Late one night, a drunken Brick Pollitt is on a track field trying to recapture his glory days of high school sports by leaping hurdles, reminiscing about his moments as a youthful athlete. He breaks his ankle, leaving him dependent on a crutch. The next day, Brick and his wife Maggie ("the Cat") visit his family's plantation in eastern Mississippi to celebrate Big Daddy's 65th birthday.
Depressed, Brick has spent the last few years drinking while resisting the affections of his wife, who shares with him her worries about the inheritance of Big Daddy's wealth. There is speculation in the family about why Maggie is childless, while Brick's brother Gooper and his wife Mae have five children and another on the way.
Big Daddy and Big Mama arrive home from the hospital by private airplane and are greeted by Gooper, Mae, and their children, along with Maggie. Annoyed by the rehearsed display that his grandchildren gave him, Big Daddy ignores them and drives home with Maggie. The news is that Big Daddy is not dying of cancer. However, his doctor meets privately first with Gooper and then with Brick to divulge that it is a deception: Big Daddy has inoperable cancer and will likely be dead within a year, and the truth is being kept from him, as well as from all the women in the family. Brick reveals this to Maggie, and she is heartbroken. Maggie wants Brick to take an interest in his father for both unselfish and selfish reasons, but he stubbornly refuses.
Original theatrical trailer
As the party winds down, Big Daddy meets with Brick in his room, and says that he is fed up with Brick's behavior and alcoholism, demanding to know why he is so stubborn. At one point, Maggie joins them and, at Brick's insistence, reveals what happened a few years ago, on the night when Brick's best friend and football teammate, Skipper, took his life. Maggie was jealous of Skipper because he had more of Brick's time. She explains that Brick's infatuation with Skipper was misguided, as Skipper was far less good on the field and in life than Brick wanted to believe, and Skipper depended on Brick much more than Brick depended on Skipper. She says that Skipper was lost without Brick at his side. She thought about ruining their relationship "by any means necessary". To this end, she considered making love with Skipper, and use this information to let her husband question Skipper's loyalty. However, when she found herself in Skipper's hotel bedroom, she realized that she could have lost Brick instead, she changed her mind and ran away. That very same night, Skipper phoned Brick falsely claiming to have made love with Maggie. Since then, Brick had blamed Maggie for infidelity, hence refusing making love to her. Also, Brick had blamed himself for not having answered the subsequent phone calls from Skipper that night, hence his self-destruction with alcohol out of sense of guilt for Skipper's death.
After an argument, Brick lets it slip to Big Daddy that Big Daddy will die of cancer, and that this birthday will be his last. Shaken, Big Daddy retreats to the cellar. Meanwhile, Gooper, who is a lawyer, and his wife Mae argue with Big Mama about the family's cotton business and Big Daddy's will. Brick descends into the cellar, a labyrinth of antiques and family possessions, mostly bought by Big Mama, according to the decorative role typically reserved to a healthy man's wife. Brick and Big Daddy confront each other in front of a large cutout of Brick in his glory days as an athlete. After Big Daddy tells Brick about his hobo father, a veteran of the Spanish-American War who, despite being a poor tramp, loved his young son and kept him with him always, the pair reaches a reconciliation of sort.
The rest of the family begins to crumble under pressure, with Big Mama stepping up as a strong figure. Maggie says that she would like to give Big Daddy her birthday present: the announcement of her pregnancy. After the jealous Mae calls Maggie a liar, Big Daddy and Brick defend her, although Brick knows that Maggie is not pregnant, and Big Daddy suspects it. In their room, Maggie and Brick reconcile and kiss, with the implication that they will make Maggie's lie come true.
Cast
Taylor received her second Oscar nomination for the film
The original stage production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opened on Broadway on March 24, 1955, with Ives and Sherwood in the roles that they subsequently played in the film.
