Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Long before "dysfunctional family" became a familiar catch phrase, Tennessee Williams was dramatizing variations on this subject in his work. Take Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for instance. Lust, avarice, and impotence are just a few of the conflicts exposed within a plot line that centers on a dying Southern patriarch and his family's greedy aspirations. The word "cat" in the play's title refers to the character of Maggie, due to her bedroom stealth and feline-like resolve to get what she wants at any cost; the play's title refers to her sexual frustration, the result of a passionless marriage. Maggie's husband, Brick, is an ex-athlete grieving over the recent suicide of his best friend and tormented by his own closeted homosexuality. Their tentative relationship is aggravated by Big Daddy, Brick's terminally ill father, who is being courted by his other son for his estate and inheritance. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof earned Williams his second Pulitzer Prize and, under Elia Kazan's direction, was a smash success on Broadway, with Ben Gazzara, Barbara Bel Geddes, Burl Ives, and Mildred Dunnock in the key roles. For the film version, only Ives returned to essay the part of Big Daddy. Although it was rumored that Grace Kelly was once considered for Maggie the Cat, the role went to Elizabeth Taylor, who was just beginning to stretch her dramatic range in films. Paul Newman was cast as Brick and Judith Anderson won the part of Big Mama. George Cukor was originally the first choice for director but backed out when faced with the prospect of battling the censors over the possible deletion of certain crucial scenes. Instead, Richard Brooks was brought in to direct (he would also helm the film version of Sweet Bird of Youth, 1962) and, as expected, had to excise some of the dialogue and subject matter in regards to sexual matters. At first Newman, a graduate of New York's Actors Studio, had reservations about starring with Elizabeth Taylor whose approach to acting was entirely different from his own. Yet, despite their different backgrounds, the two actors had a potent on-screen chemistry together. Unfortunately, it was during this film that Taylor's husband, Mike Todd, was killed in a plane crash, causing the production to be delayed until Taylor was emotionally ready to return to work. Nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor (Newman), and Best Actress (Taylor), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof didn't win any Oscars. Ironically, Burl Ives, who gave a dynamic performance in the film as Big Daddy but wasn't nominated, took home the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in The Big Country (1958). If anyone was displeased with the film version it was Tennessee Williams, who always considered Cat on a Hot Tin Roof one of his favorite plays. Not known for his fondness for movie versions of his work, he made a point of visiting a Florida cinema that was showing Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and warned potential ticket buyers not to attend, exclaiming, "This movie will set the industry back fifty years! Go home!" Director: Richard Brooks Producer: Lawrence Weingarten Screenplay: Richard Brooks, James Poe, based on the play by Tennessee Williams Cinematography: William Daniels Editor: Ferris Webster Art Direction: William A. Horning, Urie McCleary Cast: Elizabeth Taylor (Maggie "The Cat" Pollitt), Paul Newman (Brick Pollitt), Burl Ives (Big Daddy), Jack Carson (Gooper), Judith Anderson (Big Mama). C-109m. Letterboxed. Close captioning. Descriptive video. by Eleanor Quin

In Honor of Paul Newman, who died on September 26, TCM will air a tribute to the actor on Sunday, October 12th, replacing the current scheduled programming with the following movies: Sunday, October 12 Program for TCM 6:00 AM The Rack 8:00 AM Until They Sail 10:00 AM Torn Curtain 12:15 PM Exodus 3:45 PM Sweet Bird of Youth 6:00 PM Hud 8:00 PM Somebody Up There Likes Me 10:00 PM Cool Hand Luke 12:15 AM Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 2:15 AM Rachel, Rachel 4:00 AM The Outrage TCM Remembers Paul Newman (1925-2008) Paul Newman, with his electric blue eyes and gutsy willingness to play anti-heroes, established himself as one of the movies' great leading men before settling into his latter-day career of flinty character acting. Born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, in 1925, Newman studied at the Yale Drama School and New York's Actors Studio before making his Broadway debut in Picnic. Newman's breakthrough in films came in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), in which he played boxer Rocky Graziano. He quickly reinforced his reputation in such vehicles as The Rack (1956) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), for which he won the first of nine Oscar® nominations as an actor. In 1958, while shooting The Long Hot Summer (1958) - which earned him the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival - in Louisiana, he became re-acquainted with Joanne Woodward, who was the film's female lead. The two soon fell in love, and after divorcing Jackie, Newman and Woodward were married in Las Vegas in 1958. The couple appeared in numerous films together and had three daughters, which they raised far from Hollywood in the affluent neighborhood of Westport, CT. The 1960s was a fruitful decade for Newman, who starred in