# Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (film)

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a 1958 film about an alcoholic ex-football player who drinks his days away and resists the affections of his wife. His reunion with his father, who is dying of cancer, jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son.
    Directed by Richard Brooks. Written by Richard Brooks and James Poe, based on the play by Tennessee Williams.
    See also Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (the play)

## Maggie the Cat

* Truth! Truth! Everybody keeps hollerin' about the truth. Well, the truth is as dirty as lies.

## Big Daddy

* Mendacity. What do you know about mendacity? I could write a book on it...Mendacity. Look at all the lies that I got to put up with. Pretenses. Hypocrisy. Pretendin' like I care for Big Mama, I haven't been able to stand that woman in forty years. Church! It bores me. But I go. And all those swindlin' lodges and social clubs and money-grabbin' auxiliaries. It's-it's got me on the number one sucker list. Boy, I've lived with mendacity. Now why can't you live with it? You've got to live with it. There's nothin' to live with but mendacity. Is there?
* But there's one thing you can't buy in a Europe firesale or in any other market on earth. And that's your life. You can't buy back your life when it's finished... The human animal is a beast that eventually has to die. And if he's got money, he buys and he buys and he buys. The reason why he buys everything he can is because his crazy hope is one of the things he buys will be life everlasting — which it never can be.
* What's that smell in this room? Didn't you notice it, Brick? Didn't you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room?... There ain't nothin' more powerful than the odor of mendacity... You can smell it. It smells like death.

