Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Plot synopsis:
In the opening scene, Brick Pollitt (Paul Newman), a former high school football star, spends a drunken night jumping hurdles on the school athletic field in a tragic attempt to recapture his glory days. He falls and injures his right leg.Some days later, Brick and his older brother, Gooper (Jack Carson), visit the family cotton plantation in eastern Mississippi to celebrate their father's 65th birthday on a hot and humid August day. The family rumor is that the wealthy patriarch "Big Daddy" Pollitt (Burl Ives) may have developed colon cancer and would be forced to quickly settle his will, leaving his money and land to one of his two sons before he dies.Gooper and his shrew wife Mae (Madeleine Sherwood) have gone to great lengths to stay in Big Daddy's good favor. Gooper has lived his entire life in accordance with his father's casual instructions, and he and Mae have a "dynasty" of children to carry on the Pollitt name. Brick's wife Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor) is clever and outspoken, and holds no small amount of contempt for Gooper and Mae's entitled attitudes and five spoiled and obnoxious offspring who run around the house unsupervised. Brick, recovering from his leg injury on crutches, spends all his time in his bedroom, drinking heavily and argues with Maggie about the dismal state of their marriage. Maggie still adores Brick, though she is troubled by his self-destructive behavior, and Brick is angry and sullen towards Maggie because of a yet unspecified incident involving his recently-deceased friend Skipper. Adding to the pressure is Gooper's and Mae's constant criticism of Brick and Maggie due to Brick's alcoholism and the fact that they are childless.Big Daddy and his wife Ida (Judith Anderson) arrive home on their private airplane from the Mayo Clinic where Big Daddy received the news that he is not dying of cancer after all. They are greeted at the airport by Gooper, Mae, and their brood of kids, but Big Daddy ignores them and is driven home by Maggie. Big Daddy is openly dismissive of Gooper's and Mae's sycophantic attitudes, knowing that they fawn over him in an attempt to secure his money and plantation for themselves. Upon arrival back at the Pollitt plantation, Brick refuses to greet his father or come down for the party, and remains in his room, drinking.The family doctor (Larry Gates) who had previously examined Big Daddy, speaks privately with Gooper (off-camera) and Brick, confessing that he lied to the family about Big Daddy's condition to preserve their happiness for his birthday. In reality, Big Daddy really has terminal colon cancer and will be dead within a few months. The brothers initially keep the information to themselves, but Brick soon tells Maggie, who is deeply saddened.As the evening wears on, the party wines down as it begins to rain, forcing the few guests and family inside. Big Daddy soon grows annoyed with the party and his fickle family and ventures upstairs to speak with Brick, his favorite son. He chastises him for his excessive drinking, and for his cold treatment of Maggie. Brick grows defensive and even violent when Big Daddy brings up the subject of Skipper, Brick's old football buddy who had jumped from a fifth-floor hotel window to his death a few years before. Realizing that there is more to the story, Big Daddy brings Maggie into the conversation. She explains that she hated Brick's pro-football career because he always put it before her, and that she hated Skipper for distracting Brick from his marriage. (Note: there is subtle suggestion here that Brick and Skipper had been romantically involved.) Maggie describes a drunken episode between herself and Skipper in which she considered seducing him simply to spite her husband, but reconsidered at the last minute. Brick then explains that Skipper had telephoned him, seeming to think that he and Maggie had actually made love (though he had been too drunk to remember clearly). Skipper tearfully tried to apologize to his best friend, but Brick angrily hung up on him. Skipper killed himself soon after, and Brick blamed Maggie for the tragedy. Brick angrily leaves the house as the thunderstorm rages. Big Daddy follows him out into the rain and tries to prevent his drunken son from getting into the car and driving home, but Brick angrily reveals to his father that the doctor had lied... that his illness is terminal. A shocked Big Daddy goes inside the house and down to the basement to be alone, while Brick, emotionally exhausted, is escorted back inside by Maggie.During this time, as nearly all of the other guests have left the party, Gooper and Mae had been trying to convince Ida to settle Big Daddy's will to give them the entire estate. Ida