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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Release Date:
20 September 1958 (USA)
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Tagline:
Just one pillow on her bed ... and just one desire in her heart! more
Plot:
Brick, an alcoholic ex-football player, drinks his days away and resists the affections of his wife, Maggie. His reunion with his father, Big Daddy, who is dying of cancer, jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son. full summary | full synopsis
Awards:
Nominated for 6 Oscars.
Another 2 wins
&
8 nominations
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NewsDesk:
(4 articles)
Paul Newman: 1925 - 2008
(From IMDb News. 27 September 2008, 8:49 AM, PDT)
Hackford To Direct Tennessee Williams Biopic
(From WENN. 12 August 2008, 9:01 AM, PDT)
(From IMDb News. 27 September 2008, 8:49 AM, PDT)
Hackford To Direct Tennessee Williams Biopic
(From WENN. 12 August 2008, 9:01 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
Wonderful Williams - Brilliant Ives
more (107 total)
US TV Schedule:
Cast
(Complete credited cast) | Elizabeth Taylor | ... | Margaret 'Maggie the Cat' Pollitt |
 | Paul Newman | ... | Brick Pollitt |
 | Burl Ives | ... | Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt |
 | Jack Carson | ... | Cooper 'Gooper' Pollitt |
 | Judith Anderson | ... | Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt |
| Madeleine Sherwood | ... | Mae Flynn Pollitt |
| Larry Gates | ... | Dr. Baugh |
| Vaughn Taylor | ... | Deacon Davis |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
108 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Color (Metrocolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Westrex Recording System)
Certification:
Portugal:M/12 (re-rating) |
Spain:18 |
Finland:K-3 (2007) |
South Korea:15 (DVD rating) |
Brazil:14 |
Argentina:13 |
Australia:PG |
Canada:PG |
Chile:14 |
Finland:K-12 |
Netherlands:AL |
Portugal:17 |
Sweden:15 |
USA:Not Rated |
West Germany:18 (original rating) |
UK:12A (re-rating) (2005) |
UK:X (original rating) |
UK:15 (video rating) (1987) |
UK:15 (video rating)
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Although Elia Kazan directed "Cat" on Broadway, he was not involved in the film, despite having two cinematic successes with Tennessee Williams work A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and Baby Doll (1956). Kazan had had trouble with Williams, demanding that he rewrite the third act of the play to bring Big Daddy back on stage. He also was tired of having critics call him a "co-author" of Williams work, which he knew he was not. He would eventually direct one more Williams play on Broadway, Sweet Bird of Youth (1962), but that film also would be directed by Richard Brooks.
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Goofs:
Continuity: After Brick and Big Daddy come up from the cellar, Big Mamma says to Gooper "Take these papers away before I tear them up. I don't know what's in them; I don't want to know what's in them." Big Daddy goes outside and talks to the folks fixing the light. As he approaches the door to come into the room where Gooper and Big Mamma are arguing, you can hear her say the line "Take these papers away before I tear them up. I don't know what's in them; I don't want to know what's in them." again.
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Quotes:
Brick Pollitt:
People like doing what they used to do, after they've stopped being able to do it.
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Movie Connections:
Referenced in "What's My Line?: (1959-01-25)" (1959)
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Soundtrack:
Nice layout
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FAQ
What does the title mean?How much sex, violence, and profanity are in this movie?
Is "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" based on a book?
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more (107 total)
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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. Burl Ives's Big Daddy is larger than life, insensitive, domineering, self-absorbed. Ives is "on" every moment. And every moment is true.
Paul Newman's Brick, is as afraid of life as Big Daddy is in love with it. Yet, in his way, he's a chip off the old block - self-absorbed, insensitive.
And domineering or, as Big Daddy and Maggie would have it, masterful, ready to take charge -
if he could just get over himself.
I confess, I don't care for Elizabeth Taylor as an actress, but she is so right for the part, that I can't think of anyone else to fill it. Anyway, who else has eyes that could compete with Newman's?
Judith Anderson plays the typical Williams matron, living in her house of delusions. She's Big Daddy's tormented, desperately lonely, unloved partner, who towards the end wins Big Daddy with her nobility and devotion.
The under-appreciated Jack Carter has the unenviable role of Brick's pliant, conformist brother, Gooper, decent at heart but worn out after years of jumping through Big Daddy's hoops and still winding up on the short end, with a house full of brats, bred at Big Daddy's presumed bidding and delivered by a scheming, ambitious weasel of a wife. Gooper the only character I have a little trouble with, because his climactic speech, as rendered by Carter, is so heartfelt, that we are aggrieved with him at the injustice of Big Daddy's favoritism for the no-account but aesthetically more pleasing Brick.
Perhaps an even more unenviable role is that of Gooper's wife, played to perfection by Madeleine Sherwood. Anyone who has grown up in the South has known "Sister Woman". I can assure those who haven't, that this character is not a stereotype or caricature.
There are a few quibbles. One character, the family doctor, though played well by Larry Gates, has a dramatic function that's about as useful as the referee in a pro wrestling match, but not nearly as decorative. I guess he's included to provide plot information, but I think it could have been provided just as well without him. I was also put off by the contrived thunder claps at dramatic moments. Then, there were some continuity problems, such as different facial expression when shot angles were changed and Gooper's too many "Shut ups" to Sister Woman.
If, as another reviewer has said, Tennessee Williams hated this film, then it couldn't have been because it was untrue to his work. If he disliked the changes and omissions, he should blame '50s prudishness, not the film, for dictating, say, the suppression of Brick's homosexuality.
Williams wrote about lies and delusions, the good ones and bad ones. Well, that's what Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Streetcar Named Desire and Glass Menagerie were all about. Tennessee Williams's stories about the South and its culture of delusion are not just rebukes of Southern hypocrisy and bloodymindedness but paeans to the gentle and genteel refuge which delusion provides. As Maggie "The Cat" says, "Truth, truth - everybody keeps hollerin' about the truth. Well, the truth is as dirty as lies."
Finally, I think it was brilliant of Richard Brooks to insist on color, for Williams's stuff is talky, and with the drabness of a typical Williams set, this can be a bit oppressive. With color, and the wonderful animation Brooks instills in all the characters, his Cat contains not a dull moment. If Brooks has given us something at odds with what Williams intended, I think he has given us something just as fine.