CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF
US, 1958, 115 minutes, Colour.
Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, Burl Ives, Judith Anderson, Jack Carson.
Directed by Richard Brooks.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a Tennessee Williams play about a Southern U.S. family of the newly rich. Big Daddy has worked his way to wealth by turning a swamp into a plantation. He married a Southern belle and had two sons. He still exerts some hold over them which their wives do not understand or resent. The film focuses principally on one couple, Brick and Maggie, and the sensitive, nervous Maggie is called a cat on a hot tin roof.
Family relationships, frustrated love (especially between Brick and. Maggie and between Brick and Big Daddy), lies (called 'mendacity' in the film), the threat of death, these are the major themes that Williams weaves into his play. The action takes place mainly inside the house and is, to some extent, stagey. However the performances are excellent, even if the screenplay makes them at times melodramatic. Direction is by Richard Brooks who has since brought to the screen versions of noted literature, including The Brothers Karamazov, Lord Jim and In Cold Blood. Some stylistic techniques, especially the final sequence, are dated but this is a good film.
1. To whom does the title refer and why?
2. What are the main themes of the film? What are the words that are continually repeated throughout the film?
3. Maggie as central character: why is she nervy, jumpy, unhappy? Is it her fault? Why does Brick loathe her? What should she have done to bring them together move?
4. Greed and possession is a theme that comes to the fore.
- Big Daddy; his hard work changing a swamp into a plantation: his love of life, style, possessions; his attitude towards his sons,
- Big Momma: a southern belle, a necessary but gaudy marriage; her trip abroad and her souvenirs; being made a fool of by Big Daddy; clinging to him for security; her fuss about him.
- Cooper: doing what he was told by father and by wife; coldly legal with common sense; trying to impress his father for his wife and children.
- Maggie: ambitious for money or love, "but "hoping for love.
- Brick.: self-pre-occupied, not ambitious or greedy, resenting the hold Big Daddy has had over him.
5. Mendacity - a word that is repeated in the film:
- Big Daddy: did he deceive? not loving Big Momma? Deceived about his death? His -fading of it without morphine.
- The family - their deceiving of Big Daddy and Big Momma about his death; their lies about their motives, ambitions, greed.
- Maggie lying about being pregnant - happiness seems to be based on a lie.
What other scenes were important for this theme of truth and mendacity? How does the truth hurt?
6. What does the film show of marriage and true love? Discuss the relationships between Brick and Maggie, Cooper and his wife, Big Daddy and Big Momma. How much love and hatred is there in each?
7. Death and fear of death: what does the film show of this? Discuss each character's attitude towards Big Daddy's death.
8. What was Brick's relationship to Skipper? Who depends on whom? Why did Skipper die? What was Brick's responsibility? How did this relationship spoil Brick's love for Maggie? How is the love resolved?
9. Discuss the impact and meaning of Brick's and Big Daddy's discussion in the cellar.
10. Is the resolution satisfactory? Does the film offer true hope for Brick and Maggie?