## Dialogue

    Maggie: We've got one thing on our side. No, two things. Are my seams straight? Big Daddy dotes on you, honey. He just can't stand Brother Man and his wife...that fertility monster. She's odious to him. I can tell. Just like I can tell he likes me. That's the second thing we've got on our side. He likes me. The way he looks me up and down, and over... He's still got an eye for girls.
    Brick: That kind of talk is disgusting.
    Maggie: Anybody ever tell you you were a back-aching Puritan? I think it's mighty fine how that old fellow, on death's doorstep takes in my shape with what I consider deserved appreciation.
    Maggie: Why are you looking at me like that?
    Brick: Like what, Maggie?
    Maggie: Like you were just lookin'.
    Brick: I wasn't conscious of lookin' at you, Maggie.
    Maggie: [seductively] I was conscious of it. [He coldly turns from her and rises on his crutches] If you were thinkin' the same thing I was...
    Brick: No, Maggie.
    Maggie: Why not?!
    Brick: Will you please keep your voice down.
    Maggie: No! I know you better than you think. I've seen that look before. And I know what it used to mean. And it still means the same thing now.
    Brick: You're not the same woman now, Maggie.
    Maggie: Oh, don't you think I know that? Don't you think I know that...
    Brick: Know what, Maggie?
    Maggie: That I've gone through this horrible transformation, that I've become hard and frantic and cruel...Oh Brick, I get so lonely.
    Brick: Everybody gets that.
    Maggie: Living with somebody you love can be lonelier than living entirely alone - if the one you love doesn't love you.
    Brick: Would you like to live alone, Maggie?
    Maggie: No! No, I wouldn't.
    Maggie: Why can't you lose your good looks, Brick? Most drinkin' men lose theirs. Why can't you? I think you've even gotten better-lookin' since you went on the bottle. You were such a wonderful lover... You were so excitin' to be in love with. Mostly, I guess, 'cause you were... If I thought you'd never never make love to me again... why, I'd find me the longest, sharpest knife I could and I'd stick it straight into my heart. I'd do that. Oh, Brick, how long does this have to go on? This punishment? Haven't I served my term? Can't I apply for a pardon?
    Brick: Lately, that finishin' school voice of yours sounds like you was runnin' upstairs to tell somebody the house is on fire.
    Maggie: Is it any wonder? You know what I feel like? I feel all the time like a cat on a hot tin roof.
    Brick: Then jump off the roof, Maggie, jump off it. Now cats jump off roofs and they land uninjured. Do it. Jump.
    Maggie: Jump where? Into what?
    Brick: Take a lover.
    Maggie: I don't deserve that! I can't see any man but you. With my eyes closed, I just see you. Why can't you get ugly, Brick? Why can't you please get fat or ugly or somethin' so I can stand it?
    Brick: You'll make out fine. Your kind always does.
    Maggie: Oh, I'm more determined than you think. I'll win all right.
    Brick: Win what? What is, uh, the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof?
    Maggie: Just stayin' on it, I guess. As long as she can.
    Big Daddy: Why did you and Brick suddenly decide to drive up from New Orleans?
    Maggie: For your birthday, what else?
    Big Daddy: I had a birthday last year and the year before. I didn't see ya then.
    Maggie: Well, you know how Brick is sometimes.
    Big Daddy: Maybe he thought he was comin' to my funeral instead of my birthday?
    Maggie: Why, Brick loves you! Well he does.
    Big Daddy: But does he love you?
    Maggie: What do you want - Truth?
    Big Daddy: If I was married to you three years, you'd have the livin' proof. You'd have three kids already and the fourth in the oven.
    Brick: Big Daddy! Now what makes him so big? His big heart? His big belly? Or his big money?
    Maggie: The heat has made you cross.
    Brick: Give me my crutch.
    Maggie: Why don't you put on your nice silk pajamas, honey, and come on down to the party? There's a lovely cool breeze.
    Brick: Give me my crutch, Maggie.
    Maggie: Lean on me, baby. [He turns and stiffly ignores her] You've got a nice smell about you. Is your bath water cool?
    Brick: No.
    Maggie: I know somethin' that would make you feel cool and fresh. Alcohol rub. Cologne.
    Brick: No thanks. We'd smell alike. Like a couple of cats in the heat.
    Maggie: It's cool on the lawn.
    Brick: I'm not goin' down there, Maggie, not for you and not for Big Daddy.
    Maggie: At least you can give him his present that I remembered to buy for you for his birthday. Do you think you could write a few words on this card?
    Brick: You write somethin' Maggie.
    Maggie: It's got to be your handwritin'. It's your present. It's got to be your handwritin'.
    Brick: I didn't get him a present.
    Maggie: Well, what's the difference?!
    Brick: Then if there's no difference, you write the card.
    Maggie: And have him know you didn't remember his birthday?
    Brick: I didn't remember.
    Maggie: Well, you don't have to prove it to him. Just-just write 'Love, Brick' for heaven's sakes.
    Brick: NO!
    Maggie: You've got to.
    Brick: I don't have to do anything I don't want to! Now you keep forgettin' the conditions on which I agreed to stay on livin' with you.
    Maggie: I'm not living with you. We occupy the same cage, that's all. You know, that's the first time you've raised your voice in a long time. Crack in the stone wall? I think that's a fine sign. Mighty fine.