Dore Schary was head of MGM. He saw the play and authorized the purchase of the film rights, intending for it to star Grace Kelly, be directed by Joshua Logan, and be produced by Sol Siegel. Siegel did not want to produce the film and Kelly retired from acting to get married, so Logan lost interest. The job of producing went to Pandro Berman. He formed a company, Avon Productions, with Lawrence Weingarten that made films through MGM. Berman went to make The Reluctant Debutante, so Weingarten was asked to take over production on Cat.[5][6]
In June 1957, James Poe was working on the screenplay. Weingarten told Variety, "Our biggest problem is finding a substitute for the homosexual angle, but I'm sure we'll be able to lick it." He also revealed that Elizabeth Taylor was interested in playing the feminine lead.[7]
Ben Gazzara played Brick in the stage production but rejected the film role. Athlete-turned-actor Floyd Simmons also tested for the role.[8] Berman said that they considered William Shatner as a possible Brick. Lana Turner was considered for the part of Maggie before the role went to Taylor.[9][10]
The original director was George Cukor, but he left the project after disagreements over the script, particularly how the gay themes were going to be addressed. Berman says he considered Joseph L. Mankiewicz as a possible director, but then asked Richard Brooks to take over.[6]
Brooks had not seen the play. He rewrote the script, later saying, "I tried to keep all of the intentions and most of the dialogue. I added a few scenes. I didn't feel the subject of latent or even overt homosexuality was necessary for this particular story. Also, you have a conditioned audience in a theatre, but if you go to the movies and there's a man on the screen who keeps saying, no, he doesn't want to go to bed with Elizabeth Taylor, then the audience will begin to whistle and hoot.... I had to dramatize that Brick rejects Maggie, not because he is incapable of loving her, but because he holds her responsible for Skipper's death."[11]
Brooks claimed that he cast Paul Newman for the role of Brick "because I could put the camera on him for minutes: in many, many scenes he didn't have to say anything and I could get an interesting personality who could think something, and I could see it in the camera. He was not a big star then."[11]
Shooting
Production began on March 12, 1958, and by March 19, Taylor had contracted a virus that kept her off the shoot. On March 21, she canceled plans to fly with her husband Mike Todd to New York City, where he was to be honored the following day by the New York Friars' Club. The plane crashed, and all passengers, including Todd, were killed. Beset with grief, Taylor remained off the film until April 14, at which time she returned to the set much thinner and weaker.[12]
Brooks recalled, "I had one set and I was determined not to break through and smash Williams' play.... I tried to give the feeling that it was like a set. So we had one major set: there was a bedroom floor, a ground floor and a basement. I had to move because of the vast amount of dialogue."[11]
Music and soundtrack
"Love Theme from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" was composed by Charles Wolcott in 1958. He was an accomplished composer, having worked for Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Rudy Vallee, and George Burns and Gracie Allen. From 1937 to 1944, he worked at Walt Disney Studios. In 1950, he transferred to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios, where he became the general music director and composed the theme for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The other songs on the soundtrack are by a variety of artists, including Andre Previn, Daniel Decatur Emmett and Ludwig van Beethoven.
Song list
"Lost in a Summer Night" by André Previn and Milton Raskin
Tennessee Williams was reportedly unhappy with the screenplay, which removed almost all homosexual themes and revised the third act section to include a lengthy scene of reconciliation between Brick and Big Daddy. Paul Newman also stated his disappointment with the adaptation. The Hays Code limited Brick's portrayal of sexual desire from Skipper and diminished the play's critique of homophobia. Williams so disliked the toned-down adaptation that he told people waiting in line to see the film, "This movie will set the industry back 50 years. Go home!"[13]
Despite this, the film was highly acclaimed by critics. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote that although "Mr. Williams' original stage play has been altered considerably, especially in offering explanation of why the son is as he is", he still found the film "a ferocious and fascinating show", and deemed Newman's performance "an ingratiating picture of a tortured and tested young man" and Taylor "terrific".[14]
Variety called the picture "a powerful, well-seasoned film produced within the bounds of good, if 'adults only,' taste...Newman again proves to be one of the finest actors in films, playing cynical underacting against highly developed action."[3]
Harrison's Reports declared it "an intense adult drama, superbly acted by a formidable cast".[4]
Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post wrote, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof has been transposed to the screen with almost astonishing skill...Paul Newman does his finest work in the rich role of Brick, catching that remarkable fact of film acting—the illusion of the first time. It's a superlative performance and he's bound to be nominated for an Oscar."[15]
Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "It was a powerful stage drama and it is a powerful screen drama, and Brooks has exacted—and extracted—stunningly real and varied performances from his players...You may not like it but you won't forget it readily."[16]
Not all reviews were as positive. John McCarten of The New Yorker wrote of the characters, "Although it is interesting for a while to listen to them letting off emotional steam, their caterwauling (boosted Lord knows how many decibels by stereophonic sound) eventually becomes severely monotonous." McCarten also lamented that the filmmakers were "unable to indicate more than fleetingly the real problem of the hero—homosexuality, which is, of course, a taboo subject in American movies."[17]
The Monthly Film Bulletin shared that regret, writing, "Censorship difficulties admittedly make it impossible to show homosexuality as the root of Brick's problem, but Brooks does not appear to have the skill to make convincing the motives he has substituted. Most of Williams's exhilarating dialogue has been left out or emasculated, and the screenplay fails to harmonise the revised characterisation of Brick with the author's original conception."[18]
The film was successful with audiences, grossing more than $1 million over the Labor Day weekend, and was number-one at the US box-office for five consecutive weeks in September 1958,[19][20] before being knocked off the top spot by Damn Yankees.[21] It returned to the top spot for the next four weeks, and became the number-3one film for October.[22]
According to MGM records, the film earned rentals for the studio of $7,660,000 in the United States and Canada, as well as $3,625,000 in other markets, resulting in a profit of $2,428,000.[2]
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was a British and American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. She then became the world's highest-paid movie star in the 1960s, remaining a well-known public figure for the rest of her life. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked her seventh on its greatest female screen legends list.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a 1955 American three-act play by Tennessee Williams. The play, an adaptation of his 1952 short story "Three Players of a Summer Game", was written between 1953 and 1955. One of Williams's more famous works and his personal favorite, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955. Set in the "plantation home in the Mississippi Delta" of Big Daddy Pollitt, a wealthy cotton tycoon, the play examines the relationships among members of Big Daddy's family, primarily between his son Brick and Maggie the "Cat", Brick's wife.