is still unaware of her husband's condition. As Ida begins to feel stress from all the hub-bub, Mae lets slip that Big Daddy's cancer test was positive as Gooper told her minutes ago. The doctor has no choice but to admit the truth. Ida is at first overcome, but then firmly states that her husband will not be dying anytime soon, desperately trying to hold together the last traces of family unity. Maggie joins the conversation and speaks calmly to Ida to soothe her, whereas Gooper and Mae continue to hound Ida with demands. At this point, the personal rivalry between the two sisters-in-law, Mae and Maggie, becomes clear as they begin arguing with each other: Maggie reveals that she sees Mae as a dishonest, greedy, selfish, trailer-trash interloper who married Gooper solely for his parents wealth; Mae, who is pregnant with her sixth child, verbally counter-attacks with her belief that Maggie does not deserve any inheritance because she is childless and her husband drinks.Meanwhile, Brick has put on clean dry clothes and followed his father to the cellar. Big Daddy sits in silence in his bathrobe as the apologetic doctor explains that there is no use in hiding the truth. He gives Big Daddy morphine and a syringe for the pain, and returns upstairs. Brick and Big Daddy slowly begin to rehash the past, with Brick angrily pointing out that Big Daddy's version of "family love" consists of showering his wife and sons with money and material possessions. Big Daddy admits that he indeed does not care for many of his family members, including his wife, and that he built his business to demonstrate the great things he was capable of.After further prodding, Big Daddy recollects his own father: a boxcar tramp with no real job and no authority. Though he first speaks of his father with hostility, Big Daddy begins to smile as he remembers the fun he had as a child. He admits that he had loved his father more than anything, though he had been poor and overlooked by society. Brick becomes overwrought with emotion and trashes the basement, breaking the expensive items that his father had bought over the years to demonstrate his wealth. Once he calms down, he finally sees eye to eye with his father and the two weakened men help each other up the stairs.Maggie, Gooper, Mae, and Ida are still in a heated conversation in the living room over Big Daddy's will, with Gooper and Mae demanding the majority of his estate when he passes on. Brick overhears his brother and sister-in-law mocking him for his drinking habit, and calmly intervenes. Big Daddy speaks to his wife with newfound respect and affection, and has adopted a positive outlook despite his condition. To halt the argument about the inheritance, Maggie tells the family that she is finally pregnant. Mae is outraged and calls her a liar, but Big Daddy and Ida are happy at the news. Brick goes upstairs and calls for Maggie. In their bedroom, Maggie thanks Brick for going along with her lie: she is not really pregnant, but wanted to give Brick's parents some hope for the future. Brick assures her that they "are through with lies and liars in this house." They lock the door and go to bed, rekindling their romance at last.

Tags: sentimental

Review:
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.
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.
Paul and Liz are so hot and beautifully frustrating together as Brick and Maggie, that the TV nearly explodes...Gooper is perfectly portrayed as a good man, financially independent, but still seeking Big Daddy's approval, and a prime example of a man being "whipped"...we hate Sister Woman, and rightly so -- for she is a despicable character...Big Momma is stronger than anybody thinks, and Big Daddy holds the whole family and story together with his massive strength and faith in himself.The relationship between Brick and Maggie is the most fascinating ever recorded on celluloid.
Sultry and downbeat, this Richard Brooks directed film is set at a Southern plantation where a dysfunctional family celebrates the 65th birthday of family patriarch Big Daddy (Burl Ives), a portly man whose health, or the lack of it, is very much on the minds of all the family members.
The story centers on one of Big Daddy's two sons, a brooding young man named Brick (Paul Newman) and his childless wife Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor).Brick is reticent and repressed for reasons unknown, and finds relief in alcohol.
This is not a criticism of the film, but of the Hays Code itself which, mercifully, was abolished in the 1960s.Dripping with Southern atmosphere, and with a sultry jazz score, "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" is a terrific movie, for its thematic value, its cast, and the splendid performance of Burl Ives..