    Big Mama: Oh shoot, Maggie, you just don't like children.
    Maggie: Why that's not true! I adore them - well brought up.
    Big Mama: Well why don't you have some then and bring them up well instead of all the time pickin' on Gooper's an' Mae's?
    Maggie: Big Mama, what you said about havin' children, it's still kind of a secret but...
    Big Mama: Oh shoot, Maggie, stop playing so dumb. I mean, is he still drinkin' this stuff much?
    Maggie: Oh, well he may have had a little highball...
    Big Mama: Don't laugh about it! Some single men stop drinking when they get married. Others start. Brick never touched liquor before he was...
    Maggie: THAT'S NOT FAIR.
    Big Mama: Fair or not fair. I want to ask you a question, one question: 'Do ya make Brick happy?' Well?
    Maggie: Why don't you ask me if he makes me happy?
    Big Mama: Cause I know that...
    Maggie: It works both ways.
    Big Mama: Somethin' ain't right. You're childless and our son drinks... When a marriage goes on the rocks, the rocks are there, right there!
    Maggie: That's not fair.
    Maggie: Oh, poor Big Daddy. I'm fond of him. I'm genuinely fond of that old man. I really am, you know. Oh, when he finds out. I wouldn't want to be the one to tell him. That's why you want to go now.
    Brick: Yeah, that's why I want to leave now. You gotta do this for me, Maggie, please.
    Maggie: And leave the field to Gooper and that wife of his? No sir. Let's face facts, baby. You're a drinker, and that takes money.
    Brick: I don't want his money.
    Maggie: Are you ready to settle for ten cent beer? 'Cause that's just what Gooper will dole out to you when they freeze you out. They got a plan, baby. Oh you should have heard them layin' it on Big Daddy - a mile a minute. Big Mama's already on their side. You're a drinker and I'm childless. We got to beat that plan. We just got to. I-I been so disgustingly poor all my life. That's the truth, Brick.
    Brick: Have you, Maggie?
    Maggie: You-you don't know what it's like to have to suck up to people you can't stand just 'cause they have money. You don't know what it's like. Never havin' any clothes. That dress I married you in was a hand-me-down from a snotty rich cousin I hated. You can be young without money, but you can't be old without it. Where did I fail you? Where did I make my mistake? Make that your last drink until after the party, please honey!
    Maggie: I think I made my mistake when I tried to tell you about Skipper. That's where I made my fatal error.
    Brick: Maggie...
    Maggie: I never should have confessed...
    Brick: Maggie, now you shut-up about Skipper. I mean it, you got to shut up about Skipper.
    Maggie: The laws of silence won't work about that. Not about Skipper and us. It's like lockin' the door on the fire in hopes of forgettin' the house is burnin' - but not lookin' at a fire doesn't put it out. This time, I'm gonna finish. That night in a hotel room, Skipper and I...
    Brick: I don't want to hear about it.
    Maggie: Why won't you face the truth just once about Skipper? About me? About yourself?
    Brick: Do you want me to hit you with this crutch?
    Maggie: You're still blamin' me for Skipper's death.
    Brick: Now don't you know that I could kill you with this crutch?
    Maggie: Good Lord, man, d'you think I'd care if you did?
    Brick: Skipper and I had a friendship. Now why won't you let it alone?
    Maggie: It's got to be told.
    Brick: But I don't want to hear it.
    Maggie: It's got to be told and you never let me tell it. I love you, and that's worth fightin' for. Not Skipper. Skipper was no good.
    Brick: Maggie!
    Maggie: Maybe I'm no good either - nobody's good. But Brick, Skipper IS DEAD! And I'M ALIVE!
    Brick: Maggie!
    Maggie: Maggie 'the Cat' is ALIVE! I'M ALIVE! Why are you afraid of the truth?
    Brick: Truth! [hurls his crutch at her but misses]
    Big Daddy: I put up with a lot of bull around here because I thought I was dyin'. That's when you started takin' over. Your loud voice and your old busybody buttin' in here, there, and everywhere. Sashayin' around here, makin' a big noise like a boss. I'm the only boss around here. I built this place with no help from you. And I'll run this place 'til the day I die. Now is that plain to ya, Ida? Is that perfectly clear to ya? Now I ain't gonna die. There ain't nothin' wrong with me but a spastic colon! Made spastic, I reckon, by all the lies and liars I've had to put up with around here. And all the hypocrisy I've had to live with these forty years I've lived with you.
    Big Mama: In all these years, you never believed I loved you. And I did. I did so much. I did love you. I even loved your hate and your hardness.
    Brick: Somethin' hasn't happened yet.
    Big Daddy: What's that?
    Brick: A click in my head.
    Big Daddy: Did you say "click"?
    Brick: Yes sir, the click in my head that makes me feel peaceful.
    Big Daddy: Boy, sometimes you worry me.
    Brick: It's like a switch, clickin' off in my head. Turns the hot light off and the cool one on, and all of a sudden there's peace.
    Big Daddy: Boy, you're, you're a real alcoholic!
    Brick: That is the truth. Yes, sir, I am an alcoholic. So if you'd just excuse me...
    Big Daddy: [grabbing him] No, I won't excuse you.
    Brick: Now I'm waitin' for that click and I don't get it. Listen, I'm all alone. I'm talkin' to no one where there's absolute quiet.
    Big Daddy: You'll hear plenty of that in the grave soon enough. But right now, we're gonna sit down and talk this over.