such hits as Exodus (1960), Sweet Bird of Youth (1962) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969); and scored Oscar® nominations for The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963) and Cool Hand Luke (1967). Newman's political activism also came to the forefront during the sixties, through tireless campaigning for Eugene McCarthy's 1968 presidential campaign. His association with McCarthy led to his being named on future President Richard Nixon's infamous "Opponents List;" Newman, who ranked #19 out of 20, later commented that his inclusion was among the proudest achievements of his career. Newman's superstar status - he was the top-ranking box office star in 1969 and 1970 - allowed him to experiment with film roles during the 1970s, which led to quirky choices like WUSA (1970), Sometimes a Great Notion (1971), Pocket Money (1972), and The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) - all of which he also produced through First Artists, a company he established with fellow stars Sidney Poitier and Barbra Streisand. After coming close to winning an Oscar® for Absence of Malice (1981), Newman finally won the award itself for The Color of Money (1986). He also received an honorary Oscar® in 1986 and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1994. A producer and director as well as an actor, Newman has directed his wife (and frequent costar) Joanne Woodward through some of her most effective screen performances [Rachel, Rachel (1968), The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)]. He remained active as an actor in his later years, playing the Stage Manager in Our Town on both stage and television, lending his voice to the animated features Cars (2006) and Mater and the Ghostlight (2006). Off-screen, Newman set the standard for celebrity-driven charities with his Newman's Own brand of foods, which brought $200 million to causes, and the Hole in the Wall Gang camp for seriously ill children.

Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is his second Pulitzer Prize winner and his second Hollywood blockbuster. This time around, Richard Brooks does the adaptation and directing honors, enlarging the confined drama to fill Big Daddy Pollitt's Alabama mansion and inventing new scenes as needed. Even though a few details are somewhat blurred the play is still a forceful drama with powerhouse moments for all the main characters. Audiences flocked to see the steamy bedroom scenes between Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor, who made 1958's movie screens sizzle. Synopsis: The marriage of Brick and Maggie Pollitt (Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor) is at the wrecking point over a suspicious, fatal past incident between Maggie and Brick's best friend Skipper. Along with Brick's older brother Gooper (Jack Carson) and his wife Mae (Madeleine Sherwood), they greet Big Daddy (Burl Ives) on his return from a medical clinic. Should Big Daddy be terminally ill, Gooper and Mae are intent on securing a controlling interest in his properties. Mae organizes their five kids (called the "no-neck monsters" by Maggie) into a horrible welcoming committee. At the airport Dr. Baugh (Larry Gates) reports that Big Daddy is in great shape, which has Big Momma Ida (Judith Anderson) crying for joy. Big Daddy's affection for Maggie puts Gooper and Mae on the defensive: The loud-mouthed Mae repeatedly infers that Brick is an alcoholic and that Maggie is barren because she's a lousy wife. Big Daddy happily contemplates a retirement of womanizing until he realizes how serious Brick's drinking really is. Brick repeatedly rejects Maggie, no matter how she tries to appeal to him. All America needed to be mesmerized by Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was a quick look at Elizabeth Taylor wiping cold ice cream from her legs, an image that doubtlessly sent chills up many a male backbone. But there's a lot more here to hold the attention. Instead of gutting Tennessee Williams' bold main themes to satisfy the Production Code Authority, Richard Brooks and James Poe artfully changed what had to be changed, leaving as few scars as possible. Big Daddy's a sick man, and his heirs crowd around like the vulture relatives in the old silent horror film The Cat and the Canary. It's easy to know who we don't like, as first-born son Gooper is stuck with a silly name, a harpy for a wife and horrid pack of kids that might as well be demons with pitchforks. We're also keenly interested in what's up between Brick and Maggie, as the notion of the incredibly sexy Elizabeth Taylor begging in vain to sleep with Paul Newman strikes us as a sin against nature. Brick is trying to drink himself into a forgetful stupor over their Big Problem. Unfortunately, his drinking reinforces an old, dramatically convenient image of alcoholism. The more Brick guzzles, the more attractive and mentally acute he gets. He never actually gets drunk or passes out. Brick is Williams' idea of a manly cripple. A drunken accident has him on crutches and he's forever falling down or getting stuck in the mud, all indicators that his affliction is affecting his sex drive. When the truth starts to leak out about Brick's worshipful relationship with his dead buddy Skipper, we suspect that the original play had a major homosexual element. According to commentator Donald Spoto, that aspect is ambiguous and sublimated to the friends' "immature" relationship as grown men fooling themselves