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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) More at IMDbPro »

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47 out of 78 people found the following comment useful :-
Wonderful Williams - Brilliant Ives, 13 June 2004
Author: jacksflicks from Hollywood

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.

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33 out of 54 people found the following comment useful :-
Newman proving decisively that he wasn't a second-rate Brando…, 25 June 2005

Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

In "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," Newman is an ex-football player, trying to relive his college athletic glories… Drinking and staggering, he attempts to jump hurdles, resulting in a painful injury that has him hobbling around on crutches during most of the film…

The role was certainly another demonstration of his widening range, for Brick is in many ways the antithesis of Ben Quick ("The Long, Hot Summer"). Although he too is cynical, cold and guilt-ridden, he manifests it by becoming moody, withdrawn, introverted… In addition, whereas Ben was strong and decisive, causing and participating in events, Brick is weak and passive, largely reacting to events around him... And he's anything but ambitious: while his greedy brother and sister-in-law await Big Daddy's death so they can inherit his huge fortune and plantation, and while his wife Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor) urges him to fight for his share, he merely broods and drinks... An emotionally crippled, "thirty-year-old boy," he refuses to face responsibility and truth, preferring to drown his memories in liquor…

Newman and Taylor enact striking contrasts in temperament: she is fiery, loud, animated, sensual; he is cold, quiet, immobile, dispassionate… Brick and Maggie haven't been sleeping together, and she wants him desperately, but he keeps rejecting her advances… As she talks, he replies with sarcasm, contempt and mostly indifference, speaking in a dreamy, monotonous manner, as if only half-there…

In conversations with her, as with Big Daddy (Burl Ives), he stares into space, or walks away (usually toward the liquor supply), turning his back on the other party and forcing the dialog to take place on separate planes… All of this places him in a private world, where he hides his torment and anxiety beneath a mask of detachment…

If Newman is best at enacting Brick's unspoken thoughts and emotions, he's also effective in the more spirited moments, as when he screams at Maggie or Big Daddy, to prevent them from getting at the truth he wants kept buried… But exactly what the "truth" is remains unclear…

In the play, Brick's fear of admitting a homosexual attachment led indirectly to his friend's death and explained his overall moodiness and passivity… But because of Hollywood's moral code, director-scriptwriter Richard Brooks had to eliminate this, and the character's motivations are considerably weakened… His hostility toward Maggie—understandable in the play—is especially confusing because it results from events that are unconvincingly outlined…

With the homosexuality cut out, Brick's dependence upon his friend is now explained by the failure of Big Daddy to provide strength and love, and this changed emphasis does make for exciting drama… The film's key scene—not in the play—is one in which Brick confronts his father with this painful truth… As they sit in a cellar disarranged with the old man's useless antiques, he tells Big Daddy that love cannot be bought… Newman moves powerfully from anguished looks to an eruption of emotion, smashing everything in sight, finally breaking down and crying: "All I wanted was a father, not a boss ... I wanted you to love me." Both are in pain—Big Daddy because of cancer, Brick because his crutch has (symbolically) been broken, and they need each other's he1p to get upstairs… Therefore the film ultimately becomes another statement of father-son alienation, and their coming to terms with it, as in "The Rack" and "Somebody Up There Likes Me," leads the characters to a new strength (and an upbeat ending not in the play).

Despite its compromises, the film was still daring by 1958 standards, and was an enormous commercial success… It received six Oscar nominations, including one for Newman as Best Actor—his first. Newman had developed, at last, a really impressive acting ability, and a distinctive screen image…

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10 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Makes you wish they gave Oscars for ensemble acting., 17 August 1999

Author: Kevin Marshall (marshall@gtn.net) from London, Canada

"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is truly an actor's movie, and it is one of those rare films where every single actor is perfect.

Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor are both brilliant as Brick and Maggie Pollitt, respectively. Not very often is there a screen couple that have the same chemistry together that they do.

Newman, however, steals the show. If you watch "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" for nothing else, watch it for his performance. One of the greatest actors of all time, Newman showcases how powerful an actor he can be. This is not to say the supporting cast isn't excellent. Burl Ives is superb in a supporting role as Big Daddy, a man who's greatest concern is having his legacy live on after him. The sequence with Ives and Newman in the basement of the house remains one of the most incredible displays of acting I have ever seen.

"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is a very appropriate title. It is a searing, wonderfully acted film that I will not soon forget. I recommend those who haven't seen it yet to rent it as soon as they get a chance. A true classic.

