Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

Brick, an alcoholic ex-football player, drinks his days away and resists the affections of his wife, Maggie. His reunion with his father, Big Daddy, who is dying of cancer, jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son.

Director:

Richard Brooks

Writers:

Richard Brooks (screenplay), James Poe (screenplay)

Stars:

Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives

Nominated for 6 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Elizabeth Taylor	...	Maggie Pollitt
Paul Newman	...	Brick Pollitt
Burl Ives	...	Big Daddy Pollitt
Jack Carson	...	Gooper Pollitt
Judith Anderson	...	Big Momma Pollitt
Madeleine Sherwood	...	Mae Pollitt
Larry Gates	...	Dr. Baugh
Vaughn Taylor	...	Deacon Davis

Storyline

The family of "Big Daddy" Pollitt convenes at his and Big Momma's vast 28,000 acre East Mississippi plantation for his sixty-fifth birthday, although it may as well be for his funeral on the belief that he is dying. Despite his latest medical report being clean, in reality he truly does have terminal colon cancer, something the doctor only tells Big Daddy's two sons, Gooper Pollitt, a lawyer, and Brick Pollitt, who recently left his job as a sportscaster. Brooding Brick and his wife Maggie Pollitt, who have driven up from New Orleans for the occasion, are going through a long rough patch in their marriage. Brick wanted to split, but Maggie convinced him to stay married on the condition that she not pressure him for sex. In their troubles, Brick has turned to the bottle, leading to a drunken incident which has left Brick currently on crutches. Maggie believes Gooper and his wife Mae Pollitt are trying to orchestrate Brick out of Big Daddy's will. Brick and Maggie's saving grace is Big ...

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Plot Keywords:

southern u.s. | refusing to have sex | father in law daughter in law relationship | brother brother relationship | southern gothic | 

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Taglines:

Every sultry moment of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize Play is now on the screen!

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 August 1958 (USA)

Also Known As:

Die Katze auf dem heißen Blechdach

Filming Locations:

Coleman Estate, Muttontown, Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$17,570,324

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$25,472,824

Company Credits

Production Co:

Avon Productions (II)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Perspecta Sound®) (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

George Cukor turned down MGM's offer to direct the film because the references to Brick's homosexuality had been removed.

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Goofs

When Big Daddy and Brick are talking in Brick and Maggie's bedroom about Brick's alcoholism, the audio on one of Big Daddy's lines is, "You'll hear plenty of that in the grave soon enough, but right now we're going to sit down and talk this over." The last three words in this sentence do not match the movement of Big Daddy's mouth.

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Quotes

Dixie Pollitt: Why is Uncle Brick on the floor?
Brick Pollitt: Because I tried to kill your Aunt Maggie. But I failed. And I fell.

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Connections

Referenced in Hero at Large (1980)

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Soundtracks

Boom, Boom and It Makes Me Crazy
(uncredited)
Adapted by Marguerite Lamkin
Sung by the children

User Reviews

Wonderful Williams - Brilliant Ives

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.