Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Name: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Genre: Drama
Released: August 29, 1958
Duration: 108 min
Rating: 84
Cast: Brian Corcoran, Burl Ives, Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Carson, Judith Anderson

1958

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 16 Critic Reviews

See All

USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Ratings

See All

7.6

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

7.6	Your Score
7.6	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Ratings

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Play Sound

Please enter your birth date to watch this video:

You are not allowed to view this material at this time.

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

Now Playing: Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

Movie Details & Credits

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) | Release Date: August 29, 1958 | TV-PG

Starring: Brian Corcoran, Burl Ives, Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Carson, Judith Anderson, Larry Gates, Madeleine Sherwood, Paul Newman, Vaughn Taylor, Zelda Cleaver

Summary: Brick, an alcoholic ex-football player, drinks his days away and resists the affections of his wife, Maggie. His reunion with his father, Big Daddy, who is dying of cancer, jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son.

Director: Richard Brooks

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: TV-PG

Runtime: 108 min

See All Details and Credits

Watch Now

Buy on

Stream On

Expand

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

100

Roger Ebert

A searing portrait of the human condition. [12 Oct 2007, p.B6]

100

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

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. Read full review

100

Bosley Crowther

Burl Ives, Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, Judith Anderson, Jack Carson and two or three more almost work and yell themselves to pieces making this drama of strife within a new-rich Southern family a ferocious and fascinating show. And what a pack of trashy people these accomplished actors perform! Read full review

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. Read full review

In his four earlier films, Williams seemed to need a warmup of two backward steps before he could take one step forward, but at least the movement was visible and real. This time, Adapter-Director Richard Brooks has been able to put very little motion in his motion picture. His Cat is a formaldehyded tabby that sits static while layer after layer of its skin is peeled off, life after life of its nine lives unsentimentally destroyed. But in Williams, Brooks has a rare playwright who can make his static electric, and a blinkered grope toward the past as suspenseful as a headlong crash into the future. Read full review

Empire Bob McCabe

Two of cinema's most iconic stars on top form make this worth a good look. Read full review

Josh Larsen

The performances are sweltering...This isn’t a good thing. Yes, it’s fitting for the setting – a humid, suffocating Louisiana mansion where the family of an ailing tycoon (Burl Ives) connives to inherit his fortune – but the overall result is like watching a melodrama in a sauna. It’s just too much. Read full review

SEE ALL 16 REVIEWS

Write a Review

Negative:

User Reviews

FilipeNeto

Jan 29, 2021

This film is based on an interesting play by Tennessee Williams, that has already become a classic of American theater. Therefore, I believe that expectations for the film were high, when it opened, for the Anglophone audience. For me, who do not know the work of Williams, it is different: IThis film is based on an interesting play by Tennessee Williams, that has already become a classic of American theater. Therefore, I believe that expectations for the film were high, when it opened, for the Anglophone audience. For me, who do not know the work of Williams, it is different: I cannot compare the film with a book I have never read or a play I have never seen.

The script focuses on a birthday party at the southern plantation of Big Daddy. The party brings the whole family together because it is known that he will die soon, but that is something that everyone decided to hide from him. He has two children: Gooper, the youngest son, has always done everything his father wanted, married a self-interested woman and has a collection of annoying children; on the other hand, Brick is the opposite, having never had an easy relationship with his father. Alcoholic due to a past hurt and a failed sports career, he married the beautiful Maggie "the Cat", whom no one in the house seems to like. When Big Daddy returns from the hospital, convinced that he is in good health, he takes the opportunity to say a lot of what he always thought to each one of those present. This will be the catalyst for many family secrets to be revealed or unearthed.

I found the film quite interesting because of the way it plays with a trivial family moment - a birthday party - to create a real family drama. I don't need to read Williams' book to believe that the film was faithful to him: even without having done so, I give credit to the screenwriter's work, even though I know that certain aspects, such as allusions to homosexuality, have been greatly diminished. However, I did not understand why Maggie is called (or calls herself) "Cat", even though I understand that she does not feel desired by her husband.

The film has a luxurious and notable cast, which does very well both for the effort and the quality of its dialogues. Burl Ives is noteworthy for the effort with which he embodies his character, but Paul Newman is not far behind and is excellent in the way he gives Brick more pain, more psychological intensity than one might expect. Elizabeth Taylor, alongside her, obtains with this film one of the most iconic interpretations of her career, although the character is quite secondary in the story told. She can make Maggie a pleasant character, who is deeply interested, but she can be human and have a big heart too. She establishes a collaboration and chemistry with Newman that is admirable. Jack Carson and Madeleine Sherwood are quite competent in their roles.

Technically, it is a very restrained film, leaving the actors' interpretation to speak for itself. Cinematography is extraordinarily beautiful for a film so many years old, the colors are vivid and the light was very well-used, like rain and night, with a storm outside to accompany the storm that unfolded inside. The costumes and sets are very good, the house looks a lot like the plantation of Twelve Oakes, from "Gone With The Wind". The soundtrack fulfills its role.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

gracjanski

Jan 23, 2022

Nice story about hypocrisy and lies in a rich family. Great acting by Ives, Taylor and Newman. But the movie exaggerate the amount of dialogues and there is drama all the time. It reminds to a soap opera.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

SEE ALL 2 REVIEWS