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16 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
Not for Williams purists but a great film, 2 October 2002
Author: budikavlan from Irving, TX

Much has been made of the differences between Tennessee Williams' play and this film--the homoerotic themes have been driven further into subtext (though not eliminated entirely) and a more upbeat ending was added. The changes were necessary when the film was made; although theater and literary purists decry the "sanitizing" or censorship of plays when they are adapted for the screen, in some cases (such as this one) the changes can improve the work in question. "Cat" on film is clearer, for one thing. Tennessee Williams plays tend to be "cluttered" in their original form. They are also cynically downbeat; if that type of story appeals to one, this adaptation might be off-putting.

As with all theatrical adaptations, many of the scenes are excessively talky, especially the Brick/Big Daddy scenes in the second act. Some of the highlights are just as wordy but thoroughly enjoyable rather than tedious (especially Maggie's story about Mae's reign as Cotton Carnival Queen and the entire scene in the basement). All of the performances are excellent, though Paul Newman as Brick is less flashy; it's not really until the basement scene that one feels his talent is given a workout. Elizabeth Taylor is an emotional rollercoaster, venturing from flirtatious to hectoring to wheedling to calm to grasping to tender, often within a single scene, and yet she never slips the rails. Watching films from this period (her career peak), one wonders what happened to turn her into the vague, bleary-eyed woman we see today. Judith Anderson's Big Mama is loud, coarse, and bossy, but completely sympathetic both in the scene with the birthday cake and in the confrontation scene at the end. When Big Daddy invites her along with him at the end, it is every bit as welcome to the viewer as it is to her. Burl Ives is the most towering of all; the emotional growth in the film is as much his as it is Brick's. Jack Carson and Madeleine Sherwood are every bit as good despite being relegated to comic relief at times.

My favorite aspect of this story, however, is the social dynamic. Brick and Maggie are spoiled, young, "beautiful people" who have yet to take on any responsibility, while Gooper and Mae are the epitome of a serious young family. Brick is an alcoholic former football player, while Gooper is a corporate lawyer. Despite these obvious differences, however, both their parents and the audience (and Tennessee Williams, obviously) clearly prefer Brick and Maggie. Every aspect of Gooper and Mae's personalities, even those which bespeak traditional values, are portrayed as petty and unimaginative. Even if one believes that Gooper and Mae have done all the right things, they have done them for the wrong reasons. Thus the theme of the story is most clearly presented: all that is important is to love and to express that love.

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15 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
It isn't the play, but it is a very good film, 11 November 2002

Author: ian_harris from London, England

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.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
I will think of it fondly for the rest of my life., 6 January 2009

Author: Fiendish_Dramaturgy from .: Fiendish Writings in the Dark :.

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 :.

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10 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
They sure can act!!, 5 February 2006

Author: Incalculacable (vintagous@hotmail.com) from Perth, WA

Before seeing this movie, I was questioning if Elizabeth Taylor could actually act. After seeing this movie, I was truly impressed by not only Liz Taylor, but the whole cast. I love how everything folded out and it was quite realistic. I loved the story, the acting, the MAGNIFICENT script and the depth of the characters. They are played to perfection. I'm not really a drama sort of a person - I prefer cheery movies - but I loved this movie because it completely held my attention. Now I know what all the fuss is about - I understand why this is a classic. This movie will always stick in my brain because I can really relate to it. Great drama, but leaves you feeling good and satisfied.

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20 out of 37 people found the following comment useful :-
Good But Sadly Dated, 8 April 2001