    Brick: This talk is like all the others. It gets nowhere, nowhere, and it's painful.
    Big Daddy: Now, why do ya drink?!
    Brick: Give me my crutch.
    Big Daddy: Tell me first.
    Brick: No, you give me a drink first and I'll tell ya.
    Big Daddy: Tell me first! First you gotta tell me!
    Brick: All right, disgust!
    Big Daddy: DISGUST WITH WHAT?
    Brick: You strike a hard bargain.
    Big Daddy: Boy, do you want liquor that bad?
    Brick: Yes, sir. I want liquor that bad. [Big Daddy hands him his crutch]
    Big Daddy: Now tell me, what are you disgusted with?
    Brick: Mendacity. You know what that is. It's lies and liars.
    Big Daddy: Who's been lyin' to ya? Maggie? Has your wife been lyin' to ya?
    Brick: No. Not one lie, not one person. The whole thing.
    Brick: That's what you hated. Bein' shut out.
    Maggie: Not by the crowds, baby. By you, by the man I worshipped. That's why I hated Skipper.
    Brick: You hated him so much that you got him drunk and went to bed with him.
    Big Daddy: [After a long pause] Well, is that true?
    Maggie: Oh Big Daddy, you don't think I ravished a football hero?
    Brick: Skipper was drunk.
    Maggie: So were you most of the time. I don't seem to make out so well with you.
    Brick: Are you? Are you trying to say that nothing happened between you and Skipper?
    Maggie: You know what happened!
    Brick: I don't know what happened. I don't know, Maggie. Now I wasn't there. I couldn't play that Sunday. I wasn't in Chicago. I was in the hospital...
    Maggie: But Skipper played. Oh, he played all right. Played his first professional game without Brick...Without you, Skipper was nothin'. Outside - big, tough, confident. Inside - pure jelly. You saw the game on TV. You saw what happened.
    Brick: But I didn't see what happened in Skipper's hotel room. That little episode was not on TV. Go ahead, tell Big Daddy why you were in Skipper's room.
    Maggie: He was sick, sick with drink and he wouldn't come out. He busted some furniture and the hotel manager said to stop him before he called the police. So I went to his room. I scratched on his door and begged him to let me in. He was half-crazy, violent and screamin' one minute and weak and cryin' the next. And all the time, scared stiff about you. So I said to him, maybe it was time we forgot about football. Maybe he ought to get a job and let me and Brick alone. I thought he'd hit me. He walked toward me with a funny sort of smile on his face. Then he did the strangest thing. He kissed me. That was the first time he'd ever touched me. And then I knew what I was gonna do. I'd get rid of Skipper. I'd show Brick that their deep true friendship was a big lie. I'd prove it by showin' that Skipper would make love to the wife of his best friend. He didn't need any coaxin'. He was more than willin'. He even seemed to have the same idea. [pause] I was tryin' to win back my husband. It didn't matter how. I would have done anythin' - even that. At the last second, I-I got panicky. Supposin' I lost you instead. Supposin' you'd hate me instead of Skipper. So I ran. Nothin' happened. I've tried to tell him a hundred times but he won't let me. Nothin' happened.
    Brick: Hallelujah - Saint Maggie! (He raises his drinking glass)
    Maggie: I wanted to get rid of Skipper but not if it meant losin' you. (To Big Daddy) He (Brick) blames me for Skipper's death. Maybe I got rid of Skipper. Skipper went out anyway. I didn't get rid of him at all. Isn't it an awful joke, honey? I lost you anyway.
    Big Daddy: What are you runnin' away from? Why'd you hang up on Skipper when he called you? Answer me. What did he say? Was it about him and Maggie?
    Brick: He said they'd made love.
    Big Daddy: And you believed him.
    Brick: Yes.
    Big Daddy: Then why haven't you thrown her out? Somethin's missin' here. Now, now why did Skipper kill himself?
    Brick: 'Cause somebody let him down. I let him down. When he called that night, I couldn't make much sense out of...There was one thing that was sure. Skipper was scared. Scared! It would happen that day on the football field, that I'd blame him, scared that I'd walk out on him. Skipper afraid - I couldn't believe that. I mean inside, he was real deep-down scared. And he broke like a rotten stick. He started cryin': 'I need you.' He kept babblin': 'Help me! Help me!' Me help him? How does one drownin' man help another drownin' man?
    Big Daddy: So you hung up on him.
    Brick: And then that phone started to ring again. And it rang and it rang and it wouldn't stop ringin'. And I lay in that hospital bed. I was unable to move or run from that sound and still, it kept ringin' louder and louder! And the sound of that was like Skipper screamin' for help. And I couldn't pick it up.
    Big Daddy: So that's when he killed himself.
    Brick: Yep. 'Cause I let him down. [Tears well up in his eyes] So that disgust with mendacity is really disgust with myself. And when I hear that click in my head, I don't hear the sound of that phone ringin' anymore. And I can stop thinkin'. I'm ashamed, Big Daddy. That's why I'm a drunk. When I'm drunk, I can stand myself.
