Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958
- Director: Richard Brooks
- Seen by this director: Looking for Mr Goodbar, In Cold Blood, Lord Jim, Elmer Gantry, Blackboard Jungle
- Based on the play by Tennessee Williams
- Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Jack Carson, Judith Anderson, Madeleine Sherwood
- Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
- Elizabeth Taylor – Crack’d Mirror, Reflections in a Golden Eye, The Taming of the Shrew, Cleopatra, Suddenly Last Summer, Raintree County, Giant
- Paul Newman – Road to Perdition, The Towering Inferno, The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Torn Curtain, Harper, Exodus, probably others
- Burl Ives – mostly I know him from my favourite record as a child ‘The Little White Duck’.
- Why? A classic
- Seen: Once before. Now 23 August 2022
A southern patriarchal family. Big Daddy
(Ives) is a self-satisfied wealthy tyrant who’s dying. He treats his silly
devoted wife Ida (Anderson) like dirt. Their son Goober (Carson) is married to
Sister Woman (Sherwood) and has six horrible children. Their other son Brick
(Newman) is a has-been athletic star and now a determined alcoholic who hates
his wife Maggie (Taylor) and Big Daddy, and mendacity, all the lies the family
perpetuates. Maggie is in despair because Brick refuses to touch her and all
she wants is for him to love her.
Powerful performances by the whole cast
make us care about these deeply flawed, selfish and self-delusionary people.
Now I’ll have to read the play, which is said to be even better.
4* of 5
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