Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

Very fine adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play that is both literate and entertaining. Being pretty faithful to the original this takes place only within a couple of room plus a small amount of exterior shooting but still hold the attention so well because of the wonderful dialogue and the performances. Burl Ives is as good as I have ever seen him and Paul Newman is great but it is Elizabeth Taylor that shines so brightly throughout. A little too brightly at times as to put some of the cast in the shade - a bit like Marilyn Monroe did on occasion. I purchased this on Blu-ray along with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and it occurs to me watching the Tennessee Williams that Edward Albee must have been influenced in the writing of his play after seeing this. The full horrors of the family history are gradually revealed with key moments prompting more revelations as we proceed, there is much emphasis on the leading lady having or not having a child and then there is the drinking. Both great pieces of writing from which two great films were made and so impressed was I with this that I wonder if 'Who's Afraid' will remain my favourite.

I kept seeing the beginning and ending of this film throughout the 70s on the weekend afternoon movie (Saturday or Sunday), and it was one of those "boring adult movies" about stuff that only adults care about.And then when I finally saw all of it when I was in college, I still didn't like it a whole lot. Newman's character poking fun at Taylor's bragging about places she's never been, and Newman getting called out on his short comings, all makes for an interesting character analysis if you're into that sort of thing.I guess the thing I find frustrating about so called classic films is that there's a lot of social taboos that people want to tiptoe around. Me, I just didn't get what the heck these people were hung up about. Apparently the lead characters liked one another but couldn't come to terms with their character flaws. The best I, as a casual viewer, can comment is say; "Oh well.", then change the channel and hope that Star Trek or something with a little more action or brain power was on.And no matter how well a film is acted or shot, if the story material is taboo and yet still vapid (or vice versa) I just don't let it register. I think of all the films that danced around sex in all forms, love in all forms, and whatever else, or even a failing marriage, money and lawyers, and I think to myself "Are these people for real?" And that's kind of the sense I get with this film. It needed an alien invasion, a dog fight, and a few more action sequences to spice it up. With apologies to Tennessee Williams, I think writing about hidden taboos and acts thereof is absolutely the dumbest thing in the world. People make up social codes, and seeing Taylor and Newman navigate their way around them to get to the core of what they want is a real bother and bore.I felt like jumping in, slapping a pair of handcuffs on both, and shipping them off on a two month cruise. But that's just me.Well shot, made for a late 50s early 60s audience, when the nation was grappling with sex and race as hot domestic social issues, it gives a window into what the film industry was addressing as a placebo to keep people from throttling one another. Otherwise I'd pass it up. There are better films out there.Watch at your own risk.

Ohboy! Taylor, Ives and Newman in their prime. This was supposed to be a Netflix delight.On paper, as a literary vehicle, maybe. On screen it was cardboard stereotypes playing small personal melodramas. Sound quality very poor, alternately too loud and too soft, and only fully intelligible at high volume. Add to that monologues delivered way too rapidly to be understood, much less comprehended. This play would do better in a small theater with good acoustics. The movie would have done better with a smaller-than-life cast, playing down to the level of the pathetic characters instead of pumping them up into cartoons.A half hour was enough time spent sucking this bitter pill, and back in the mail whence it came.

I tend to be a bit suspicious of pictures that came to our shores after a great deal of overseas pre-release ballyhoo. True, movies like "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" did take in a wonderful amount of money, but usually not enough to match their domestic gross or land them in our top twenty. Word-of-mouth usually turned against these movies too. Whilst they often chalked up respectable city seasons, they usually died in the suburbs and ended up playing to empty houses in rural areas. My latest estimate: Boring. A few sexual references may have titillated patrons in 1959, but they certainly don't keep this dreary, photographed-stage-play alive more than fifty years later. Despite sterling efforts by most of the players, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" emerges as a dull, slow-moving picture, peopled with dull, painstakingly torpid caricatures mouthing dull, tediously uninteresting dialogue. We don't care a hoot why Newman isn't shacking up with Taylor. She's such a relentlessly brow-beating, yakkety-yakking shrew, we don't blame him for taking refuge in the bottle.The photographer tries hard to make Liz look glamorous, but he has his work cut out for him. Brooks' relentlessly routine direction with its monotonous parade of gormless close-ups doesn't help either. Nor do the very limited production values perk up any interest. Except for a few minutes of location filming, this picture is unadventurously tied to the Hollywood sound stage. The movie's theatre origins are also all too obvious. And then, to add insult to injury, what M-G-M has done is to take the guts right out of it. Symbolism is used with all the subtlety of a meat cleaver. Music is no asset either. The composer missed a grand opportunity to send the whole thing up by playing "That Old Feeling" under Taylor's constant whinges and "Ida" under Anderson's melodramatics.Finally, the ending. After Newman's endless talk of the sins of "mendacity" (don't worry, the word is defined for the benefit of those picturegoers who are not walking dictionaries), this ridiculous, negating-everything-that-has-gone-before-cop-out of a conclusion really puts the lid on this Cat.