Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Deluxe Edition)

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Elizabeth Taylor has never been sexier than as Tennessee Williams's hot-blooded Maggie "The Cat" Pollitt, prowling around her boudoir in a slinky white slip. That's how you know her alcoholic, ex-football-player husband, Brick (Paul Newman), must have more than just his leg in a cast. It's the 65th birthday of wealthy (but dying) southern patriarch Big Daddy (Burl Ives), and his sons Gooper (Jack Carter) and Brick have come to suck up to him for $10 million in inheritance money. Gooper is a family man and father to a brood of "no-neck monsters"; youngest boy Brick is papa's favorite (as if you couldn't tell from the fellow's names), but hasn't sired progeny. Maggie is definitely in heat, but Brick refuses to sleep with her because he suspects her her of being unfaithful with his best friend, who recent committed suicide. Although toned down for the movies, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is vintage Tennessee Williams. The film was directed by Richard Brooks (In Cold Blood, Blackboard Jungle, Elmer Gantry). --Jim Emerson

Description

"I'm not living with you," Maggie snaps at Brick. "We occupy the same cage, that's all." The raw emotions and crackling dialogue of Tennessee Williams' 1955 Pulitzer Prize play rumble like a thunderstorm in this film version whose fiery performances and grown-up themes made it one of 1958's top box-office hits. Paul Newman earned his first OscarO nomination* as troubled ex-sports hero Brick. In a performance that marked a transition to richer adult roles, Elizabeth Taylor snagged her second. Her Maggie the Cat is a vivid portrait of passionate loyalty. Nominated for six Academy AwardsO including Best Picture* and also starring Burl Ives (repeating his Broadway triumph as mendacity-loathing Big Daddy), Judith Anderson and Jack Carson, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof sizzles.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Commentary by Biographer Donald Spoto, Author of The Kindness of Strangers: The Life of Tennessee Williams
Featurette:? New Featurette Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: Playing Cat and Mouse

Customer Reviews:

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.......2007-08-23

Outstanding movie with paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor. One of my all time favorites. The quality of the DVD is excellent

Not as good as I expected..........2007-07-14

I wanted to like this movie more than I did, but alas, I couldn't. Don't get me wrong; the acting was brilliant, the characters were likable and the dialogue was good, but there were some boring parts at times. I wish this movie had been a bit shorter, but I can say that I enjoyed the ending. Elizabeth Taylor was stunning in her youth and certainly is in this movie; that alone is reason to watch this movie. But I'm sure you will like it for other reasons as well.

classic! one of the best movies ever made!.......2007-07-10

this movie was perfect; it was exciting, funny, dramatic, tense, amazing acting, teaches you a lot, sad, and Liz Taylor and Paul Newman are both so beautiful your eyes will hurt! this is not a regular movie that gets 5 stars, this is a CLASSIC. the way movies are supposed to be made! this should get 10 stars!

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Deluxe Edition).......2007-06-27

I have always loved this film and now I can watch it whenever I want. Elizabeth Taylor is such a wonderful actress that you can't tell at what point in the making of the film her husband Mike Todd was killed in the air crash. Performances by all are a 10+ and an A+.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.......2007-06-25

This powerful depiction of a dynastic southern family crumbling from within is propelled by director/writer Richard Brooks's sure hand, and a first-rate cast, including Taylor, Ives, Carson, and Judith Anderson, as Big Daddy's long-suffering wife. Newman's Brick is a cauldron of sullen anger dulled with alcohol. Watching him here, we glimpse the hallmark of a great actor: not just acting, but reacting, so that all eyes stay on him, even with sultry Liz sharing the frame and spouting most of the dialogue, clad in a white slip.

Tennessee Williams Film Collection (A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 Two-Disc Special Edition / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 Deluxe Edition / Sweet Bird of Youth / The Night of the Iguana / Baby Doll / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone)

Average customer rating:

Essential boxset for fans of American theater of the 1950s
A Boxed Set Named Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams' plays as movies
A Bit Of Heaven In This Southern Madness
Amazing Box Set Collects Some of the Finest Film Performances of Mid-20th Century American Cinema

Tennessee Williams Film Collection (A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 Two-Disc Special Edition / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 Deluxe Edition / Sweet Bird of Youth / The Night of the Iguana / Baby Doll / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone)
Starring: Vivien Leigh , Marlon Brando , Kim Hunter , Karl Malden , and Rudy Bond
Director: Elia Kazan , and Richard Brooks
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000EBD9UI
Release Date: 2006-05-02