Author: telegonus from brighton, ma

The problem with the movie version of Tennessee Williams' Cat On a Hot Tin Roof is not the censorship so much (which removed the homosexual aspect of the story, though it's still there for the more perceptive viewers) but the play itself. Director Richard Brooks does a decent job with it, but the play's the thing, and the play ain't that good. I have no problem with the movie. Elizabeth Taylor is well cast as Maggie the Cat, Paul Newman is apprpriately brooding and convincingly impotent as her husband Brick, Burl Ives bellows authoritatively as Big Daddy, and Jack Carson is almost painfully good as Newman's sycophantic brother Gooper, who in some ways is more impotent than his sibling. The story can basically be summed up as 'Daddy's dyin' and who's got the will', or rather the money. It is set in the contemporary South. Much of what goes on hinges on the refusal on the part of son Brick to have sex with his wife. Since the old man is dying he wants to help favorite son (and ne'er do well) Brick, but is more or less forced by circumstances to prefer Gooper, who has children who will keep the family going. Big Daddy holds Gooper in contempt. He is concerned over Brick's drinking, sexual problems, and his personality in general. The conflict between father and son is as much the focal point of the play as the son's sex stuff. I find this play somewhat repulsive; it's as sycophantic as Gooper. Williams aims his pen, so to speak, at the heart of Middle America. He is out to enlighten his audience on sexual matters; also on life in the then still exotic Deep South. I have no problems with either of these goals except that as issues they don't belong in a serious play; they belong in the back pages of magazines like The New Republic and The Nation. I believe it is beneath Williams' enormous talent for him to curry favor with his audience the way he does here, with his ostentatious 'Southernisms', as in terms of endearment such as 'sister woman', and in Maggie's calling herself 'Maggie the Cat', and all the talk about the kids as 'no neck monsters'. This is sitcom stuff. Williams' language, so beautiful in The Glass Menageries and A Streetcar Named Desire, fails him here. The sexy aspect of the play, big news in the fifties, is not news at all any more. Thus the sensationalism, so crucial a factor in the play's success, is missing. I felt continually manipulated into reacting to the material in a certain way. Unlike in his earlier works, Williams doesn't give his audience much breathing space; there's little room here to form a personal interpetation. Williams sets things up so that either Cat is a 'laugh riot',--and of course devilishly sophisticated as well--or it is nothing, a mere anecdote, a failed epiphany maybe. It is a mediocre play, all the more disappointing because its author is anything but, and so the occasional flashes of brilliance become more irritating than revelatory, only serving to remind us that Williams could do so much better. Yet it is if nothing else well-crafted. Williams' professionalism does not fail him here. Cat belongs to its time, before girls wore bikinis on the beach, when homosexuality, hell, sexuality in general, was spoken about in whispers by polite people, and even then not too often. The play owes a huge debt to Freud and Freudian analysis, which Williams was in at the time, and it shows.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Toned down from the play but still powerful, 27 December 2008

Author: Wayne Malin (wwaayynnee51@hotmail.com) from United States

"Big Daddy" (Burl Ives) the powerful head of a Southern family is dying. His two sons--alcoholic Brick (Paul Newman) and annoying Cooper (Jack Carson)--are there with their wives to celebrate his birthday. Cooper and his wife want everything. Brick doesn't seem to care but his wife Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor) tries to make him care--and can't understand why he won't make love to her.

I saw the play back in 1990 with Kathleen Turner and Charles Durning (who won a Tony). It was great but very long (at least 3 hours) and the once shocking subject matter was very tame. This movie cut the play quite a bit but they had to--the Hays Code was still in effect. The language was toned down and all mention of Brick's homosexuality and Big Daddy having cancer was cut out. Still they get it across. Brick's relationship with Skipper is hinted at STRONGLY without actually saying it was physical and what Big Daddy is dying of is never made clear but they say it's terminal. Most viewers will get it. That aside this is still strong and pretty powerful. The acting really pulls this one through. Newman, Taylor and Judith Anderson (as "Big Mama") are great but Ives played this on stage (and won a Tony) so he has his part down pat and really gives it his all. He dominates every scene he's in. Script wise this is tame. The situations are predictable and the resolutions are far too pat for me. But the acting is so good I really didn't notice while watching it. Also this is the only film Taylor and Newman ever did together. That's a shame because they had incredible chemistry and were easily two of the best (and best-looking) actors of the 1950s. Well worth seeing--cuts aside. I give this an 8.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Big Daddy? oh dear..., 4 February 2009

Author: ImOkayLarry from United Kingdom

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof- it's uneven, unsubtle and the dialogue often irritates (is it really necessary to say 'Big Daddy' in every other sentence?) But somehow this is still a very good film; gripping, intense and emotional. The fact that this is oh-so-very-obviously an adaption of a play is it's downfall, but what comes with it makes up for it- namely intense confrontations between characters, powerful acting and simple but effective story. Paul Newman and Elizabeth Tayler are great, their performances creating the only two likable characters in a film full of hateful liars. It's a better film than it should be; you may find yourself rolling your eyes half the time, but the rest of it is too powerful to let this spoil it. The films biggest fault is actually the character's names. Brick, Gooper, Big Daddy- cringe inducing attempts at colourful names. And i'm sure you'll agree the hundredth time somebody says 'Big Daddy', before forgetting all about it as the extremely dysfunctional family argue their way to forgiveness and redemption.

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