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Amazon.com essential video: Elizabeth Taylor has never been sexier than as Tennessee Williams's hot-blooded Maggie "The Cat" Pollitt, prowling around her boudoir in a slinky white slip. That's how you know her alcoholic, ex-football-player husband, Brick (Paul Newman), must have more than just his leg in a cast. It's the 65th birthday of wealthy (but dying) southern patriarch Big Daddy (Burl Ives), and his sons Gooper (Jack Carter) and Brick have come to suck up to him for $10 million in inheritance money. Gooper is a family man and father to a brood of "no-neck monsters"; youngest boy Brick is papa's favorite (as if you couldn't tell from the fellow's names), but hasn't sired progeny. Maggie is definitely in heat, but Brick refuses to sleep with her because he suspects her her of being unfaithful with his best friend, who recent committed suicide. Although toned down for the movies, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is vintage Tennessee Williams. The film was directed by Richard Brooks (In Cold Blood, Blackboard Jungle, Elmer Gantry). --Jim Emerson
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Great old Classic. The Stars are truly some of the tops of all times, great storyline
Rating: - Enough Mendacity to Sink A Ship
Enough Mendacity To Sink A Ship
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, The Theater of Tennessee Williams, Volume Three, New Directions Books, New York, 1955
The first couple of paragraphs here have been used as introduction to other plays written by Tennessee Williams and reviewed in this space. This review applies to both the stage play and the film versions with differences noted as part of the review
Perhaps, as is the case with this reviewer, if you have come to the works of the excellent American playwright Tennessee Williams through adaptations of his plays to commercially distributed film you too will have missed some of the more controversial and intriguing aspects of his plays that had placed him at that time along with Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller as America's finest serious playwrights. Although some of the films have their own charms I want to address the written plays in this entry first (along with, when appropriate, commentary about Williams' extensive and detailed directing instructions).
That said, there are certain limitations for a political commentator like this reviewer on the works of Williams. Although his plays, at least his best and most well-known ones, take place in the steamy South or its environs, there is virtually no acknowledgement of the race question that dominated Southern life during the period of the plays; and, for that matter was beginning to dominate national life. Thus, although it is possible to pay homage to his work on its artistic merits, I am very, very tentative about giving fulsome praise to that work on its political merits. With that proviso Williams nevertheless has created a very modern stage on which to address social questions at the personal level, like homosexuality, incest and the dysfunctional family that only began to get addressed widely well after his ground-breaking work hit the stage.
"Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" is a prime example of the contradiction that a radical commentator is placed in. The themes of duplicity, latent homosexuality, adultery and dysfunctional families topped off by more than enough mendacity to sink a ship are the stuff of social drama that NEED to be addressed as outcomes in the modern capitalist cultural sphere. However, in the end nothing really gets resolved truthfully here. Old 1950's-style All-American boy Brick, the `great white hope' of the family, may or may not sober up after the `lost' of his dear friend and fellow football player, Skipper. Saucy and sexy wife Maggie (the cat) may or may not really get pregnant ... Read More
Rating: - taut, intense drama with unforgettable performances
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof showcases the magnificent talents of Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor; and look for Burl Ives to do a stunning performance as well. The plot moves along at a good pace and the cinematography is excellent. This is a movie with guts to it and it should be mandatory viewing for people who view film as a true art form!
When the action starts, a rather wealthy Southern family gathers ostensibly to celebrate the 65th birthday of its patriarch, Big Daddy Pollitt (Burl Ives). However, the real reason for the large family turnout is soon made very clear: Big Daddy is dying from cancer and the members of the family want to get control of his estate even before he dies. Big Daddy's son Brick (Paul Newman), an ex-football player who indulges is large dosages of self-pity and anger tantrums, plays Big Daddy's son. Big Daddy's other son, Cooper 'Gooper' Pollitt (Jack Carson) arrives at the "festivities" with papers drawn up to make sure he gets Big Daddy's estate instead of Brick and Brick's wife Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor).
Tensions are high from the very beginning. Brick's marriage to Maggie is clearly on the rocks; he shuns her and treats her rather cruelly. There are numerous vague inferences to the possibility that Brick's "friendship" with his late friend "Skipper" might have been of a romantic nature; and therefore Brick might not want Maggie simply because he doesn't like women. However, that is left to the viewer's imagination because at the time men being more than friends was in violation of the Hayes Code. In addition, Gooper and his wife Mae (Madeleine Sherwood) have enough kids to form an army and they are desperate to make sure that they, and not Brick and Maggie, inherit Big Daddy's fortune.
Questions arise almost from the start. Will Brick and Maggie ever be able to rescue their marriage--and will Brick and Big Daddy ever make peace, too? What about the fact that the family and the family doctor hiding from Big Daddy that he has terminal cancer--how will Big Daddy take this when he finds out? Will this influence Big Daddy to give his entire estate to one or the other of his two sons? Watch the film and find out answers to this and other questions!
The DVD comes with two extras of note: There is a roughly ten minute retrospective about the making of the film. It was very challenging for Elizabeth Taylor to do the film because they started shooting just before her husband Mike Todd died in a plane crash. I especially liked the comments made by Madeleine Sherwood; she brings extra light ... Read More
Rating: - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
I ordered this shortly after Paul Newman's death. He was so georgous as was Elizabeth Taylor. This is a great Southern story with characters you wouldn't believe could exist unless you're from the South. I know some of these people!
Rating: - Always a treat!
Anyone who has no desire to watch two of America's finest actors at the height of their physical beauty is nothing more than a 'no neck monster.'
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