In 1958, director/writer Richard Brooks had the questionable distinction of bastardizing TWO masterpieces in the SAME year, Williams' "Cat..." and Dostoyevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" (remember that ending?)."Cat..." is basically an all-talk psychodrama (if you're not fluent in English, be prepared to read a lot of subtitles!), as we watch a dysfunctional family dysfunctioning to the hilt, in another of Williams' exorcism of his ghosts (in "Cat..." 's particular case: his relationship with his brutish father, his coming out of the closet, his alcoholism, his tragic relationship back in the 1940s with his first male lover that eventually left him to get married, only to die of a brain tumor in 1944 with Williams at his deathbed).It's difficult to take this adaptation seriously when two of the main themes of the play were either entirely eliminated (homosexualism) or trivialized (alcoholism -- how can a serious drunkard look as healthy and fresh-faced as Paul Newman?).
Nevertheless, he wasn't exactly physically tortured to accept (reportedly) half a million dollars for the film rights :) Anyway, he would show Brooks and Hollywood a thing or two the next year, when he adapted (with Gore Vidal) his own play "Suddenly Last Summer" for the screen, making homosexuality its unequivocal (though encrypted) center, even if homosexual "pervert" Sebastian gets his "deserved punishment" at the end, being literally eaten alive!Brooks' version of "Cat..." is disappointingly static; the camera's only interested in its stars.
After a run of 694 performances on Broadway during the 1955-1956 season, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof made it to the big screen in 1958, just in time for Elizabeth Taylor to get her second Best Actress nomination in two years.
That girl had real talent and she proved to be more than a box office name to insure business.In fact of the original Broadway cast only Burl Ives as Big Daddy and Madeleine Sherwood as his other daughter in law were retained for the film version.
Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor replaced Ben Gazzara and Barbara Bel Geddes as the leads.Newman also got one of his early triumphs playing Brick Pollitt, the favored younger son of Big Daddy Pollitt.
A thoroughly obnoxious little group of 'no-neck monsters', but Southern families do like breeders.Brick on the other hand is making a big show of ignoring Elizabeth Taylor and no normal heterosexual male's going to do that for long.
Big Daddy Pollitt is a man who worked his way up from nothing, concentrating so much on making a success he had no time for his family.And Paul Newman really is wonderful as a 30 year old kid who if he doesn't straighten out will soon be a 50 year old kid.
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.
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.
Most viewers probably won't notice these problems, but they are a drawback, for William's work is always as much about place as about character and plot, and the film's failure to accurately capture it is a disservice to both audience and creator.That said, the big problem with CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF is 1950s censorship: it simply wasn't possible to film a play about an unconsciously homosexual man's inability to forgive his oversexed wife for her role in his pseudo-lover's death.
A top-notch adaptation of Tennessee Williams' classic play, the first screen version of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF is a wrenching and intense character study that brings out the best of nearly every individual involved.
The supporting cast is flawless, lead by an outstanding, scene-stealing portrayal Burt Ives and featuring terrific turns by Jack Carson, Judith Anderson, and Madeleine Sherwood completing the impossibly tight ensemble.Although Tennessee Williams himself panned the film for censoring the more salacious elements of his original play, the film received largely positive reviews from most major critics and was later nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Elizabeth Taylor is dynamite in this film, as is Paul Newman, Burl Ives and the rest of the cast!
A classic film in terms of star power, and the flawless craft that went into it, but nowhere near as shocking, poetic or memorable as the earlier B&W Tennessee Williams adaptation A Streetcar Named Desire.Essentially, this film is a glitzy, upmarket rewriting of that films central themes and tropes, except focusing on a genteel family of well-to-do Americans; their family headed by a plutocrat of sorts, diagnosed with cancer, with his family of dysfunctional, permanently arguing offspring and in-laws bitching at each other over who will get his house, land and business interests after death.The film does achieve a kind of black comic tone during numerous scenes where Big Daddy essentially thinks his health is fine, but doesn't know the real diagnosis, and of course Elizabeth Taylor looks stunning, always lit and dressed perfectly, and occasionally shot with a soft focus lens that would look out of place nowadays, but isn't as disjunctive as the overcooked soft focus you'd see on, say, an early Star Trek episode.This movie is OVERRATED.
Brick (Paul Newman) is a former football hero ("Daddy's favorite") who is haunted by the death of his best friend a year before, who he believes his wife Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor) was having an affair with.
