavid SuchetZoë WanamakerStephen Campbell MooreArthur Miller's scathing portrait of American society is revived here by director Howard Davies with an intricate, naturalistic set and detailed performances.
- DirectorNicholas HytnerStarsDaniel Day-LewisWinona RyderPaul ScofieldA Salem resident attempts to frame her ex-lover's wife for being a witch in the middle of the 1692 witchcraft trials.
- DirectorAlex SegalStarsGeorge C. ScottColleen DewhurstFritz WeaverIn the Puritan New England town of Salem, Massachusetts, a group of girls go dancing in the forest with a black slave named Tituba. While dancing, they are caught by the local minister, Reverend Parris. One of the girls, Parris's daughter Betty, falls into a coma-like state. A crowd gathers in the Parris home while rumors of witchcraft fill the town. Having sent for Reverend Hale, an expert on witchcraft, Parris questions Abigail Williams, the girls' ringleader, about the events that took place in the forest. Abigail, who is Parris's niece and ward, admits to doing nothing beyond "dancing". While Parris tries to calm the crowd that has gathered in his home, Abigail talks to some of the other girls, telling them not to admit to anything. John Proctor, a local farmer, then enters and talks to Abigail alone. Unbeknownst to anyone else in the town, while working in Proctor's home the previous year she engaged in an affair with him, which led to her being fired by his wife, Elizabeth. Abigail still desires Proctor, but he fends her off and tells her to end her foolishness with the girls. Betty wakes up and begins screaming. Much of the crowd rushes upstairs and gathers in her bedroom, arguing over whether she is bewitched. A separate argument between Proctor, Parris, the argumentative Giles Corey, and the wealthy Thomas Putnam soon ensues. This dispute centers on money and land deeds, and it suggests that deep fault lines run through the Salem community. As the men argue, Reverend Hale arrives and examines Betty, while Proctor departs. Hale quizzes Abigail about the girls' activities in the forest, grows suspicious of her behavior, and demands to speak to Tituba. After Parris and Hale interrogate her for a brief time, Tituba confesses to communing with the devil, and she hysterically accuses various townsfolk of consorting with the devil. Suddenly, Abigail joins her, confessing to having seen the devil conspiring and cavorting with other townspeople. Betty joins them in naming witches, and the crowd is thrown into an uproar. A week later, alone in their farmhouse outside of town, John and Elizabeth Proctor discuss the ongoing trials and the escalating number of townsfolk who have been accused of being witches. Elizabeth urges her husband to denounce Abigail as a fraud; he refuses, and she becomes jealous, accusing him of still harboring feelings for her. Mary Warren, their servant and one of Abigail's circle, returns from Salem with news that Elizabeth has been accused of witchcraft but the court did not pursue the accusation. Mary is sent up to bed, and John and Elizabeth continue their argument, only to be interrupted by a visit from Reverend Hale. While they discuss matters, Giles Corey and Francis Nurse come to the Proctor home with news that their wives have been arrested. Officers of the court suddenly arrive and arrest Elizabeth. After they have taken her, Proctor browbeats Mary, insisting that she must go to Salem and expose Abigail and the other girls as frauds. The next day, Proctor brings Mary to court and tells Judge Danforth that she will testify that the girls are lying. Danforth is suspicious of Proctor's motives and tells Proctor, truthfully, that Elizabeth is pregnant and will be spared for a time. Proctor persists in his charge, convincing Danforth to allow Mary to testify. Mary tells the court that the girls are lying. When the girls are brought in, they turn the tables by accusing Mary of bewitching them. Furious, Proctor confesses his affair with Abigail and accuses her of being motivated by jealousy of his wife. To test Proctor's claim, Danforth summons Elizabeth and asks her if Proctor has been unfaithful to her. Despite her natural honesty, she lies to protect Proctor's honor, and Danforth denounces Proctor as a liar. Meanwhile, Abigail and the girls again pretend that Mary is bewitching them, and Mary breaks down and accuses Proctor of being a witch. Proctor rages against her and against the court. He is arrested, and Hale quits the proceedings. The summer passes and autumn arrives. The witch trials have caused unrest in neighboring towns, and Danforth grows nervous. Abigail has run away, taking all of Parris's money with her. Hale, who has lost faith in the court, begs the accused witches to confess falsely in order to save their lives, but they refuse. Danforth, however, has an idea: he asks Elizabeth to talk John into confessing, and she agrees. Conflicted, but desiring to live, John agrees to confess, and the officers of the court rejoice. But he refuses to incriminate anyone else, and when the court insists that the confession must be made public, Proctor grows angry, tears it up, and retracts his admission of guilt. Despite Hale's desperate pleas, Proctor goes to the gallows with the others, and the witch trials reach their awful conclusion.
- DirectorDavid HornStarsAngela GoethalsStephen Louis GrushJane KaczmarekAt the end of a long and hot summer day, members of one family gather in a large house. Everyone has something painful and offensive to say, and their silence is even worse.
- DirectorJosé QuinteroGordon RigsbyStarsJason RobardsColleen DewhurstEd FlandersIn Connecticut in September 1923, the lives of three people collide: Josie, a domineering Irish woman with a quick tongue and a ruined reputation, her conniving father, tenant farmer Phil Hogan, and James Tyrone, Jr., Hogan's landlord and drinking companion, a cynical alcoholic haunted by the death of his mother.
- StarsNancy WickwireColin BlakelyJohn MeillonIn Connecticut in September 1923, the lives of three people collide: Josie, a domineering Irish woman with a quick tongue and a ruined reputation, her conniving father, tenant farmer Phil Hogan, and James Tyrone, Jr., Hogan's landlord and drinking companion, a cynical alcoholic haunted by the death of his mother.
