COMMUNICATION I40 INTRODUCTION TO FILM STUDIES

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) Producedby LawrenceWeingarten for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.Directed by RichardBrooks. Written by Richard Brooks and JamesPoe, from the play by TennesseeWilliams. Photographedby William H. Daniels.Edited by Fenis Webster. Music by CharlesWolcott. With ElizabethTaylor (Maggie Pollitt), PaulNewman (Brick Pollitt), Burl Ives (Big Daddy Pollitt), JackCarson (Gooper Pollitt), Judith Anderson(Big Mama Pollitt), MadeleineSherwood (Mae Pollitt), Larry Gates (Dr. Baugh),Vaughn Taylor (DeaconDavis).

An all-fired lot of high-poweredacting is done in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,film versionof the TennesseeWilliams stageplay, which cameto the [Radio City] Music Hall yesterday.Burl lves, PaulNewman, Elizabeth Taylor, JudithAnderson, Jack Carsonand two or three more almostwork andyell themselvesto piecesmaking this dramaof strife within a new-rich Southernfamily a ferociousand fascinatingshow.

And what a pack of trashypeople these accomplished actors perform! Sucha lot of grossand greedycharacters haven't gone pastsince Lillian Hellman's TheLittle Foxeswent that way. The whole time is spentby them in wrangling over a dying man's anticipatedestate or telling one anotherquite frankly what sort of so-and-so'sthey think the othersare.

As a straightexercise in spewingvenom and flinging dirty linen on a line, this fine Metro-Coldwyn-Mayerproduction in color would be hardto beat.It is doneby superiortalents, under the driving directionof RichardBrooks, making eventhe driest scenesdrip poison with that strong,juicy Williams dialogue.And beforethe tubs full of pent-upfury, suspicionand hatred are drained, every major performer in the company has had a chanceto play at least one bang-up scene.

The fattest and juiciest opportunities go to Mr. Newman, Miss Taylor and Mr. Ives as the son, his wife and the former's father (the Big Daddy ofthe lot), respectively. In their frequent and assorted€ncounters, they have chances,together and in pairs,to discourseand lasheach other's feelingsover the severalproblems of the family.

First there is the private problem of why this son and his wife do not have any children and, indeed, why the young man shunshis wife. Why doeshe spendhis time boozing,hobbling aroundhis bedroomon a crutch and reviling his wife, who quite obviously hasthe proclivitiesof that cat on the roof?

And, secondly,why doesthis young fellow resentand resisthis old man, who as obviously wantsto be palswith him and leavehim his estateif he will only havekids?

Let it be said, quite frankly, that the ways in which theseproblems are solved do not representsupreme achievements of ingenuityor logic in dramaticart. Mr. Williams' original stageplay hasbeen altered considerably, especially in offering explanationof why the son is as he is. Now, a complicatedbusiness of hero-worshiphas been put by Mr. Brooks and James Poe in place of a strong suggestionof homosexuality in the play.

No wonder the baffled father,in trying to find out what gives,roars with indignation:"something's missinghere!"

It is, indeed.And somethingis missingin the dramatist'sglib accountof how the son getstogether with his father in one easydiscourse on love. But what is lacking in logical conflict is madeup in visual and verbal displaysof vulgar and violent emotions by everybody concerned.

Mr. Newman is perhapsthe most resourcefuland dramatically restrainedof the lot. He gives an ingratiating picture of a tortured and.tested young man. Miss Taylor is next. She is terrific as a panting, impatient wife, wanting the love of her husbandas sincerely as she wants an inheritance.Mr. Ives snorts and roars with gusto, Miss Anderson claws the air as his wife, and lvlr. Carson squirms and howls atrocious English as their greedy, deceitful older son. Madeleine Sherwood does a fine job arsthe latter's cheap,child-heavy wife and a quartet of unidentified youngstersinsult the human race as their brats.

Lawrencr; Weingarten's production is lush with extravagance,which is thoroughly appropriateto the nature of Cat on a Hot Tin Rool .

--BosleyCrowther, New York Times,Sept. 19, 1958