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.
It is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by Tennessee Williams adapted by Richard Brooks and James Poe."(Wikipedia)Elizabeth Taylor gives her best performance in the role as Maggie the cat, in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof playing opposite Paul Newman, who plays Brick, an alcoholic, in the closet gay.
As a great actress, Taylor funneled her feelings into "Maggie the cat", which intensified her role in the Tennessee Williams play.
Life is cold, bitter, with a detestable but somewhat invigorating taste, and it sounds like a pianistic jazzy score : entertaining when your eyes are closed but soulless when the windows of your heart are...Sincerely, I could have turned off the film just because I couldn't buy the idea of a man refusing to have sex with such a babe like Maggie the Cat, Elizabeth Taylor at the Everest of her beauty, even if this guy is the male-crush inducing Paul Newman, as Brick Politt.
Richard Brooks' adaption of Tennessee Williams' play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is a sensational immersion into the terrible condition to which life condemns us : a big and great lie.
Big Daddy, in a fantastic performance by Burl Ives, feels like resurrecting after having been announced that he would survive from his cancer, and at that point, acts as if whatever he built and gathered didn't mean anything, all that mattered was living, loving, getting a pretty girl etc.
If so, then Newman deserves credit for the courage that others did not possess.Without the powerful performances of Burl Ives and Elizabeth Taylor, this film would never have been so successful.
the fragile force of Maggie, the levels of Big Daddy in admirable work of Burl Ives, Paul Newman in the perfect Brick skin and Judith Anderson as the wife of a statue are important not only for artistic purpose but for the the escape from South cage.
1st watched 10/26/2001 - 7 out of 10 (Dir-Richard Brooks): Well-played out drama of play by Tennessee Williams with best role of "Big Daddy" played by Burl Ives despite the fact that the star billing goes to heavies(Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman).
"Brick Pollitt" (Paul Newman) is a former athlete who has an extremely wealthy father known as "Big Daddy" (Burl Ives) and a beautiful wife named "Maggie" (Elizabeth Taylor).
Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an impressive film which benefited greatly from the fine acting of Burl Ives, Paul Newman and especially Elizabeth Taylor who eluded beauty and sexuality from start-to-finish.
He has no interest in the family fortune but his wife Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor) definitely does.The film is based on the play by Tennessee Williams.
Brick's brother (Jack Carson) and his wife (Madeleine Sherwood) have five bratty children against whom Big Daddy often shows contempt in hilarious ways.Director Richard Brooks does a fine job in keeping the movie always fascinating; it never feels constrained despite being based on a stage play.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof shows incredible quanlification on Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor's performance.During watching this film,one who appreciates it must contribute adequate concentration to their expression..
Elizabeth Taylor's death a few days ago prompted me to watch one of her most famous movies.* I've never seen a stage production of Tennessee Williams's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", but I will say that the movie version is worth seeing, despite the unrealistic southern accents.
There is no mistaking the actors, the really drop dead gorgeous Paul Newman, the Beautiful Elizabeth Taylor, the Big Fluffy of a Bear Daddy Burl Ives...that makes one WANT to look at this film and makes one WANT to get it but...I didn't get it.First I thought it was because I was young when I watched this alot..Then, I saw it several times when I was a teen a young adult and as an adult.
But the way everyone describes it..seeing that it is a Pulitzer Prize Winning Play from the great Tennesee Williams, I feel like I am missing something great in film...and I feel I'm usually good at spotting it but..I just didn't get it.But its a must see for the Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor fans.
But it still packs a powerful punch thanks to the strong performances of Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman and Burl Ives (who played the role on Broadway).
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) **** (out of 4) Excellent adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play has Paul Newman playing Brick, a former star football player who is now a drunk without too much flair for his wife Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor) who is constantly crying out for more affection.
They find themselves at his father's house where everyone thinks Big Daddy (Burt Ives) might be dying and some have their hands out.CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF is without question one of the best adaptations of any Williams' story.
If you love great dialogue and great acting then this is a movie for you.Taylor and Newman are the legends in the cast but it's actually Ives who steals the picture with his tremendous and fiery performance as Big Daddy.
