Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

This is a fantastic look into a dysfunctional American family, 1950's Style. I was prepared to hate this movie, as I typically don't get into dramas at all. Fortunately, I was completely drawn in. Paul Newman's character (Brick) is enigmatic at best, but somehow, because Maggie the Cat loves him so much and is so utterly devoted to him, you find yourself caring about what happens to him and Maggie both.

Big Daddy and Big Mama both bring back fond memories of my own childhood, and if you grew up in the south, chances are you knew someone like the both of them. Their characters are written and performed so typically Southern, that I realized half way through I felt family connections with the whole family, including the no-neck monsters! Sister Girl is the sister in law from Hades, and her husband needs to dig into her purse for his...manhood. We ALL know a couple like that!

All in all? Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, and Burl Ives are breathtakingly beautiful in their portrayals. This is probably not a good family movie, as Brick has a serious drinking problem and Maggie IS so desperate for his affections, and probably not a good Friday/Saturday night movie, but I still love it, and will think of it fondly for the rest of my life.

It rates an 8.8/10 from...

the Fiend :.

I've got to say that Tennessee Williams' 'Cat On A Hot Tin Roof' was one of the best Newman films. It's one of those movies that grabs your attention in the first 10 minutes. The interactions between the gifted actors and actresses were stupendous. I really felt for Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor) "The Cat ", though and how she was able to keep her composure with her husband Brick Pollitt's (Paul Newman) berating of her. We learn that he was a drunk trying to recapture his glory days of high school sports by leaping hurdles on a track field, dreaming about his moments as a youthful athlete, but suddenly he falls and breaks his leg, leaving him dependent on a crutch. During the film, he has some harsh words for Maggie. I felt that her character was treated unfairly by Brick and to make matters worse, his father Big Daddy (Burl Ives), shows nothing, but contempt for his son that he's even violent towards him. I really understood why he was so angry with Brick and as you watch the verbal fight between the two, you really side with Big Daddy. Newman really was a great actor and was the best choice for this part. Taylor, on the other hand, is a big star And she played Maggie to a T! I really think the Hollywood scripts these days are dead weight compared to the 50s and 60s! The exchanges of dialog and the acting were definitely marvelous. Canadian actress Madeleine Sherwood, who played Mae Pollitt in the film, was the last one to pass away in 2016 at 93! they all left their mark in the acting world.

Burl Ives gives the greatest portrayal of a literary character in film history, and he wasn't even recognized by an Oscar nomination, further evidence of the Academy's complete lack of credibility as an arbiter of screen excellence.

The casting is brilliant:

Tennessee Williams's Big Daddy was indeed big - larger than life, domineering, insensitive, self-absorbed. Burl Ives's Big Daddy is larger than life, insensitive, domineering, self-absorbed. Ives is "on" every moment. And every moment is true.

Paul Newman's Brick, is as afraid of life as Big Daddy is in love with it. Yet, in his way, he's a chip off the old block - self-absorbed, insensitive.

And domineering or, as Big Daddy and Maggie would have it, masterful, ready to take charge -

if he could just get over himself.

I confess, I don't care for Elizabeth Taylor as an actress, but she is so right for the part, that I can't think of anyone else to fill it. Anyway, who else has eyes that could compete with Newman's?

Judith Anderson plays the typical Williams matron, living in her house of delusions. She's Big Daddy's tormented, desperately lonely, unloved partner, who towards the end wins Big Daddy with her nobility and devotion.

The under-appreciated Jack Carter has the unenviable role of Brick's pliant, conformist brother, Gooper, decent at heart but worn out after years of jumping through Big Daddy's hoops and still winding up on the short end, with a house full of brats, bred at Big Daddy's presumed bidding and delivered by a scheming, ambitious weasel of a wife. Gooper the only character I have a little trouble with, because his climactic speech, as rendered by Carter, is so heartfelt, that we are aggrieved with him at the injustice of Big Daddy's favoritism for the no-account but aesthetically more pleasing Brick.

Perhaps an even more unenviable role is that of Gooper's wife, played to perfection by Madeleine Sherwood. Anyone who has grown up in the South has known "Sister Woman". I can assure those who haven't, that this character is not a stereotype or caricature.

There are a few quibbles. One character, the family doctor, though played well by Larry Gates, has a dramatic function that's about as useful as the referee in a pro wrestling match, but not nearly as decorative. I guess he's included to provide plot information, but I think it could have been provided just as well without him. I was also put off by the contrived thunder claps at dramatic moments. Then, there were some continuity problems, such as different facial expression when shot angles were changed and Gooper's too many "Shut ups" to Sister Woman.

If, as another reviewer has said, Tennessee Williams hated this film, then it couldn't have been because it was untrue to his work. If he disliked the changes and omissions, he should blame '50s prudishness, not the film, for dictating, say, the suppression of Brick's homosexuality.

Williams wrote about lies and delusions, the good ones and bad ones. Well, that's what Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Streetcar Named Desire and Glass Menagerie were all about. Tennessee Williams's stories about the South and its culture of delusion are not just rebukes of Southern hypocrisy and bloodymindedness but paeans to the gentle and genteel refuge which delusion provides. As Maggie "The Cat" says, "Truth, truth - everybody keeps hollerin' about the truth. Well, the truth is as dirty as lies."

Finally, I think it was brilliant of Richard Brooks to insist on color, for Williams's stuff is talky, and with the drabness of a typical Williams set, this can be a bit oppressive. With color, and the wonderful animation Brooks instills in all the characters, his Cat contains not a dull moment. If Brooks has given us something at odds with what Williams intended, I think he has given us something just as fine.

There are tensions that have built between a couple, Brick Pollitt shows contempt, it's far from subtle, his wife Maggie's in despair, she's in love and really cares, but it's fair to say this pairing, is in trouble. Big Daddy joins the party for his birthday, but the whiskey being drunk just goes down one way, secrets hidden and withheld, relationships are hewn and felled, wounds reopened, from a friend, lost through betray. At the climax of this film you'll hold your breath, as the family is overwhelmed, distressed, with performances profound, so much lost and so much found, you will not be disappointed, I attest.

Three of the greatest cinematic performances placed on film.

I first encountered "Cat" in a fine National Theatre production in 1988 with Lindsay Duncan as Maggie, Ian Charleson as Brick, Eric Porter as Big Daddy, Paul Jessons as Gooper and Alison Steadman as Mae.

The film is not the play, but you don't often get an opportunity to see a fine cast perform this amazing play, and it needs a fine cast.

The movie has a fine cast. The movie grips you from start to finish. The movie even adds a little; the basement scene works wonderfully in the movie in ways that would be hard or impossible to reproduce on stage.

Yes, the play has been bowdlerised to make it into a movie, but what do you expect in 1958. The reality is, this film is a piece of cinema and drama history. You'd need to be a "Williams Fundamentalist" to hate the movie for its toned-down-ness. To the balanced Williams fan, it is gripping, well acted and nicely-paced.

Once every 10-15 years there is a truly fine production of this play in a world-class theatre. If you get the chance, go see a great production in the theatre. In between times, this movie is a very good second.