    Big Daddy: But it's always there in the morning, ain't it — the truth? And it's here right now. You're just feelin' sorry for yourself. That's all it is — self-pity. You didn't kill Skipper. He killed himself. You and Skipper and millions like ya are livin' in a kid's world, playin' games, touchdowns, no worries, no responsibilities. Life ain't no damn football game. Life ain't just a bunch of high spots. You're a thirty-year-old kid. Soon you'll be a fifty-year-old kid, pretendin' you're hearin' cheers when there ain't any. Dreamin' and drinkin' your life away. Heroes in the real world live twenty-four hours a day, not just two hours in a game. Mendacity, you won't... you won't live with mendacity, but you're an expert at it. The truth is pain and sweat and payin' bills and makin' love to a woman that you don't love any more. Truth is dreams that don't come true and nobody prints your name in the paper 'til you die... The truth is, you never growed up. Grown-ups don't hang up on their friends... and they don't hang up on their wives... and they don't hang up on life. Now that's the truth and that's what you can't face!
    Brick: Can you face the truth?
    Big Daddy: Try me!
    Brick: You or somebody else's truth?
    Big Daddy: Bull. You're runnin' again.
    Brick: Yeah, I am runnin.' Runnin' from lies, lies like birthday congratulations and many happy returns of the day when there won't be any.
    Big Daddy I'll outlive you. I'll bury you. I'll buy your coffin... [stops and grabs at his belly] This pain - keeps grabbin' at me. It's death, ain't it? Answer me! The truth!
    Brick: You said it yourself, Big Daddy. Mendacity is a system we live in.
    Big Daddy: I suddenly noticed that you don't call me Big Daddy any more. Ah, if you needed a Big Daddy, why didn't you come to me? You wanted somebody to lean on. Why Skipper and why not me? I'm your father! I'm Big Daddy. Me! Why didn't you come to your kinfolks, the peoples that love ya?
    Brick: You don't know what love means. To you, it's just another four letter word.
    Big Daddy: Why, you've got a mighty short memory. What was there that you wanted that I didn't buy for ya.
    Brick: You can't buy love! You bought yourself a million dollars worth of junk. Look at it. Does it love you?
    Big Daddy: Who'd you think I bought it for? Me? It's yours. The place, the money, every rotten thing is yours!
    Brick: I don't want things! [pushes down and smashes vases, an old athletic trophy and other accumulated objects] Waste! Worthless! Worthless! [destroys a life-sized poster of himself throwing a football and then breaks down in a fit of uncontrollable tears]
    Big Daddy: Don't, son. Please don't cry, boy. That's funny. I never saw you cry before. How's that? Did you ever cry?
    Brick: Can't you understand? I never wanted your place or your money or any—... I don't wanna own anything. All I wanted was a father, not a boss — I wanted you to love me.
    Big Daddy: I did and I do.
    Brick: No. Not me, and not Gooper, and not even Mama.
    Big Daddy: That's a lie. I did love her. I give her anything, everything she wanted.
    Brick: Things. Things, Papa. You gave her things. A house, a trip to Europe, all this junk, some jewelry, things. You gave her things, Papa, not love.
    Big Daddy: I gave, I gave her an empire, boy.
    Brick: The men who build empires die, and empires die, too.
    Big Daddy: No. No, it won't. That's why I've got you and Gooper.
    Brick: Look at Gooper. Look at what he's become. Is that what you wanted him to be? And look at me. You put it very well indeed. I'm a thirty-year-old kid, and pretty soon I'm gonna be a fifty-year-old kid. I don't know what to believe in. Now what's the good of livin' if you've got nothin' to believe in? There's gotta be some, some purpose in life, some meanin.' Look at me. For the sake of God, look at me before it's too late. For once in your life, look at me as I really am. Look at me. I'm a failure. I'm a drunk. On my own in the open market, I'm not worth the price of a decent burial.
    Big Daddy: You and Gooper and the rest of ya, blamin' me for everythin', huh?
    Brick: Nobody, just...We've known each other all my life, and we're strangers. Now you own twenty-eight thousand acres of the richest..., you own ten million dollars, you own a wife and two children, you own us but you don't love us.
    Big Daddy: In my own way, I've...
    Brick: No sir. You don't even like people. You wanted Gooper to have kids. You wanted me to have kids. Why?
    Big Daddy: 'Cause I want a part of me to keep on living. I won't have an end with the grave.
    Brick: Why you heard what Big Daddy said? 'That girl's got life in her body.'
    Mae: That's a lie.
    Brick: No. No, truth is somethin' desperate and Maggie's got it. Believe me, it is desperate and she has got it.
    Mae: [to Gooper] Why don't you say somethin', honey?
    Gooper: All right, honey. SHUT-UP!
    Brick: Maggie?
    Maggie: Yes?
    Brick: Come on up here.
    Maggie: Yes, sir. [at the door to their bedroom] Thank you for keepin' still, for backin' me up in my lie.
    Brick: Maggie, we are through with lies and liars in this house. Lock the door!

## Taglines

* This is Maggie the Cat...
* Every sultry moment of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize Play is now on the screen!

## Cast

* Elizabeth Taylor - Maggie The Cat
* Paul Newman - Brick Pollitt
* Burl Ives - Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
* Jack Carson - Gooper Pollitt
* Judith Anderson - Ida 'Big Mama' Pollitt
* Madeleine Sherwood - Mae Flynn Pollitt
* Larry Gates - Dr. Baugh
* Vaughn Taylor - Deacon Davis

## External links

* Cat on a Hot Tin Roof quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Rotten Tomatoes
* Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Allmovie
* Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Mojo
* Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Filmsite.org