A fitting ending to the first disc to leave us with a smile, the second disc picks up with a terrific adaptation of The Wings of the Dove, named for its tragic heiress Milly Theale who was modeled after James’ “beloved cousin” Minny Temple who perished as a young woman after a fight with tuberculosis. Written with the intent to “wrap her memory in the ‘beauty and dignity of art,’” this heartbreaking epic which was also filmed in 1997 (to an emotionally chilly result in my estimation), benefits from the condensed television treatment.
Telling the unbearably devious story of a wickedly selfish girl named Kate whose aunt has threatened to cut her out of her will if she marries her beloved lower class journalist fiancé Robert, when Kate learns that Milly is near death, she persuades him to seduce the young woman in the hopes that he will inherit her money. While Robert is foolish enough not to realize his lover’s true motives, soon he understands what Kate had precisely planned, leading to a devastating finale that changes all involved.
And upon uttering his belief that his dear friend Milly is “like crystal,” as Robert has a change of heart, I instantly realized—perhaps due to watching the works in quick succession as I devoured the set in two days—how James’ work may have influenced the plays of Tennessee Williams (and in this particular case, his masterful Glass Menagerie). Although James’ sexual orientation was far more illusive than that of Tennessee Williams, there’s plenty of evidence he was indeed either homosexual or at least bisexual (with much controversy surrounding just how hidden his orientation was) and a definite thematic overlap between the men’s work and their preoccupation with fragile beauties betrayed by others that abounds throughout their creative offerings.
In an extraordinary episode called “Flora,” which was based on Glasses, we meet the beautiful heroine who’s entirely “too pleased with herself.” The ultra-vain Flora who drives men mad catches the attention of a portrait painter who aspires to capture her likeness on canvas. Eager to be immortalized, Flora happily sits for the painter but soon we realize that behind her cocky exterior lies a scandalous secret that she’s nearly blind and must wear surgical spectacles with bars across the lenses. Fearful that the unflattering eyewear will drive away her wealthy fiancé, Lord Charles, Flora is willing to risk her sight until she meets another man who doesn’t adhere to the Dorothy Parker adage that “men don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses.”
The portrait painter returns once again in the final episode “Mary and Louisa” which draws from both The Tone of Time and The Real Thing and centers on two mysterious women who both stake a claim for a portrait of a handsome Italian man. When secrets start tumbling out and the man arrives out of the woodwork, all is revealed in a stagy conclusion that tries for humor but overwhelms compared to the more subtle works in the series.
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