Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
100 %
Reviews Counted: 29 Fresh: 29 Rotten:0 Average Rating: 7.8/10
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins
Synopsis: This is the classic cinematic version of Tennessee Williams's breathtaking play about a crazed southern family torn apart by greed. Larger-than-life patriarch Big Daddy (Burl Ives) lays dying, and the members of his brood clamor for the inheritance. Paul Newman is Brick, the alcoholic son... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Judith Anderson, Jack Carson
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Reviews
The performances are the thing in this film version of the Tennessee Williams stage triumph, led by Ives, repeating his stage role like a force of nature.
Comment
04/08/08
Top Critic
Director Brooks skilfully elicits the best from his performers and script with the result that there were Oscars nominations for all concerned.
04/08/08
Burl Ives and Judith Anderson are highly entertaining as the nightmare parents, Big Daddy and Big Mama, and Jack Carson has one of his last good roles as Newman's competitive older brother.
04/08/08
Top Critic
Thematically, Richard Brooks' screen version of Williams' play is compromised (no mention of homosexuality), but it's well directed and deftly acted by Paul Newman and Liz Taylor (both at their sexiest), and especially Burl Ives as Big Daddy.
02/07/08
A mousetrap with teeth that grip and a musky atmosphere of frustrated sex and milky desperation that serves as poisoned bait.
06/26/06
As so often with adaptations of Williams, it frequently errs on the side of overstatement and pretension, but still remains immensely enjoyable as a piece of cod-Freudian codswallop.
06/24/06
...the dialogue is so absorbing and the acting so intense, we hardly notice that 108 minutes go by or that there is a whole lot less to the plot than meets the eye.
05/01/06
Still, this potentially over-scrubbed production kept enough of Williams' energy and poetic Americana intact, fleshing it up with an ensemble of career-imprinting performances and MGM production lavishness.
04/30/06
Top Critic
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