Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

"Maggie the cat is ALIVE!"

R1 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a brilliant play. But the movie is way too watered down. Yes, they look great, but it's too neutered to really appreciate it as a movie.

I recall Burl Ives gave a TdFP

R3 Burl must have really been something in that role on-stage.

I saw Charles Durning do it in 1990. Kathleen Turner was playing Maggie. Poor Daniel Hugh Kelly was Brick, and he was basically blown off stage by the two of them. That was the first time I saw the show. When I saw it again recently, it surprised me that Brick is actually a main character. You wouldn't have known from the 1990 production!

The best scene in the movie is the one where Newman and Ives are alone; I think Brick and Big Daddy are in the cellar. It's gripping, and leaves everything else I the dust. Taylor was no doubt at her most gloriously beautiful, but she was a pretty shitty actress, it must be said. She's completely overmatched in this part.

[quote]Poor Daniel Hugh Kelly was Brick, and he was basically blown off stage by the two of them.

Would've worked better with Patsy Kelly.

Maybe R5, but her catty scenes with Mae and those awful children were pretty good.

She and Mae were great adversaries.

I think that Jack Carson is totally under rated in this movie.

He is so low key, but you can 100% get the essence of Gooper, and he's a very sympathetic character.

That part where he breaks down towards the end of the movie, and cries because he did everything he was told to do, and yet still goes unrewarded... that was so sad. Then he turns to "protecting his interests" and tries to be the hard ass attorney, but in the end he comes around and sides with Brick.

I absolutely love the Gooper character, particularly how Carson played it.

Was I the first Brick to show cock?

Regarding acting, Newman was the weak link in this film, but the way he looked more than made up for it...

R5, I disagree. Elizabeth Taylor was the greatest movie star of all time and she was a marvelously talented actress. She won two Oscars and numerous other awards. Her work as Maggie the Cat was outstanding; even Tennessee Williams agreed.

Paul Newman shirtless in those brown courderoy pants was absolute heaven in this movie.

He had abs, before abs became a thing.

I'll disagree respectfully with R11, despite Williams' endorsement, but I'll concede R7's point about the bitchy scenes with Mae.

Paul Newman was so beautiful. So beautiful.

I’d never heard the gay rumors before I came here.

Terrible movie. I can't believe Tennessee Williams was a respected playwright.

Furthermore, I don't actually disagree with R11 as regards Taylor as movie star. She was star quality personified, and she did give some performances that were emotionally truthful and resonant. But mostly I found her affected.

Paul Newman would absolutely be A-list Hollywood, even by today's standards.

One of the few men who are timelessly hot.

I guess he was like a real life Brick Pollitt, who was a heavy drinker, but still managed to keep his looks.

R5, I totally agree with you about that scene in the basement among all the expensive European trip souvenirs. How Big Daddy reveals his terminal death, the meaningless of wealth and the true happy days of his life is devastating. In the play anyway, he also alluded to the two gay plantation owner partners he got the place from trying to slyly convey his acceptance of homosexuals to Brick. There is so much in that scene.

Was the writer saying Brick was gay or not? It always seemed like Brick was gay but back then...would that even be hinted at?

Elizabeth Taylor was wonderful in this. And don't forget, Mike Todd died during the filming of this movie. She is a real trouper!

The first Broadway revival was in 1974 with Elizabeth Ashley as Maggie, Keir Dullea as Brick, Fred Gwynne as Big Daddy and Kate Reid as Big Mama. Everyone was great but Ashley was sensational and drew raves. Williams called her performance "definitive."

Does anyone even remember Ashley these days?

BTW, Williams detested the way the film's screenplay emasculated his play.

It's so strange watching it today and realizing that it was standard practice for a doctor to lie to his patient, and lie to the point of not telling him he was dying.

I think Liz nails this role and looks as good as a woman can, although I do prefer her hair longer.

Considering how much of the plot they had to cut from the original play, I thought it was still good if a bit uneven. I would have loved to see an unedited version with Taylor and Newman.

R18 In William's note to the production designer, he tells them that the "spirit of Jack Straw and Peter Ochello, the original plantation owners must be incorporated into the set design so as to hang over the proceedings at all times"

Straw and Ochello were lovers, and they took Big Daddy in when he was 14 years old. The nature of their relationship with Big Daddy is never revealed, but they left the entire plantation to him.

Any movie or production that leaves them out- I mean, they're simply not telling the story Williams intended.

Playing again RIGHT NOW on Turner Classic Movies - TCM.

Catch it if you can!

R22 That happened to my aunt. She had leukemia the doctor refused to tell her what she had. The other family members knew but would not tell her.

The best Big Mama was Kim Stanley in the PBS version with Rip Torn as Big Daddy. Her performance is riveting and made me want MORE Big Mama in the play.

Jessica's accent is very broad and the cadence in which she speaks is disconcerting, but once you get used to it - her performance is good as is Tommy Lee Jones as Brick. Oh and David Dukes makes a hot Goober, in fact he's sexier than Tommy Lee Jones which made my allegiances to characters schizophrenic.

Here's part 2 of Kim Stanley's scenes as Big Mama

"Where's my Brick? Where's my only son??"

What a bitch.

^ It truly is one fucked up family dynamic. It's heartbreaking yet comical at the same time.

And Mae, what a cunt.

As someone said in an earlier thread, "Liz WAS Maggie the Cat."

Not only that R32, but I think that most people don't even realize that Elizabeth Taylor was only 26 years old when she made this movie.

It's pretty amazing that such a young actress could deliver such an amazing performance.

I can't think of even one of today's A-list actresses who could do the same at the age of 26..

r21, I saw that production in DC. Liz Ashley was sensational!