Amazon.com

A much-needed DVD tribute to one of the essential American playwrights, The Tennessee Williams Collection gathers six Williams titles and one vintage documentary. Taken together, it's a potent introduction to the specific terrain (geographical and emotional) of this brilliant writer. The set is anchored by Warner's deluxe two-disc treatment of A Streetcar Named Desire, which has copious extras (among them a fine 90-minute documentary about director Elia Kazan). The multi-Oscar-winning Streetcar is one of the better stage adaptations in film history, and it captures the electrifying Marlon Brando, re-creating his stage role, in the part that changed American acting: the brutish New Orleans sensualist Stanley Kowalski. Vivien Leigh won an Oscar opposite him, as the faded (except in her own mind) Southern belle Blanche DuBois, whose arrival in the Kowalski home leads to disaster.

Kazan also directed Baby Doll, which Williams scripted from a couple of one-act plays. This outrageous sex comedy casts the excellent Carroll Baker as the 19-year-old wife of middle-aged Karl Malden, who anxiously awaits the day he can finally consummate his maddening marriage; immigrant cotton magnate Eli Wallach shows up at Malden's crumbling plantation house just in time to take the bloom off the rose, as it were. Famous for being condemned in 1956, Baby Doll remains a very modern (and gloriously dirty) movie. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Richard Brooks, faithfully brings three of Williams's indelible characters to the screen, even if the script discreetly changes the original stage text: the hot Maggie the Cat (Elizabeth Taylor), her reluctant husband Brick (Paul Newman), and Brick's rich Big Daddy (Burl Ives). All three performers act the lights out.

Sweet Bird of Youth reunites Paul Newman with director Brooks, and also showcases Geraldine Page's performance as an aging film star tagging along with young stud Newman to his Southern home town. Some of Williams' more depraved touches are toned down, but the milieu is unmistakable and the movie is intense. The Night of the Iguana gives Richard Burton perhaps his finest hour onscreen: as Williams' dissolute defrocked priest, playing tour guide in Puerto Vallarta to tour groups of nattering biddies. The movie has director John Huston's sympathy for life's losers, as well as a trio of women built to torment Burton's reverend: Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, and Sue Lyon. The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, based on Williams's novel, is not a great movie, but gives Vivien Leigh a good workout as a wounded actress dallying with Italian gigolo Warren Beatty.

Tennessee Williams' South is a 1973 documentary featuring some marvelous observations from Williams, as he holds court for filmmaker Harry Rasky. It also has long scenes from his plays, enacted by good folks such as Maureen Stapleton, Colleen Dewhurst, and Burl Ives. Especially valuable is a Streetcar sequence with Jessica Tandy re-creating her original role as Blanche. Williams himself reads the narration from The Glass Menagerie, a privileged moment. This is not an exhaustive Williams set (Joseph Mankiewicz's Suddenly, Last Summer and Sidney Lumet's The Fugitive Kind are among the best Williams films), but it maps out the steamy, tortured landscape awfully well. --Robert Horton

Description

Streetcar Named Desire 2 Disc SE Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Deluxe Edition Sweet Bird of Youth Night of the Iguana Baby Doll Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone

Customer Reviews:

Essential boxset for fans of American theater of the 1950s.......2007-02-23

This is a terrific boxset, collecting six of the films based on Tennessee Williams's plays (plus another disc with the documentary "Tennessee Williams' South"). All the films are transferred with great care, and look quite wonderful. And the films themselves are fascinating, because (with the exception of BABY DOLL), they're invariably sanitized, as the major studios (Warner Brothers, MGM) struggled to constrain the unfettered imagination of one of America's most floridly uninihibited playwrights. Yet Williams' reputation as one of the premiere writers for actors allows some classic performances, starting with Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, one of the most potent displays of Method acting which helped to revolutionize American film and theater. Kazan's hyperbolic direction of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE is tempered in BABY DOLL, possibly the most charming film in the set (with terrific performances from Carroll Baker, Karl Malden, Eli Wallach, and, most hilariously, Mildred Dunnock). It seems incredible that, at the time (1956), BABY DOLL was the most controversial film of its year, with condemnation and cries of "filth" being bandied about. But BABY DOLL is a comic interlude in Williams' career. CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF is the most heavily censored, so that all the talk of mendacity makes the film seem mendacious, because no one is talking about what the film is really about. But all the actors go to town with their Southern accents, especially Elizabeth Taylor and Judith Anderson.