with a sports dream. Brick is not in denial over his sexual identity, merely guilty for rejecting a friend because he was 'weak.' To clear up any doubts, Brick caresses Maggie's nightgown in the bathroom, 'proving' he's actually pining for her. In the original play Maggie's motives and actions in the suicide incident aren't as clean-cut. She and Skipper did sleep together, and we can tell that the movie is dodging when she claims to have "changed her mind" at the last moment. Maggie wants to reclaim her husband the same way she wants her fair share of Big Daddy's money. It's just that she's bold about the first desire and balanced about the second, compared to her clueless, avaricious in-laws. Big Momma Ida declares that when a marriage is on the rocks, the rocks are in the bed. Williams emphasizes human weakness: Even Big Momma was pregnant when she married Big Daddy. Just the same, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof tries to keep sex in its proper place as just one source of family dysfunction. The real plague upon the Pollitt household is greed and envy on a classical scale. The strain shows in Brooks' adaptation only when he invents a big reconciliation scene between Brick and Big Daddy in the cellar. Burl Ives is magnetic as he explains his own miserable youth, but Paul Newman barely survives some lame whining about getting "things" from his father instead of love -- it comes off like a bad TV drama about delinquency. Big Daddy hits him with the groaner, "I've got the guts to die, but do you have the guts to live?" From that point on we know things are going to going to be okay, which may not have been Tennessee Williams' original intention. Brooks and Poe would seem to be using the scene to realign the film with acceptable family values. The direction and acting in this sure-footed drama are uniformly remarkable throughout. Burl Ives and Madeleine Sherwood repeat from the stage and are masterful, although in Sherwood's case it's a thankless role. Her "sister-woman" Mae instantly reminds us of the most awful relative we've ever had to put up with. Elizabeth Taylor makes us forget any ideas we had about shortcomings in her acting ability. Even with the changes and all the MGM gloss, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof remains powerful and satisfying. For his ending, Richard Brooks wisely leaves the audience anticipating a movie star mating between his reunited Brick and Maggie. Warners' DVD of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a distinct improvement over the MGM disc issued in 1997 or 1998, with an enhanced transfer that benefits from technical and encoding advances. The color really pops in this edition; it's the first time I've seen the orange-red title background look attractive instead of sickly. William Daniels' rosy lighting flatters everyone and practically deifies Elizabeth Taylor as a heavenly vision; all she need do to seduce the cosmos is just 'be there.' The list of extras is short but strong. A new featurette, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: Playing Cat and Mouse spends most of its time with star talk on the set -- we get the full rundown on Ms. Taylor's mid-shooting tragedy when her husband Mike Todd was killed in an airplane crash. We hear a lot about how this picture was a big boost for Taylor and Paul Newman, but almost nothing about any of the other actors. When Madeleine Sherwood appears on camera, her comments are almost completely restricted to Ms. Taylor. Author Donald Spoto's commentary analyzes the drama in terms of Williams' larger career and investigates the story's guilty secrets and ironies. Maggie and Big Daddy are the only characters trying to get at the truth, and Brick's rejection of Maggie aligns neatly with Big Daddy's resentment of his wife Ida. Spoto also observes that the father-son angle emphasized by Richard Brooks to replace the play's sexual doubt, is more appropriate to Arthur Miller than Tennessee Williams. An original trailer is included as well. For more information about Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, visit Warner Video. To order Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, go to TCM Shopping. by Glenn Erickson

The Tennessee Williams Film Collection -- an eight-disc DVD set containing the acclaimed film adaptations of one of America's greatest playwrights - debuts April 11 from Warner Home Video. The collection features the long-awaited DVD debuts of Sweet Bird of Youth, Night of the Iguana, Baby Doll and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone along with a newly remastered two-disc Special Edition of A Streetcar Named Desire and single disc Deluxe Edition of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Also included is a bonus disc, the rarely seen feature-length documentary, Tennessee Williams' South. Bonus materials in this collection include new making-of documentaries for each film, plus expert commentaries, never before seen outtakes, rare screen tests with Brando, Rip Torn and Geraldine Page, a radio broadcast with Brando from 1947 and vintage featurettes. Exclusive to the collection is a special bonus disc, Tennessee Williams' South, a feature-length vintage documentary that includes remarkable interviews with Williams in and around New Orleans, plus great scenes from Williams' plays especially filmed for this documentary, including rare footage of Jessica Tandy as Blanche (the role she created in A Streetcar Named Desire) and