Most of the homosexual themes were removed, and the third act revised to include a lengthy scene of reconciliation between Brick (Paul Newman) and Big Daddy (Burl Ives).
We all know most of the value of this movie comes from the strong dialogues written by Tennessee Williams, but Richard Brooks, as usual, has wonderfully directed the play.Everybody is impressive and the final discussion between Bricks and Big Daddy in the cellar is always rich of emotion.I watch it at least 5 times a year and will go on this delectation..
The Film "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof starring Elizabeth Taylor as Maggie and Paul Newman as Brick is a family drama that revolves around a young couple that is in a marriage crisis.
The best acting in the movie comes from the three main characters, Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, and Burl Ives.
The acting is good and delicious to watch, and it is a lovely period piece for the time it was written.Both the play and this film center around truth and lies--Skipper's sexuality, the events leading up to his suicide, the reason for Brick's drinking, and Big Daddy's illness and impending death.
Burl Ives is as good as I have ever seen him and Paul Newman is great but it is Elizabeth Taylor that shines so brightly throughout.
The only reason I can imagine why everyone wants to take a crack at it is because the original is so beloved, other actors say to themselves, "I want to be Elizabeth Taylor!" or "I want to be Paul Newman!" If you've never seen a Tennessee Williams story, here's the skinny: It's set in the South, a key plot point is a sexual problem, there's an "old world" family drama, a hint of male homosexuality, and it's usually all during a very hot summer.
MGM neutered Tennessee Williams' play, the author hated the movie and wasn't afraid to tell, the just widowed Elizabeth Taylor had to work in mourn, and newcomer Paul Newman had to stand up against Hollywood Royalty.Not the best start for an all-time-classic.
He and Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor) are back for his father Big Daddy's (Burl Ives) 65th birthday only because it might be his last.
Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, Burl Ives, Judith Anderson, Jack Carson, and Madeline Sherwood star in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," a watered down version of the Tennessee Williams hit play that starred Barbara Bel Geddes and Ben Gazzara on Broadway and was there directed by Elia Kazan.
Burl Ives's "Big Daddy" is quintessential, larger-than-life patriarch; Paul Newman's "Brick" is misspent youth and talent; and Elizabeth Taylor, as the sleek feline whose biological time clock is ringing, is both seductive and pragmatic womanhood in its prime.This movie is an unqualified "10"-- a true Classic, tightly constructed and beautifully acted and staged.Folks -- it doesn't get any better than this..
Paul Newman plays Brick Pollitt.He's an ex-football player and now a bitter man with an alcohol problem.His wife Maggie wants him to love her again.Brick's father they call "Big Daddy" is dying of cancer.On his 65th birthday old wounds start to open.Richard Brooks is the director of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958).It's based on Tennessee Williams' play.The drama in this movie works very good.Newman is excellent playing the troubled alcoholic.Elizabeth Taylor is wonderful in the female lead.Burl Ives plays Harvey "Big Daddy" Pollitt and he's fantastic as the tyrant who has his soft side.Judith Anderson, a very fine lady plays Ida "Big Momma" Pollitt.Jack Carson is Cooper, their son.Madeleine Sherwood is Mae, his wife.Last Friday on 26th day we heard sad news about the passing of philanthropist and fine actor Paul Newman at the age of 83.He did always a terrific job in movies.There's some intensity in the scene where Brick starts crashing those items and then starts to cry.The way Newman acts that scene, nobody could have done it better than him..
Paul Newman is great as Brick Pollitt, as is Elizabeth Taylor as Maggie "The Cat", Brick's wife.
There are also wonderful performances by Burl Ives as the cold hearted "Big Daddy" Pollitt, Judith Anderson as his wife, and Jack Carson as Gooper, their eldest son.And for you guys out there, Elizabeth Taylor looks beautiful!
Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor do very well in making the relationship between Brick and Maggie believable and interesting, even in its less likely aspects.
The best scenes are the one between Burl Ives ("Big Daddy") and Paul Newman ("Brick") near the end, when they hash out their differences and what they think of each other and their hearts both soften toward one-another and toward everyone else, as a result.