Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Directed by: Richard Brooks - 1 hour, 48 minutes - 1958 - USA - Color - HDTV source - 1.85:1
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Jack Carson, Judith Anderson, Madeleine Sherwood

Brick and Maggie are a married couple home to visit Brick’s family, who are gathered to await results for patriarch Big Daddy’s cancer test. Brick is a former football star who’s become a sport announcer, and who has taken to drinking since the death of his teammate and best friend Skipper. Brick has broken his ankle attempting some late-night drunken high hurdling the night before, and hobbles from couch to bar as Maggie tries to find out what’s bothering him. The rest of the family waits on the test results, with sibling Brother Man and his wife Sister Woman eager to show off their five awful children, hoping to show their worthiness to inherit the family millions over Brick and Maggie, who are childless. And everyone except Brick fawns over Big Daddy, a gruff and proud bull of a man who barely tolerates his family’s nonsense.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is based on the 1955 play by Tennessee Williams, adapted for the screen by director Brooks and James Poe. Williams was unhappy with the adaptation, which removed the play’s direct references to homosexuality in order to pass the Hays Code, the industry’s self-imposed rules governing Hollywood films at the time. The picture went on to receive Academy Award nominations in nearly every major category, including Best Picture, Actor, Actress, and Director, though it failed to win any.

Trailer
IMDB page
Bosley Crowther review (New York Times, 1958)