Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
An alcoholic ex-football player drinks his days away, having failed to come to terms with his sexuality and his real feelings for his football buddy who died after an ambiguous accident. His wife is crucified by her desperation to make him desire her: but he resists the affections of his wife. His reunion with his father—who is dying of cancer—jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a masterclass in psychological tension drawn from Tennessee Williams's explosive stage play. The plot crackles with repressed desire, mortality, greed, and denial — layered and genuinely complex. The acting is exceptional: Paul Newman's tortured Brick and Elizabeth Taylor's incandescent Maggie anchor a cast that includes Burl Ives reprising his commanding Big Daddy. The cinematography is competent and handsome in the MGM studio style but unremarkable — it serves the material without elevating it visually. Novelty is moderate: the film is a faithful adaptation of a celebrated play, and while the subject matter was daring for its era (the coded homosexuality, the psychological realism), it remains firmly within prestige literary adaptation conventions. The ending is somewhat softened from Williams's darker theatrical vision due to studio pressure, which mutes its impact — satisfying enough dramatically but a compromise that slightly undermines the preceding intensity.