Movie Review - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

Starring Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, and Burl Ives

Directed by Richard Brooks

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Seeing as how the only Elizabeth Taylor movie I'd seen prior to today had been The Flintstones, I figured I'd better make reparations with what some would call a heinous cinematic crime by watching one of the recently deceased star's more revered works.

Without a doubt, even after viewing just one movie of hers (because, let's face it, the less one thinks about The Flintstones, the better), it's easy to see why she became a movie star.  One, she's stunning onscreen.  The camera loves her in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  She draws your eye to her in every scene.  Second, and perhaps more important, she's a pretty darn good actress.  As modern Southern belle Maggie, she exudes bitchiness and prissiness.  However, you get the odd sense that Maggie is the only character onscreen who is being truthful with all of her feelings which allows the audience to connect with her rather than distance themselves from her.

Family secrets are the underlying basis of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof's story and the film certainly has the aire of 1950s melodrama so prevalent in films back then.  Buoyed by Taylor's great performance and a similarly nice turn from Paul Newman as Maggie's alcoholic husband Brick, who, like his name implies, doesn't allow his emotions to show, the actors elevate the film beyond the corny vibe that easily could have overtaken this piece.  Tennessee Williams can certainly write some great dialog (although he's not credited in writing the screenplay here), but he does have a tendency to layer the emotions and drama on pretty thick.  Don't get me wrong, I've liked mostly every Williams piece I've seen/read, but his depiction of "family" isn't exactly "normal," and, if you're not in the mood for him, his work could seem laughably absurd.

That wasn't the case for me here, though, as I bought into the tale.  Unfortunately, the movie's not without faults.  I felt that the character of Brick simply doesn't work for the first half of the film.  Newman admirably tries to create a persona for the guy, but the character is such a one-note crotchety grump for fifty minutes, that I had difficulty finding any type of personality in the character.  Of course, there is an emotional arc that Brick eventually takes part in, but it took a tad long to get there.  I don't place the fault in Newman, however, it would be interesting to see another take on this to see if Newman's to blame or the character itself is just a tad flawed.

Similarly, I can't say I was a huge fan of Burl Ives' portrayal of Big Daddy.  Even though I'd never seen a staging of the play before, the character of "Big Daddy" is somewhat of a literary icon in that I knew a whole lot about the backstory of the character before the movie even started.  That larger than life ideal that I had set up for myself just didn't mesh with the performance of Burl Ives.

Still, as an introduction to Elizabeth Taylor, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was a good choice.  She is quite the scene-stealer and certainly carries this film on her shoulders (which, considering the talent that is Paul Newman, is surprising).

The RyMickey Rating:  B