Kim Stanley was an American actress who was primarily active in television and theatre but also had occasional film performances.
Richard Brooks was an American screenwriter, film director, novelist and film producer. Nominated for eight Academy Awards in his career, he was best known for Blackboard Jungle (1955), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Elmer Gantry, In Cold Blood (1967) and Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977).
Two for the Seesaw is a 1962 American romantic-drama film directed by Robert Wise and starring Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine. It was adapted from the 1958 Broadway play written by William Gibson with Henry Fonda and Anne Bancroft in the lead roles.
Steve Weston was a Canadian television and theatre actor. He is best known to Canadian audiences from his stint as the husband in the sitcom The Trouble With Tracy, and as a series regular on the sketch comedy series Bizarre. However, he was also an accomplished stage actor and once played the role of Gooper Pollitt in a Toronto production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Also appeared on the short lived CBLT TV Sunday Morning with a cast that included Rosemary Radcliffe.
John Elmer Carson, known as Jack Carson, was a Canadian-born American film actor. Carson often played the role of comedic friend in films of the 1940s and 1950s, including The Strawberry Blonde (1941) with James Cagney and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) with Cary Grant. He appeared in such dramas as Mildred Pierce (1945), A Star is Born (1954), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). He worked for RKO and MGM, but most of his notable work was for Warner Bros.
Nicholas Eadie is an Australian television, film and theatre actor.
The Long, Hot Summer is a 1958 American drama film starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Anthony Franciosa and Orson Welles. It was directed by Martin Ritt, with a screenplay by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr., based in part on three works by William Faulkner: the 1931 novella "Spotted Horses", the 1939 short story "Barn Burning" and the 1940 novel The Hamlet. The title is taken from The Hamlet, as Book Three is called "The Long Summer". Some characters, as well as tone, were inspired by Tennessee Williams' 1955 play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a film adaptation of which – also starring Newman – was released 5 months later.
Lawrence Wheaton Gates was an American actor.
Pollitt is a surname, and may refer to:
Lawrence Weingarten was an American film producer. He was best known for working for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and producing some of the studio's most prestigious films such as Adam's Rib (1949), I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958).
Peter de Jersey is a British actor. He has played roles in television, including the long-time recurring role of "Jerome Taylor" in The Bill, and roles in Broadchurch and Warrior Nun.
Frank Rehak was an American jazz trombonist. He began on piano and cello before switching to trombone. He worked with Gil Evans and Miles Davis. He also appeared with Davis on the broadcast "The Sounds of Miles Davis."
The 12th British Academy Film Awards, given by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 1959, honoured the best films of 1958.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a 1984 American made-for-television drama film directed by Jack Hofsiss, and starring Jessica Lange, Tommy Lee Jones, Rip Torn, Kim Stanley, David Dukes, and Penny Fuller. The film was written by Tennessee Williams, produced by American Playhouse, and originally premiered on Showtime on August 19, 1984.
Sweet Bird of Youth is a 1962 American drama film starring Paul Newman and Geraldine Page, with Shirley Knight, Madeleine Sherwood, Ed Begley, Rip Torn and Mildred Dunnock in support. Based on the 1959 play of the same name by Tennessee Williams, the film was adapted and directed by Richard Brooks.
Benjamin Thau was an American businessman who became vice-president of the Hollywood film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), a subsidiary of the Loew's theater chain. From 1928 he was in charge of casting, in the business of discovering and developing talented performers. He was known for his quiet and calming influence with often temperamental stars. Towards the end of his career he was head of the studio from 1956 to 1958.
Avon Productions was an American film production company formed by producers Lawrence Weingarten and Pandro Berman. Both men worked at MGM as in house producers. They resigned from MGM in early 1957 to establish Avon Productions, which drew on finance from MGM and would distribute through that studio. Both Berman and Weingarten would work on Avon productions but only one would take credit as producer. Weingarten said "after all these years we felt that it was time we shared in the profits of the pictures we made."
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a 1976 British television movie. It was part of Laurence Olivier Presents and was based on the play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams. It was produced in England for Granada Television in association with NBC.
↑ Coe, Richard L. (September 4, 1958). "Screen 'Cat' is a Marvel". The Washington Post. p.C12. ISSN0190-8286.
↑ Scheuer, Philip K. (August 24, 1958). "'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' Has Artistic Merit, Shock Value". Los Angeles Times. No.Part V. pp.1–2. ISSN0458-3035.
↑ McCarten, John (September 27, 1958). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker. p.162. ISSN0028-792X.
↑ "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". The Monthly Film Bulletin. Vol.25, no.298. November 1958. p.139. ISSN0027-0407.
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