Review: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Blustery family patriarch Big Daddy (Burl Ives) has just come home from the hospital. He’s dying from cancer, but wife Big Momma (Dame Judith Anderson) appears to be in denial and tries to keep everyone else there too. His loyal-but-unloved son Gooper (Jack Carson), his ghastly wife ‘Sister Woman’ (Madeleine Sherwood), and their monstrous children are like a pack of hyenas just waiting for Big Daddy to pass on so they can get their inheritance. Big Daddy’s favoured son Brick (Paul Newman) hides away in a room drinking heavily, ignoring the pleas of his sex-starved wife Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor), and seemingly deeply troubled by something that happened during his time as a football player. Something that he’s definitely in no hurry to discuss with Big Daddy. But his overbearing father has a whiff that something is not right with Brick, and will not be deterred by Brick’s attempts to evade him. Maggie hasn’t given up on Brick, either.

 

Although some may disagree, I think the mature themes are still discernible in this admittedly tame 1958 adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play by director Richard Brooks (“Blackboard Jungle”, “In Cold Blood”, “Elmer Gantry”, “The Professionals”) and his co-writer James Poe (“The Bedford Incident”, “Last Train From Gun Hill”). It’s also a riveting, highly entertaining film full of powerhouse performances and rich characters. Like seemingly a lot of American plays/novels, we’re dealing with a pretty dysfunctional family here, one you wouldn’t want to be a part of. Even the patriarch named Big Daddy (a towering Burl Ives in the film’s best turn) isn’t particularly likeable. Yes, he’s cynical and smart enough to see that his family are mostly vipers and butt-kissers, but he’s also a philanderer and bully (who seems to rather enjoy intimidating people a little too much), whose behaviour is probably to blame for some of the issues the family has. The most likeable member of this clan is probably Paul Newman’s Brick, the favoured son who has become embittered, cynical, and constantly inebriated out of a mixture of contempt for others, self-loathing, and heart-broken anguish. ***** SPOILER WARNING ***** Newman is excellent in the part, and although the script changes things slightly, to anyone who already knows Brick’s ‘secret’, the homosexual themes are still entirely able to be detected here. Certainly Newman’s performance suggests there was more to the relationship between Brick and Skipper than mere idol worship and friendship (I’m not saying Brick is gay or even bi – he may have been - but Skipper most likely was one or the other, or at least that’s the impression one gets from the film). ***** END SPOILER ***** It’s no surprise Newman is so good in the part, as he was always effective in such hard-drinking, cynical, or self-loathing parts (“The Hustler” and “The Verdict” spring to mind). Brick hates himself, his family, and pretty much the whole world right now, and Newman really seems to have complete understanding of this poor, sorry man escaping in drink. Big Daddy hates mendacity and untruthful people, and he’s the head of a family full of mendacious sycophants. Brick is the only one in the family who tells the harsh, unpleasant truths…except for his own painful truth, which Big Daddy is determined to get to the bottom of by the end of the film. Brick spends much of the film couped up in his room getting completely sloshed, drinking the issue away.

 

Whilst Brick and Big Daddy might earn a little tiny bit of your sympathy, that’s nowhere near the case for the frankly extraordinary Madeleine Sherwood’s revolting ‘Sister Woman’ and her vile collection of ‘mouth breathers’ (bratty children who serve as rather cruel but hilarious comic relief in an otherwise tense film). In an effectively unpleasant performance, Sherwood gives us perhaps the ugliest example of familial greed, selfishness, and sycophancy you’re likely to see. The woman is as vile as she is insipid. She also married a man named Gooper, so there’s that too. Yeah, Gooper with a G. He’s Big Daddy’s other son, who despite not being the favourite son is actually the one who works for the family business and strives to be appreciated by his father. Played by Jack Carson, he’s not a likeable man by any means but you do feel a slight pang of pity for poor Gooper. He’s done everything he thinks his father would want, and can’t understand why it’s never enough to earn the man’s love and respect. In fact, the one person Big Daddy probably wouldn’t loathe leaving his estate to is the one person who couldn’t care less about wealth or material things: Brick. You can kinda see why Gooper gets so upset. On my first viewing I thought Dame Judith Anderson was very off-putting and silly as Big Momma. Seeing it again, I understand her character and feel a bit sorry for her. She’s a silly ‘ol thing alright, constantly trying to change any uncomfortable subject, even foolishly breaking out into song at times. However, I think she’s meant to be a bit uncomfortable, because this is an uncomfortable family and uncomfortable situations they’re either dealing or not dealing with. So Aussie-born Anderson is effective in that regard, much as you might roll your eyes at her antics. Finally, Elizabeth Taylor gives one of her best performances as Maggie ‘The Cat’, sexually frustrated, tempestuous, highly superficial…but with just the hint of someone better somewhere deep inside of her. There’s a glimmer of hope for her, unlike stupid ‘Sister Woman’. She’s only about half as greedy, really, and above all else she actually does love Brick, insulting and surly as his disposition may be most of the time. Perhaps that’s part of the reason why Big Daddy seems to like her, she’s not entirely ruined with mendacity yet (The fact that she’s physically attractive probably helps in appealing to him too, though). Taylor is particularly to be commended for soldiering on after her husband at the time was killed the same day she was set to begin filming this. I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult that would be, let alone committing such a rock-solid performance.

 

Although measures seem to have been taken to erase it, the homosexual subtext still shines through on occasion in this fantastically acted, thoroughly engrossing film adaptation. A tortured Newman and a toweringly authoritative Ives are especially compelling, Sherwood extraordinary. Well-written, good-looking, well-directed stuff. Talky, but must-see drama that should be talked about a lot more these days than it is.

 

Rating: A-