Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Short description
The wealthy Southern landowner Harvey Pollitt, known to everyone as Big Daddy, gathers his family at his estate for his sixty-fifth birthday. Neither he nor his wife has been told that he is dying of cancer; the other members of the household know the diagnosis, and their visit is tangled up with the question of who will inherit his fortune. His son Gooper and Gooper's wife Mae compete for the old man's favour, while Big Daddy's preferred son, Brick, a former football player, has withdrawn into drinking. Brick's wife, Maggie, is desperate to reach him and to hold on to their marriage, and the family's accumulated resentments come to the surface over the course of the day.
Richard Brooks directed this 1958 adaptation of Tennessee Williams's play, working from a screenplay he wrote with Williams and James Poe. It was Brooks's third film as director, following The Last Time I Saw Paris and Blackboard Jungle. Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman play Maggie and Brick, with Burl Ives as Big Daddy, Judith Anderson as Big Mama, Jack Carson as Gooper and Madeleine Sherwood as Mae.
Made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Avon Productions, the film cost about 3 million dollars and took roughly 18 million dollars worldwide, a strong return on its budget. On IMDb it holds 7.9 out of 10 from around 57,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.6 from several hundred. A critics' rating of 7.8 from 37 reviews places it close to the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- During the filming of the movie, Elizabeth Taylor lost her husband, Michael Todd. He died in a plane crash. However, the actress, despite the shock, continued filming.
- Initially, it was intended to make this film in black and white. Almost all previous adaptations of Tennessee Williams' plays (1911-1983) had been black and white. But when Paul Newman (1925-2008) and Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011) were cast in the leading roles, the screenwriter and director Richard Brooks (1912-1992) insisted on filming in color, knowing how much the public adored their eyes (bright blue for Newman and dark blue for Taylor).
- The role of Polly was written by Tennessee Williams specifically for Burl Ives (1909-1995). At the time, he was better known as a folk singer, and this choice by Williams frankly puzzled many in the theatrical community. However, critics liked him so much in this role that it marked the beginning of a long and productive acting career.
- In accordance with Hollywood rules of that period, all allusions to homosexuality present in the original play were removed from the script.
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