June Butler looks back at Richard Brooks’ classic 1958 American drama with Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman.
Directed by Richard Brooks, (who also co-wrote the screenplay with James Poe), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was based on Tennessee Williams’ 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name. Released in 1958, it was the third highest-grossing film in that year.
Opening scenes of the film show Brick Pollitt (Paul Newman), the younger son of Harvey ‘Big Daddy’ Pollitt (Burl Ives), attempting to drunkenly jump hurdles with a bottle of spirits in his hand. He miscalculates, crashing into the dirt and breaks his ankle. The following day, Brick nonchalantly lies on a sofa in the bedroom of a large colonial style house, swilling whisky and smoking a cigarette. His wife, Maggie, (Elizabeth Taylor) drives up to the house in a sporty open-top Ford Fairlane and parks just outside the main door. In the foreground, trestle tables are laden with food and drink in anticipation of Big Daddy’s birthday party. Brick’s older brother, Cooper ‘Gooper’ (Jack Carson), reads a newspaper while he ignores one of his five children plunging her hands into a container of ice cream and trifle.
Several of Gooper’s other children march trying to perform a melody under the watchful eyes of conductor Mae ‘Sister Woman’ Pollitt (Madeleine Sherwood), Gooper’s wife. That is until a handful of ice cream flung in her direction. Afterwards Maggie storms up to her room and tells an unconcerned Brick about the incident, pointing out in the process that it is common knowledge Big Daddy is dying. She insists that Mae and Gooper are trying to capitalise on this fact and attempting to persuade Big Daddy to leave the lion’s share of his money to the pair. Maggie is adamant this is the reason why the duo has so many children and are going on to have more. There is a degree of jealousy from Maggie as she yearns for a baby, but Brick is not interested in being intimate with her, suggesting instead that she take a lover. This conversation between Brick and Maggie is tense and hints at an event that Maggie is seeking redemption for.
The family wait in a private airfield for the arrival of Big Daddy’s private plane. Ida ‘Big Mama’ Pollitt (Judith Anderson) and their doctor, Dr. Baugh (Larry Bates) emerge first before finally, Big Daddy descends the stairs, visibly irritated with the cacophony of the children’s ‘band’. He brightens when he sees Maggie, selecting to travel back with her. Big Daddy queries why Maggie and Brick have not yet had a child.
A central premise of the film, explored through Daddy’s state of being, is his perceived omnipotence and core masculinity. When this component is threatened, Big Daddy becomes cornered and hostile. He starts to verbally lash out at those he deems weaker than himself – Mae Pollitt is repeatedly referred to as ‘Sister Woman’, a marginally insulting nickname that seems to indicate Big Daddy simply cannot be bothered to recall his daughter in law’s name. He sees Brick, ahead of Gooper, as his natural successor. In later interactions with her husband, Maggie tries to talk to Brick about the exceptionally close bond he shared with a high school friend called Skipper. Convinced that Skipper was not a true ally, Maggie decides to seduce him in the hopes that Brick will recognise this. However her plans don’t go smoothly, and come at a great cost. Meanwhile, when the household learns of Big Daddy’s grim prognosis, and the internal structure of the family starts to disintegrate, dividing into two factions.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is manifestly first and foremost a play – Burl Ives and Madeleine Sherwood transferred from the theatre and continued their roles on screen. There are key differences, however, with the core narrative in the play focussing on Brick and Skipper’s relationship. Plainly, Brick was in a romantic relationship with Skipper. In the movie version, this aspect is nullified as Maggie bewails Brick’s handsome good looks and wishes drink would lessen his male beauty. Brick is essentially being fetishised for his perfection – a masculine ideal to be admired only by other men – a realm of faultlessness where female loveliness holds no sway. By contrast, the play however, mirrors Williams’ own early life where his clumsy relationships with women were fraught and unsuccessful. America between the late 1940s through the 1960s, was hugely conflicted by its conservative views on homosexuality. On one side, there was the Homophile Movement – a group that started to raise ever more strident voices in support of gay men and women. On the other, outrageously so, the Lavender Scare saw thousands of men (and women) fired from government service primarily because of their homosexuality. There existed a moral panic about gay men and lesbians during the McCarthy era of ‘Reds under the bed’ which amounted to a witch hunt. No surprises therefore when the homosexual theme in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was tamped down by director Richard Brooks.
It is also interesting to note in 1955, the same year as Tennessee Williams’ play was first run, Patricia Highsmith wrote The Talented Mr. Ripley about a love triangle between two men and a woman – much like Brick, Skipper, and Maggie. In Highsmith’s book, the anti-hero, Tom Ripley is accused of being ‘queer’, a charge he refutes with heated objections. Highsmith’s book reflects sexuality bound by death and mayhem – a trope that appears to be lessened and subdued in the film version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof but is nonetheless there if you look hard enough. In Richard Brooks’ adaptation, Skipper exists solely to explain the tension between Maggie and Brick. Skipper’s role is therefore key, but only as a plot device to move the story along and for no other reason.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is one of those films where everyone recalls the first time they saw it. It is a testimony to the human spirit and the ability to overcome tragedy and heartbreak – from a moral void and near self-destruction, comes hope, promise, and rebirth.
