i-40312 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof shows incredible quanlification on Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor's performance.During watching this film,one who appreciates it must contribute adequate concentration to their expression.

Larissa Pierry (tangietangerine) There's a certain feel and boldness to this story that makes us simply sure we're talking about another wonderful work by Tennessee Williams. When I started watching the film, I had no idea it was based on his play, later on when I found out, it made total sense. He always seems to treat taboo questions in a very open and artistic manner (in a similar way to "A Streetcar Named Desire"). This one deals with a very strong patriarch figure inside the family, "Big Daddy" Pollitt, it's not only a pet name, it's also an indicative of his size and place inside the family tree. And he is a hard-headed figure, who imposes his opinions no matter what, a question of obeying the law.The main affected by this tyranny seems to be Paul Newman's character, Brick Pollitt. We meet him as a recovering alcoholic and ex-football player, in a most iconic scene beside Elizabeth Taylor. From the first moment we learn he has some kind of animosity towards his perfectly beautiful wife, the sexual undertones are present at all times. It's instigating, why shouldn't any perfectly normal and handsome husband feel sexually attracted to his perfectly beautiful wife? Hence the genius name of the movie, she feels like a cat on a hot tin roof. Those questions are soon brought to us through Big Daddy's (and the rest of the family) interference in their relationship. The scenes where he and Brick discuss over the motives for his bitterness over life are simply amazing. There's a mixture of sexual frustration, paternal repression, and some level of homosexual affection going on. There's also Big Daddy's health condition, he seems to be ill and his prognosis not so good. Brick in a way wishes him to die, at times it seems like that's the only way he could ever grab domain of his own life again.Although waved to us, full answers are never given (especially the nature of Brick's relationship with his late friend, plus Maggie's involvement in it), because we only have access to a small fraction of that family's feuds, when the (never harmonious) system is already in decadence. The end features an interesting turn of events, the father and son conflict finds some kind of relief, perhaps in the light of nostalgia and death approaching. And so does Brick's relationship with Maggie, the cat, the last scene boasts with lust as we watch their reconciliation as Paul Newman delivers the line: "Maggie, we're through with lies and liars in this house. Lock the door."

Rich Wright I think considering the amazingness of this feature, I can overlook the blatant animal cruelty espoused in the title.People are fragile things. Even the smallest incident can cause the most sturdy amongst us to break. Man, the people we see here have some SERIOUS issues. There's Paul Newman, as a permanently soused retired sports star, who seems to not only have given up on his dreams, but his life too. Elizabeth Taylor his wife... she stays with him, tries to help him... even though he can't stand her. Why? An unfortunate incident involving Newman's best friend. You'll see.Also along for the ride are Newman's dad, a wealthy landowner who might have millions in cash but doesn't give a hoot about things like love. He appears to have a terminal illness, which inevitably causes friction between Newman and his brother... a decent sort of chap, but utterly dominated by his harridan of a missus, who seems to be bringing up the five most obnoxious children in existence (all used as parleying chips to get Big Daddy's land and money, of course). Actually, it would be more truthful to say it's Taylor who cares about the inheritance... Newman is content to just live out his days staring at the bottom of a bottle.As our troubled cast argue and bicker, coming to terms with the past and trying to see a brighter future, I was mesmerized by every aspect of this production. What seem to be quite simple individuals are quickly revealed to have many hidden depths, and it's this level of complexity which makes watching this so pleasurable. People CAN change and grow in the course of one evening, particularly if they're intelligent enough to talk it out like adults and see where they went wrong. There isn't a single wasted line of dialogue here or a scene that feels unnecessary. Paul Newman is outstanding, Elizabeth Taylor is luminous, and the rest embody their roles with the sort of professionalism you'd expect from a classic Silver Screen feature. Which this clearly is.Spectacular. 8/10

JohnHowardReid I tend to be a bit suspicious of pictures that came to our shores after a great deal of overseas pre-release ballyhoo. True, movies like "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" did take in a wonderful amount of money, but usually not enough to match their domestic gross or land them in our top twenty. Word-of-mouth usually turned against these movies too. Whilst they often chalked up respectable city seasons, they usually died in the suburbs and ended up playing to empty houses in rural areas. My latest estimate: Boring. A few sexual references may have titillated patrons in 1959, but they certainly don't keep this dreary, photographed-stage-play alive more than fifty years later. Despite sterling efforts by most of the players, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" emerges as a dull, slow-moving picture, peopled with dull, painstakingly torpid caricatures mouthing dull, tediously uninteresting dialogue. We don't care a hoot why Newman isn't shacking up with Taylor. She's such a relentlessly brow-beating, yakkety-yakking shrew, we don't blame him for taking refuge in the bottle.The photographer tries hard to make Liz look glamorous, but he has his work cut out for him. Brooks' relentlessly routine direction with its monotonous parade of gormless close-ups doesn't help either. Nor do the very limited production values perk up any interest. Except for a few minutes of location filming, this picture is unadventurously tied to the Hollywood sound stage. The movie's theatre origins are also all too obvious. And then, to add insult to injury, what M-G-M has done is to take the guts right out of it. Symbolism is used with all the subtlety of a meat cleaver. Music is no asset either. The composer missed a grand opportunity to send the whole thing up by playing "That Old Feeling" under Taylor's constant whinges and "Ida" under Anderson's melodramatics.Finally, the ending. After Newman's endless talk of the sins of "mendacity" (don't worry, the word is defined for the benefit of those picturegoers who are not walking dictionaries), this ridiculous, negating-everything-that-has-gone-before-cop-out of a conclusion really puts the lid on this Cat.