- DirectorDelbert MannStarsSophia LorenAnthony PerkinsBurl IvesDesperation and secret passions on a family farm lead to tragedy.
- DirectorJohn FrankenheimerStarsLee MarvinFredric MarchRobert RyanA salesman with a sudden passion for reform has an idea to sell to his barfly buddies: throw away your pipe dreams. The drunkards, living in a flophouse above a saloon, resent the idea.
- DirectorSidney LumetStarsJason RobardsMyron McCormickTom PediTheodore Hickman, a hardware salesman, makes by-yearly visits to Harry Hope's 1910-era waterfront bar for his periodical drinking binges. But on this visit he has decided to try to save the bar's patrons from their "lying pipe dreams."
- DirectorSidney LumetStarsMarlon BrandoJoanne WoodwardAnna MagnaniValentine "Snakeskin" Xavier, a trouble-prone drifter trying to go straight, wanders into a small Mississippi town looking for a simple and honest life but finds himself embroiled with problem-filled women.
- DirectorRichard BrooksStarsPaul NewmanGeraldine PageShirley KnightA drifter and a faded film star, both traumatized by Hollywood, arrive to the guy's hometown, where the old bitter memories revive again.
- DirectorNicolas RoegStarsElizabeth TaylorMark HarmonValerie PerrineAging movie star Alexandra del Lago, also known as Princess Kosmonopolis (Dame Elizabeth Taylor), fears her career is over due to her fading youthful looks. She takes up with a handsome young man, Chance Wayne (Mark Harmon), who once had promise as an actor, but who has fallen into the life of a gigolo. Together, they travel to Chance's home town, where he hopes to regain the love of his one-time girlfriend Heavenly Finley (Cheryl Paris). But Chance's departure years before has destroyed Heavenly's possibilities of a happy life, and her father, "Boss" Tom Finley (Rip Torn), wants revenge on Chance. Chance hopes to take Heavenly with him to start the movie career he believes the Princess offers him, but she is so fragile in her dread of lost youth that no one's dreams seem likely to come true.
- DirectorRobert Allan AckermanStarsHelen MirrenOlivier MartinezAnne BancroftA failing star is faced with a lifestyle change when her rich husband suddenly dies while they are en route to Italy. She then sets off in a series of flings with gigolos found for her by an aging contessa. Each contact spirals further out of control until she becomes obsessed with one young man, who initially treats her well, but then with disdain.
- DirectorDudley NicholsStarsRosalind RussellMichael RedgraveRaymond MasseyEugene O'Neill's updated version of the Oresteia set in New England, after the American Civil War.
- StarsRoberta MaxwellDeborah OffnerPeter WellerEugene O'Neill's trilogy of plays inspired by Aeschylus' Oresteia. Set near the end of the American Civil War, the action follows the turmoil of the Mannon family and its myriad psychological torments.
- DirectorAlfred SantellStarsWilliam BendixSusan HaywardJohn LoderDuring the 1940s, social class conflict is depicted when a spoiled socialite, traveling on a freighter, calls the ship's head stoker a hairy ape, provoking him into stalking the rich woman once ashore in New York.
- DirectorClarence BrownStarsWallace BeeryLionel BarrymoreAline MacMahonStory of small-town life in turn-of-the-century America, and a young boy's problems facing adolescence.
- DirectorClarence BrownStarsGreta GarboCharles BickfordGeorge F. MarionA young woman reunites with her estranged father and falls in love with a sailor, but struggles to tell them about her dark past.
- DirectorJacques FeyderStarsGreta GarboTheo ShallHans JunkermannA young woman reunites with her estranged father and falls in love with a sailor, but struggles to tell them about her dark past.
- DirectorDudley MurphyWilliam C. de MilleStarsPaul RobesonDudley DiggesFrank H. WilsonUnscrupulously ambitious Brutus Jones escapes from jail after killing a guard and through bluff and bravado finds himself the emperor of a Caribbean island.
- DirectorAlan BurkeStarsJoe JenkinsMoray PowellAlbert la Guerre
- DirectorKirk BrowningStephen PorterStarsDonald MoffatRobert PhalenRoberta MaxwellCornelius "Con" Melody is an Irish tavern keeper in New England who lives in reverence of his former days as a nobleman and decorated officer in the British army during the Napoleonic wars. Impoverished now, he struts about in his uniform and plots to make money by manipulating the love of his daughter for the son of a wealthy manufacturer. His daughter sees through his façade and his chicanery and begins to plot for herself.
- DirectorGilbert CatesStarsFaye DunawayChristopher PlummerBibi AnderssonAdaptation of Arthur Miller's semi-autobiographical play about Quentin, a Jewish intellectual from New York who must reexamine his life and his troubled relationship with Holga.
- DirectorSidney LumetStarsHenry FondaLee J. CobbMartin BalsamThe jury in a New York City murder trial is frustrated by a single member whose skeptical caution forces them to more carefully consider the evidence before jumping to a hasty verdict.
- DirectorSidney LumetStarsRaf ValloneMaureen StapletonCarol LawrenceEddie Carbone, a Brooklyn longshoreman is unhappily married to Beatrice and unconsciously in love with Catherine, the niece that they have raised from childhood. Into his house come two brothers, illegal immigrants, Marco and Rodolpho. Catherine falls in love with Rudolpho; and Eddie, tormented but unable to admit even to himself his quasi-incestuous love, reports the illegal immigrants to the authorities.