CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF -- Richard Brooks, dir

©1958
studio: Warner Bros.
production company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Avon Productions
dir: Richard Brooks
cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Jack Carson, Judith Anderson, Madeleine Sherwood, Larry Gates, Vaughn Taylor
screenplay: Richard Brooks (from a play by Tennessee Williams)

Based on the play by Tennessee Williams: A party is planned for the 65th birthday of family patriarch 'Big Daddy', but not everyone is in a festive mood. Big Daddy's son Brick, a one-time star athlete, has a drinking problem and has become cold towards his wife Maggie, though she still desperately loves him. Brick's older brother Gooper and his wife hope to gain control over Big Daddy's estate. Big Daddy himself is just coming home from a clinic where he has been tested for cancer. When his doctor tells the family the results of the tests, the family's accumulated lies, frustrations, and secrets quickly begin to come out. [from Amazon]

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I quite enjoyed this film, much more than I was expecting. Burl Ives does a remarkable job as Big Daddy -- a role he looks fit to play but not one that I expected of him, based on his other film appearances.

I've not been a particular fan of Elizabeth Taylor's, but she does a good job here. She's got just the right mix to handle all that's going on around her.

Paul Newman does a splendid acting job, but I feel he came across as too tough. Too tough to then appear concerned about Big Daddy's feeleings for him. I never believed the "soft" side of him. Nor any tender side toward Taylor.

I liked the simplicity in the filming. Very spare. Very theatrical in that sense. And it held on to the Southern ideals well (thanks to Ives), and over-all not a bad stage to film adaptation (though not entirely true).

Recommended for film and theatre buffs.