But if CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF seems antiseptic, that's nothing compared to SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, which is alternately lurid and dainty. To watch Geraldine Page rip through in an absolutely corrosive and riveting performance is to see one of America's greatest actresses at her peak. THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA is uneven, but, again, some of the performances (in particular, Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, and, especially, Deborah Kerr and Cyril Delevanti) are superb. The long sequence with Burton and Kerr talking about demons and love while Burton is tied in the hammock is one of the most poetic sequences in all of Williams, handled with great insight and power.

THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE has worn well with the years, as Vivien Leigh gives an elegant performance as the aging woman desperate for love nad even more desperate for her dignity.

Of course, these are all works which could be done now with a greater fidelity to Williams' original texts, but it would be hard to beat the incredible performances, done (in many cases) in the original acting styles of the period (in STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, many of the original Broadway casts were also cast in the films). This is a chance to see some legendary actors in the classic parts which they made famous.

A Boxed Set Named Tennessee Williams.......2007-01-08

He may be considered the great American playwright of the 20th Century, but until I got the boxed set of DVDs featuring adaptations of his works, I had never really been exposed to Tennessee Williams. This set of six movies gives a good sampling of Williams and shows why he got his reputation for both daring and excellence.

In chronological order by film date, the first film in the set (and probably the best) is A Streetcar Named Desire. This story focuses on the interrelationship of three characters: Blanche DuBois (played by Vivien Leigh), her sister Stella (Kim Hunter) and Stella's husband, Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando). Blanche moves in with the couple, fleeing from scandal in her hometown and with only a weak grip on sanity. The brutish Stanley is her natural antagonist, with Stella stuck in the middle. Eventually, however, Blanche and Stanley will have to confront each other.

Though Blanche may be the main character, it is Stanley who steals the show due to Brando's wonderful performance. After seeing this movie, I can understand how significant of an impact that Brando had in the world of movie acting; prior to Streetcar, acting performances like Brando's were quite rare. This is a great film, and the only Williams movie I was really familiar with prior to watching, both due to its immortal scenes ("Stella!") and the brilliant Simpsons musical adaptation (in "A Streetcar Named Marge").

Next is Baby Doll, with Karl Malden as an impoverished cotton-miller and Carroll Baker as his very young wife, the Baby Doll of the title. She has been viewing her much older spouse with increasing contempt and has held him to a promise that they would not consummate their marriage until she turned 20, an event soon to happen. Eli Wallach enters the film as both a business and romantic rival to Malden. For the time this movie was made (1956), this film was sexually daring, and though not as explicit as modern movies, it still holds up well.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof features Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor) and Brick (Paul Newman) as a married couple on the edge. A deep secret has kept them estranged and there is the additional complication of the impending death of Brick's very wealthy and dominating father. Brick may be Big Daddy's favorite, but their problems threatens to cut Brick out of an inheritance he doesn't want; Maggie, however, has other ideas.

Newman is back in a different role in Sweet Bird of Youth as a young hustler who returns to his hometown as the lover/employee of an aging actress. He is hopeful that she will help him make it big in Hollywood, but he is also interested in winning back his old girlfriend, a goal her corrupt political boss father will do anything to stop.

Night of the Iguana has Richard Burton as a drunken reverend turned third-rate tour guide winding up at a hotel run by the widow (Ava Gardner) of an old friend. His job is threatened when a young tourist (played by Sue Lyons of Lolita fame) keeps trying to seduce him. As things fall apart for him, it's up to the widow and an artist (Deborah Kerr) to keep him from destroying himself.

Finally, there is The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, featuring Vivien Leigh as a recently widowed actress who takes a young lover (played by an early Warren Beatty). This is probably the weakest in the set, and the only one I felt rather bored while watching.