Maureen Stapleton as Amanda in The Glass Menagerie. Williams -- from whose pen came stunning unforgettable characters, powerful portraits of the human condition and an incredible vision of life in the South -- stands with Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller as one of the three quintessentially eminent American playwrights. Thomas Lanier Williams was born in Columbus, Mississippi, on March 26, 1911 and his southern upbringing was reflected in the subjects, often based on family members, that he chose to write about. He published his first short story at the age of sixteen and his first great Broadway success was The Glass Menagerie, starring Laurette Taylor that won the New York Drama Critics' Circle award in 1945 as the best play of the season. Williams himself often commented on the violence in his own work, which to him seemed part of the human condition; he was conscious, also, of the violence in his plays. Critics who attacked the "excesses" of Williams' work often were making thinly veiled assaults on his sexuality. Homosexuality was not discussed openly at that time but in Williams' plays the themes of desire and isolation show, among other things, the influence of having grown up gay in a homophobic world. A Streetcar Named Desire A Streetcar Named Desire: 2-Disc Special Edition is a celebration of what is, perhaps, Williams' greatest masterpiece. This edition features three minutes of footage that was deleted from the final release version ( and thought lost until its rediscovery in the early 1990s) that underscores, among other things, the sexual tension between Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) and Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando), and Stella Kowalski's (Kim Hunter) passion for husband Stanley. The Legion of Decency required these scenes be cut in order for the film to be released. A Streetcar Named Desire depicts a culture clash between Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh), a pretentious, fading relic of the Old South, and Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando), a rising member of the industrial, inner-city immigrant class. Blanche is a Southern belle whose pretensions to virtue and culture only thinly mask her nymphomania and alcoholism. Arriving at the house of her sister Stella Kowalski (Kim Hunter), Stella fears Blanche's arrival will upset the balance of her relationship with her husband Stanley, a primal, rough-hewn, brutish and sensual force of nature. He dominates Stella in every way, and she tolerates his offensive crudeness and lack of gentility largely because of her sexual need for him. Stanley's friend and Blanche's would-be suitor Mitch (Karl Malden) is similarly trampled along Blanche and Stanley's collision course. Their final, inevitable confrontation results in Blanche's mental annihilation. The film won Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Karl Malden), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Vivien Leigh) , Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Kim Hunter), and Best Art Direction -- Set Decoration, Black-and-White. It was also nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Marlon Brando), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White, Best Director, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, Best Picture, Best Sound Recording and Best Writing, Screenplay. In 1999 the film was selected by the United States Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry. Special Features Disc One: - Commentary by Karl Malden and film historian Rudy Behlmer - Elia Kazan movie trailer gallery - Subtitles: English, Francais & Espanol (feature film only) Special Features Disc Two: - Movie and audio outtakes - Marlon Brando screen test - Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey documentary - 5 new insightful documentaries: o A Streetcar on Broadway o A Streetcar in Hollywood o Desire and Censorship o North and the South o An Actor Named Brando Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: REMASTERED DELUXE EDITION The raw emotions and crackling dialogue of Tennessee Williams' 1955 Pulitzer Prize play rumble like a thunderstorm in this film version whose fiery performances and grown-up themes made it one of 1958's top box-office hits. Paul Newman earned his first Oscar® nomination as troubled ex-sports hero Brick. In a performance that marked a transition to richer adult roles, Elizabeth Taylor snagged her second. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture. Also starring Burl Ives (repeating his Broadway triumph as mendacity-loathing Big Daddy), Judith Anderson and Jack Carson, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof sizzles. