The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond

Heiress Fisher Willow reluctantly returns home to Memphis after attending school abroad to participate in the tradition of presentation into society at the request of her elderly aunt.

Fisher’s father is hated, having intentionally blown up part of his levee, resulting in deaths and property damage to others. Combined with her own inappropriate behavior, no man is willing to escort Fisher to the society parties. Jimmy accepts Fisher's offer of money to serve as her escort for the season. The great grandson of a former governor, Jimmy's family is poor, his father is an alcoholic who temporarily works for Mr. Willow and his mother is in a mental institution. Fisher borrows $10,000 teardrop diamond earrings from her aunt to wear.

At the first society party, Fisher causes a scene when she has the band play jazz music and dances in "flapper" fashion. A woman calls Fisher the murderer’s daughter, and the partygoers laugh at her when she trips down the stairs.

The only other party that Fisher is invited to is hosted by her friend Jules. As he waits for Fisher to pick him up, Jimmy mentions to his father that Fisher has been hinting that she wants to be intimate, which could lead to marriage, a permanent job for his father, and better care for his mother.

On the way to the party, Fisher asks Jimmy to pull over. She moves to kiss him, but is embarrassed when Jimmy pulls back. When they arrive at the party, Fisher becomes frantic when she realizes that one of her teardrop earrings has fallen off. She then becomes hysterical when Jimmy sees Vinnie, Jules' cousin and Jimmy's former girlfriend. Fisher demands that Jimmy search the area, then asks Jimmy to check his pockets. Jimmy enters the party and demands he be searched down in order to clear his good name.

While this happens, Fisher is called upstairs by her friend's Aunt Addie, bedridden from multiple strokes. Addie says that she senses a kindred spirit in Fisher. She points to a bottle on the shelf and asks Fisher to give her all of the pills so she can die and stop the pain. Fisher agrees, but is interrupted by Vinnie telling her that Jimmy was searched and the earring was not on him. Fisher leaves her remaining earring, promising Addie that when she comes back to get it, she will give her the pills.

Jimmy, angry at Fisher's accusation of theft, tells everyone that she paid him to be her escort, then openly flirts with Vinnie. When the partygoers begin to play a kissing game, Jules gives Fisher the highest card so that she can call Jimmy outside and kiss him, but Fisher hides in the bathroom. She finds a bottle of medicine which includes some opium and drinks it. Now in a haze, she tells everyone that she was in a mental institution rather than college. Jimmy then uses his turn to ask Vinnie outside to kiss.

Vinnie takes Jimmy to a car where they have sex. She tells Jimmy that she had turned down an offer of marriage because she wants Jimmy. She then reveals that she found the missing teardrop diamond on the ground, knows that Addie has the other, and says that they could run away together with the money. Jimmy tells her that they may be poor, but they still have honor, but she refuses to return the earring. Jimmy goes to find Fisher, who argues that they should leave immediately. As they argue, Vinnie returns the earring to Fisher. Fisher then runs back upstairs and fulfills her assisted-suicide promise to Addie, while Vinnie tells Jimmy that she has no choice but to marry the man that asked her.

On the way home, Fisher asks Jimmy to stop. Standing together, Fisher admits that he is the only man she wants. When she reaches up to touch his face, he pulls away again. Heartbroken, Fisher turns to walk away, but Jimmy grabs her hand – a silent agreement to her proposal.

Tennessee Williams wrote The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond in 1957; at that time, director Elia Kazan (who previously worked with Williams on A Streetcar Named Desire and Baby Doll) was attached to the project, reuniting with Williams for a third time. Kazan, however, went to work on other projects.[1][2] Williams was interested in casting Julie Harris in the lead role.[3] He continued to work on the script as late as 1980; it was published after his death.[4]

Jodie Markell recalled how she first became aware of the script: "I had been interested in Tennessee Williams since I was a teenager. I'd read a lot of his work, everything I could find. I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and it really spoke to me. When I was in acting school one of my teachers showed me a collection of his screenplays, and when I read The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond I couldn't believe it had never been made. I really related to the character, Fisher Willow – mostly in her struggle to be heard in a society that keeps those who are more sensitive, more perceptive, more artistic, more romantic, witty – those people, he had an affinity for. He makes us understand them, he makes us see their vulnerabilities."[1]

Markell then sought out the rights to do the film from Williams' estate. She was fairly young, and at the time the estate was extremely tight and not giving the rights to a lot of Williams' work. Markell said, "In time things changed, and the people who were in control of the rights changed, and we kept approaching them every few years with producer Brad Gilbert, who was really great and obtained the rights eventually. Together, we sought out the actors we wanted and the project started to come alive and the financing came together."[1] Markell filmed in CinemaScope to evoke the rich coloration of Williams films of the 1950s, and was at pains not to make a film that was "dusty and overbaked, like so many Williams productions you see these days."[3]

In November 2006, it was announced that Lindsay Lohan was going to play the lead role, but in March 2007, Bryce Dallas Howard was under negotiations for Lohan's role and went on to be cast.[5] However, Markell later stated that the casting of Lohan never happened; that the reported announcement was an error by the press. Howard was her first choice, and later went on to be cast.[2] Shooting for the film began on August 13, 2007 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 27% based on 41 reviews with an average rating of 4.37 out of 10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Stodgy and dispiritingly old-fashioned, Teardrop Diamond proves to be no big loss."[6] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[7]

Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle writes, "Even though Howard never quite gets it, never quite releases into the role and never quite convinces, she never makes a mistake, either."[8] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and wrote: "It has been filmed in a respectful manner that evokes a touring production of an only moderately successful Broadway play. Understand that, accept it, and the film has its rewards and one performance of great passion."[9]

• The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond at IMDb