Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
Elizabeth Taylor is gorgeous (besides giving some of her best adult acting) in this Richard Brooks/James Poe interpretation of Tennessee Williams’s stunning play that reveals truths about mendacity days gone by and family power struggles. Director Brooks also got compelling performances from Paul Newman and Burl Ives. Newman Taylor Director-writer Brooks as well as the film and William Daniels’s (The Naked City (1948)) Color Cinematography were all Oscar nominated. Jack Carson and Judith Anderson also play significant roles; Larry Gates & Vaughn Taylor also appear.
Brick (Newman) and Gooper (Carson) are sons of "Big Daddy" Pollit (Ives). Brick is the favored son a former football star but now a drunk who’s married to "Maggie the Cat" (Taylor). Maggie caters to Big Daddy and desperately loves her despondent husband. Gooper the son that’s actually made something of himself has a chip on his shoulder. He and his wife Mae Flynn (Madeleine Sherwood) try to gain control of dying Big Daddy’s estate. Big Daddy married to Big Momma (Anderson) "ruled" all the members of his family with an iron fist while he built his empire and manipulated events in their lives.