Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958 film)
1958 film by Richard Brooks From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1958 film by Richard Brooks From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a 1958 American drama film directed by Richard Brooks[3][4] (who co-wrote the screenplay with James Poe) based on the 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by Tennessee Williams. The film stars Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Jack Carson and Judith Anderson.
| Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster by Reynold Brown | |
| Directed by | Richard Brooks |
| Screenplay by |
|
| Based on | Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1955 play by Tennessee Williams |
| Produced by | Lawrence Weingarten |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | William Daniels |
| Edited by | Ferris Webster |
| Music by | Charles Wolcott (uncredited) |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
|
Running time | 108 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2.3 million[2] |
| Box office | $17.6 million[2] |
Well-received by both critics and audiences, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was MGM's most successful release of 1958, and became the third highest-grossing film of that year.
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.
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-destroyance 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.
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]
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]
"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.
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 received six Academy Award nominations but no awards. Best Picture went to Gigi (another Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production). The same night, Burl Ives won Best Supporting Actor for The Big Country.
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]
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