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is the story of a Southern family in crisis, focusing on the turbulent relationship between Maggie the Cat (Elizabeth Taylor) and Brick (Paul Newman), and their interaction with Brick's family over the course of a weekend gathering at the family estate. Brick, an aging football hero, has neglected his wife and further infuriates her by ignoring his brother's attempts to gain control of the family fortune. Although Big Daddy (Burl Ives) has cancer and will not celebrate another birthday, his doctors and his family have conspired to keep this information from him and his wife. His relatives are in attendance and attempt to present themselves in the best possible light, hoping to receive the definitive share of Big Daddy's enormous wealth. Oscar® nominations were for Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Actor (Newman); Best Actress (Taylor), Best Director (Richard Brooks) and Best Cinematography. Special Features: - Commentary by biographer Donald Spoto, author of The Kindness of Strangers: The Life of Tennessee Williams - New featurette Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: Somebody Up There Likes Him - Theatrical trailer - Languages: English & Francais - Subtitles: English, Francais & Espanol (feature film only) Sweet Bird of Youth Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Rip Torn, Madeleine Sherwood and Ed Begley recreated their stage roles in this bravura film version which featured Shirley Knight. Begley won Best Supporting Oscar® and Page and Knight were nominated. Sex, money, hypocrisy, financial and emotional blackmail are familiar elements in Williams' literary realm and combine powerfully in Sweet Bird of Youth as Chance (Newman) battles his private demons in a desperate bid to redeem his wasted life and recapture his lost sweet bird of youth. Handsome Chance Wayne (Newman) never found the Hollywood stardom he craved, but he's always been a star with the ladies. Now, back in his sleepy, sweaty Gulf Coast hometown, he's involved with two of them: a washed-up, drug-and-vodka-addled movie queen. And the girl he left behind…and in trouble. Special Features: - New featurette Sweet Bird of Youth: Broken Dreams and Damaged People - Never-before-seen Geraldine Page and Rip Torn screen test - Theatrical trailer - Languages: English & Francais - Subtitles: English, Francais & Espanol (feature film only) Night of the Iguana With an outstanding cast headed by Richard Burton, Ava Gardner and Deborah Kerr, direction by legendary John Huston and a steamy screenplay, Night of the Iguana pulses with conflicting passions and a surprising edge of knowing humor. Winner of one Academy Award and nominated for three more, the film explores the dark night of one man's soul - and illuminates the difference between dreams and the bittersweet surrender to reality. In a remote Mexican seacoast town, a defrocked Episcopal priest (Richard Burton), ruined by alcoholism and insanity, struggles to pull his shattered life together. And the three women in his life - an earthy hotel owner (Ava Gardner), an ethereal artist (Deborah Kerr) and a hot-eyed, willful teenager (Sue Lyons) - can help save him. Or destroy him. Shot just south of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, the tension-filled shoot put that small city on the map. Due in no small part to the presence of non-cast member Elizabeth Taylor, the shooting of the film during 1963 attracted large numbers of paparazzi, made international headlines, and in turn made Puerto Vallarta world-famous. Special Features: - Commentary by John Huston - New featurette The Night of the Iguana: Dangerous Creatures - Vintage featurette On the Trail of the Iguana - 1964 premiere highlights - Theatrical trailers - Languages: English & Francais - Subtitles: English, Francais & Espanol (feature film only) Baby Doll With Baby Doll, as with A Streetcar Named Desire, director Elia Kazan and writer Tennessee Williams broke new ground in depicting sexual situations - incorporating themes of lust, sexual repression, seduction, and the corruption of the human soul. Time magazine called the film "just possibly the dirtiest American-made motion picture that has ever been legally exhibited." The film caused a sensation in 1956, also earning condemnation by the then-powerful Legion of Decency and causing Cardinal Spellman to denounce Doll from his pulpit. Baby Doll earned laurels too: four Academy Award nominations, Golden Globe Awards for Baker and Kazan and a British Academy Award for Wallace. Watch this funny, steamy classic that, as Leonard Martin's Movie Guide proclaims, "still sizzles." The film centers around cotton-mill owner Archie (Karl Malden) who's going through tough times but at least has his luscious, child-bride (Carroll Baker) with whom he'll be allowed to consummate when she's 20. Rival Silva Vaccaro (Eli Wallach) thinks Archie may have set fire to his mill and takes an erotic form of Sicilian vengeance. Special Features: - New featurette Baby Doll: See No Evil - Baby Doll trailer gallery - Subtitles: English, Francais & Espanol (feature film only) The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone Widow Karen Stone is wealthy and beautiful. Her acting successes are a memory. She lives alone in a luxury apartment overlooking the Roman steps where romantic liaisons take place. And waits. She soon starts an affair with the young and expensive Paolo. Vivien Leigh and Warren Beatty are lady and lover in this tender adaptation of a Tennessee Williams novella directed by Broadway veteran Jose Quintero. Leigh won her second Oscar® for Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire; their reteaming creates a similar spell - at once romantic, sinister and nearly explosive. Adding spice to the combustion of the two leads are Best Supporting Actress Oscar® nominee Lotte Lenya as a Contessa who "arranges” romances in which she has a financial stake and Coral Browne as Karen's savvy best friend. Special Features: - New featurette The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone: I Can't Imagine Tomorrow - Theatrical trailer - Languages: English & Francais - Subtitles: English, Francais & Espanol (feature film only)