Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Don't throw anything at me, but I think the 1984 version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is better than the 1958 original. Without the constraints of the Production Code, this live televised version was able to showcase Tennessee Williams's story as he wrote it. When Paul Newman skulked around mourning his pal, we just didn't understand why. With Tommy Lee Jones, we see his pain, conflict, and shame - and we're told why. In case you're unfamiliar with the story, I won't spoil it for you.

Jessica Lange is lovely as Maggie the Cat, a sensual and frustrated lady who can't understand why her husband would rather mope around than sleep with her. He has a broken leg; what else does he have to do around the house? As she and Tommy Lee spar off each other, you know you're in the presence of professionals. These are serious actors who can make the best of a very simple story. Of Williams's plays, this is not my favorite. But with Jessica, Tommy Lee, and Rip Torn as Big Daddy, this is as good as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof will get. Sometimes filmed plays feel a little stage-y, but this one is very good. The only thing stage-y about it is Williams's script, and the actors are not at fault.

Forget The watered down film version from 1958. forget the ridiculous tacked on "happy" ending between Newman and a Miscast Liz Taylor...This is the ultimate film version of Williams greatest play. The screenplay is direct from William's outstanding revised 1974 text with one of the greatest ending scenes in theatre history. Tommy Lee Jones has never been better than as the alcoholic Brick Pollitt. Jessica Lange is so sexy,manipulative and tortured as Maggie that you don't know if you want to hit her or make love to her. the agony put forth in these two characters manifests itself to perfection in these perfect actors.

As wonderful as Jones and Lange are, they are still outdone by Rip Torn as Big Daddy. 'He's never turned gentleman." Maggie says of her father-in-law and thats the honest truth in Torn's magnetic,engaging and touching performance. His Act II scene with Brick is some of the best screen acting I have ever witnessed. Kim Stanley gives us a very human and warm Big Mamma, unlike Judith Anderson's cold matriarch in the 1958 version and Penny Fuller and David Dukes ooze bile as the Greedy Gooper and Mae. This is a film to be watched over and over. Finally a CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF on screen William's could be proud of !

When I watched Maggie/Jessica Lange do that long all-in-one-breath monologue telling Brick how everybody loved him, I said to myself This has got to be the high point in American Theater. It was one great sustained crescendo. It is most incredible that it goes unnoticed.

I have an extraordinary attachment to this play. Aside from being my all-time favorite, which I have read at least fifty times, I was also cast as Big Daddy for an attempted high school production, which, fittingly enough for the history of the play, I suppose, was cancelled and replaced with something "more appropriate" under pressure from the school's administration. I saw the original Newman-Taylor version after reading it the first few times, but had heard a lot of raving that the 1958 film was horrible and that this was worlds better. I found a laser-disc copy and watched it this afternoon. I definitely have more complaints with this performance than I expected. I personally wish that the Rip Torn of 'The Insider' and 'Wonder Boys' had been present in the role of Big Daddy, rather than the version I saw, who despite playing the role with an enormous passion, produced a performance which saw his accent slide all over the place, from a few moments of European immigrant on one misguided extreme to Chris Kattan's incomprehensible sketches on SNL at another, the original lines by Tennessee Williams often escape him, and overall, it results in a very streaky and inconsistent characterization. Perhaps this is a result of being filmed live, or perhaps it's a Rip Torn without an additional fifteen years of experience. Jessica Lange also turned in an impassioned role, but she also seemed rather inconsistent. I actually longed for a little of Liz Taylor's cattiness in the first act, but the play as a whole I preferred Lange. My only quibble with Tommy Lee Jones was that he did not seem to make a decision whether Brick was indeed homosexual or not, which I think is important, because the issue of homosexuality, although the most controversial aspect, is not so crucial to the play as the issues of mendacity dissolving his friendship with Skipper. The two are interrelated, but while the belief that Skipper was homosexual would cause him to question his own sexuality, there were times when Jones seemed to actually believe the allegations, moreso than I would have expected from the character. Gooper, Mae, and Big Mama all were the finest I've seen those roles played. The other complaint was with some of the production values. I was glad that it was done realistically rather than expressionistically as Kazan first directed it on Broadway, but the liquor cabinet and bed are supposed to both have an awesome presence on the room, and neither does in this film, nor does the bedroom have the quality of "pale light on weathered wood" Williams specified in the production notes. Also, Big Daddy's entrance in a baseball cap seemed entirely out of place. Worst, however, was the soft-focus quality of the camera. There are some questionable directorial decisions, things I think could have been staged better, but the essence of the play shines through, and most importantly, the third act is nearly flawless. The passionate conflicts that Williams weaves together are communicated, and the play is so good that nearly any group, probably even my little high school troupe, could have moved an audience, even if not displaying master craft.

Hello from Joe Bonelli-- a native Mississippian and actor who performs as Tennessee Williams in a one-man show (not an "impersonator" gig). The one-star review of this "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" by a know-nothing here states that maybe that person doesn't understand or appreciate "over the top southern drama." You got it!! This version of the original Williams script, butchered by Hollywood in 1958-- good film, but NOT "Cat"-- is dead on. Tommy Lee Jones, a Texas native, is, in this version, the best Brick I've ever seen. This part is probably the most difficult male role in the Williams' canon and Tommy Lee pulls it off admirably. I like Jessical Lange very much but do not consider her quite right for this, for Blanche in "Streetcar" (which she also plays in a version that doesn't really work well) or Amanda in "Glass Menagerie" (which she is to play on Broadway in early 2005). Rip Torn and the late, lamented Kim Stanley are excellent in their roles and Williams-- who admired both immensely-- would, I believe, have approved. Now don't get me wrong-- there are some fine aspects to the Hollywood film and good performances all around (especially from the brilliant Burl Ives, recreating his Broadway original, and Madeline Sherwood as Sister Woman (Mae)-- ditto!) But the constraints of the Hollywood Production Code really hurt what could have been a true classic. By the way, Williams appreciated the performances of both Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman in the Hollywood bowdlerized version-- as do I. It would have been wonderful to see how these great stars/actors would have handled the original script. I suggest that the writer who doesn't "understand or appreciate over-the-top southern drama" stick to prettily-cast sanitized Hollywood adaptations of great plays and true-to-the-original films of them-- and pass on handing out uninformed opinions about the real thing. You don't have to like a play or a performance-- but you DO need to know something about it before you dismiss fine writing and acting.