JohnDoe
Bryn
BrentonCat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) - Footage Included
February 20th 2007 01:27
Tennessee Williams Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
DVD Cover
Original Stage Play: Tennessee Williams
Screenplay: James Poe and Richard Brooks
Starring: Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, Burl Ives, Judith Anderson, Jack Carson, Madeline Sherwood
“You know what I feel like? I feel all the time like a cat on a hot tin roof.”-Maggie
Back in the conservative 50’s, in a time of the stringent Hayes code, playwright Tennessee Williams (Streetcar named Desire) dared to expose the underbelly of American society. A messed up manic depressive who survived a tragic youth, died at the hands of the bottle and in his lifetime wrote stories ripe in the drama of social taboo’s like incest, homosexuality and spousal abuse.
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof is regarded as one of the best cinema adaptations of his work. It’s the story of the Pollitt clan, owners of an opulent southern plantation overlorded by father, Big Daddy (Burl Ives).
“Wouldja look at all this stuff? Bought most of it when I took your mother to Europe on that Cook's Tour. Never had such a lousy time in my life. I tell you that Europe ain't nothin' but a wore-out auction, just a great big fire sale, the whole rotten thing. Boy, Big Mama just wild in it, and she just bought and bought and bought. Sure is lucky I'm a rich man, yes, sirree, sure is lucky. Got any idea how much I'm worth, son? Ask Gooper. He knows. He knows to the penny 'less I missed my guess. Close on ten million dollars in cash and blue chip stocks besides twenty-eight thousand of the richest acres this side of the Valley Nile.” – Big Daddy
Money has corrupted the family, Big Daddy manipulates and controls those around him with the promise of inheritance. His son Brick (Paul Newman) is an ex football hero with a broken leg and a secret that has driven him to alcoholism.
Brick’s sultry wife Maggie the cat (Elizabeth Taylor) loves him unconditionally and is willing to do anything to keep him. With the arrival of second son Gooper (Jack Carson) and his money grubbing bitch of a wife Mae (Madeline Sherwood) conflict comes to the surface.
“Gooper is your first born. Why he always had to carry a bigger load of the resposibilities than Brick? Brick never carried a thing in his life but a football or a high ball” - Mae
The news that Big Daddy is going to die within a short time, raises the stakes and soon greed, mendacity and painful, shocking truths follow.
“It's easin' somewhat now. When you got pain, it's better to judge yourself of a lot of things. I'm not gonna stupify myself with that stuff. I wanna think clear. I want to see everything, and I want to feel everything. Then I won't mind goin'. I've got the guts to die. What I want to know - do you have the guts to live?” – Big Daddy
Drunk and on crutches, maybe its time to think about a new pasta Sauce.
John Doe Says:
Receiving 6 Oscar Nominations including best actor, actress, director, screenplay, cinematography and Director, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a bold melodrama. Performed with poetic skill and camera work to keep you on your toes, the atmospheric tension builds with every frame.
At times comedic, dramatic devises are honed and the screenplay dances around the censors scissors with dialogue sub text that confronts complex emotions. Subject matter that was forbidden at the time, is hidden under every breath. Characters are fully rendered and the internal conflicts stir the insides as you watch it all unfold.
Under discussed Director Richard Brooks (Looking For Mr Goodbar, In Cold Blood, The Professionals, Elmer Gantry, Sweet Bird of Youth) instilled all his films with a flavour of adult realism. Adapting the stage play to the screen he manages to avoid the trap of theatrics to make cinema of the words.
Paul Newman (Hud, Cool Hand Luke, Somebody Up There Likes Me) shows just how versatile a performer he can be as he delivers a powerful portrayal of Brick. A conflicted man who is struggling with addiction and buried issues that are slowly eating him away internally.
Elizabeth Taylor (Butterfield 8, A Place In The Sun, Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, Giant) as Maggie acts up a storm and proves why she was the sex symbol of an era. Beauty and talent are a rare combination and few possessed so much of both.
Burl Ives (Big Country, East of Eden) as Big Daddy brings a physical energy and charismatic overbearing presence ideal for his part. He dominates onscreen and is a pleasure to behold as he struggles to keep his detached arrogance in the face of death.
The rest of the cast are equally memorable and fill out there roles with unyielding commitment to the source.
John Doe grew up watching this with his mother any time Bill Collins showed it on a Saturday night. As he got more mature (relatively), the films secrets became clearer and now with the loss of a father, the film has a therapeutic quality that makes it more than just entertainment.
A real shame that Tennessee Williams hated the film.
The DVD:
Transfer: 1:85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen/Dolby Digital 2.0
Extras: Featurette Cat On A Hot Tin Roof: Playing Cat and Mouse and Commentary by Williams biographer Donald Spoto.
I couldn’t find an original trailer for the film so instead here is a fan made clip edited to Placebo.
Now, because Cibby requested it, below are a couple of shots of the delectiable Miss Taylor in her prime.
Maggie the Cat
This is my favourite Elizabeth Taylor photograph ever!
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Comment by Cibbuano
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
If you scan down to the bottom of the post you will see I have inserted a couple of prime pics of the scrumptuos Miss Taylor!
Enjoy
Comment by The Duke
All Williams' plays had underlying themes of repression and desires beyond the control of the people in his plays. He always prefaced the revelation of these repressed desires with wild weather. Admittedly this is a little obvious and hamfisted but allegory is allegory.
Unfortunately any possible revelance to the repressed homosexuality of Brick is lost because the Hayes code forced Richard Brooks to have Brick and Maggie to have sex at the end of the film
Rumor has it that Paul Newman took the concept of method acting to it's logical conclusion with Miss Taylor...if this is true then I salute Mr Newman and forgive him his pandering to that Bouffant Betty Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The irony of having Burl Ives playing the father obsessed with the fear of his son-in-law being gay was not lost on me. Of course, the moral crusaders of the day - the virulent H.U.A.C. committee tried to link Homosexuality and Communism as being two peas in a pod. Considering the fact that Burl Ives was both a Communist and a repressed Homosexual...this made the movie a secretive dig at the H.U.A.C. trials. Yes, children, Sam the Snowman was a Commie Fag.
I think we'll be hearing from the lawyers of Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass pretty soon.
Run Away.
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Your comment had me in stitches.
Its funny, but for me Brick's conflicted sexuality coms through loud and clear around the middle of the movie. The ending does try to cover it up, but thanks to Richard Brookes cunning direction I think it is still alluded to it several times in the sub text.
Maybe they should have given it to Sam Fuller!
Granted it is not the stage play verbatim and the whole thing is toned down, but the film makes the best of what it can considering the close minded censorship of the Hayes code...damn Tarzan and his Matefor offending so many with its bold nudity.
Burl Ives always reminded me of a bastard blending of Burgess Meredith and Jackie Gleason....Penguin Cramden