Actually, there is a problem that is consistent with many of these movies in that they often just seem like filmed plays. That is, everything seems very staged and there is little real action; the focus is on dialogue, which often takes the somewhat formal form you see in the theater. That is not to say that these are bad movies; actually, they are almost all good: Streetcar is a five star film, Baby Doll, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Sweet Bird of Youth merit four, Night three and Roman Spring two. There are also a good number of extras in the set, including commentaries on Streetcar and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a bunch of mini-documentaries and a bonus disc called Tennessee Williams' South. This bonus disc is an early-1970s documentary featuring interviews with Williams and various actors doing scenes from his plays; it is mildly interesting.

One does not watch Williams expecting happy endings and everything nicely resolved (although some of the films do end more upbeat than others, in part, I believe because of a Hollywood demand for such conclusions, despite how the plays may have been written). Instead, you get a level and type of drama that was rarely shown prior to the Williams. Overall, this set rates a high four stars; it may not be perfect, but you do get some good films that pushed the limits of what was allowed at the time.

Tennessee Williams' plays as movies.......2007-01-06

Each of the plays of Tennessee Williams that has been rended as a movie is worth watching. The rawness of emotions, the actors and the direction all make these movies immensely watchable.

A Bit Of Heaven In This Southern Madness.......2006-10-09

Being a sucker for a good box set, I have accumulated quite a few. You end up with some great DVDs, but also some titles that you might not have purchased on their own. This Tennessee Williams collection is one that I wholeheartedly recommend--each selection might not be a true classic, but each represents a significant part of Williams' lexicon and lore. Put together, they symbolize and honor a master craftsman and a time when words, dialogue and screenplays were more important than quick edits and loud soundtracks.

Of course, the undisputed champion of this set is the two disc "A Streetcar Named Desire." An absolutely perfect rendering of a brilliant play, "Streetcar" boasts some of the most powerful performances you're likely to see. With Oscars going to Vivien Leigh, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter--this is one of the most honored films in history. And Marlon Brando's Stanley Kowalski has become a legend.

I'm not going to individually review every film, each offers its own merits. What is amazing about these films is how adult they were for their day and how well they stand up today. Southern melodrama never looked or sounded so good.

"Cat on A Hot Tin Roof" is a flawed, truncated version of Williams' play--but still an entertaining vehicle for Newman and Taylor. "Sweet Bird Of Youth" is one of my absolute favorites proving once and for all that Geraldine Page was an acting icon! Those that dismiss "Baby Doll" as a more minor work miss some of its subtlety. It's a very clever romp. "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" and "The Night of the Iguana" are both intriguing and eminently watchable, but not without their problems.

These films represent very adult topics, some great writing--sometimes leaning toward lurid melodrama--and awesome performances. It's easy to see why so many top caliber actors and directors are attached to these pieces--and why so many were honored for their works.

If you love film (or plays for that matter) and you haven't seen some of these titles, do yourself a favor--BUY THIS SET and enjoy. Tennessee Williams was a singular talent and a unique voice. KGHarris, 10/06.

Amazing Box Set Collects Some of the Finest Film Performances of Mid-20th Century American Cinema.......2006-05-24

If playwright Tennessee Williams's Southern gothic writing style makes his works feel more ornately melodramatic than those of O'Neill or his closest contemporary Arthur Miller, they do provide resonant showcases for the actors inhabiting his characters. This is clearly evidenced in this six-film, eight-disc collection that epitomizes some of the most powerful acting to come out of Hollywood in the 1950's and early 1960's, all directed by true filmmaking masters. Probably because they are the least censored by the studio system at least in the form presented now, the best of the set are Elia Kazan's "A Streetcar Named Desire" and John Huston's "The Night of the Iguana". The others are Kazan's "Baby Doll", Richard Brooks' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", Jose Quintero's "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" and Brooks' "Sweet Bird of Youth".

A feral, smoldering Marlon Brando justifiably made his reputation as brutish Stanley Kowalski in 1951's "A Streetcar Named Desire", and his animalistic charisma still leaps off the screen. Intriguingly, one of the extras included in the two-disc set for the movie is footage from a 1947 screen test of Brando when he was 23, and his stardom seems assured even then. The plot of the movie amounts to the inevitable clash between Kowalski and his visiting sister-in-law, Blanche DuBois, a fading Southern belle on the verge of a mental breakdown. Having proven her ability to be a convincing Southerner in "Gone With the Wind", Vivien Leigh expertly handles all the florid dialogue with her particular blend of defiance and vulnerability.

Strong supporting work comes from Kim Hunter as Blanche's naive sister Stella and Karl Malden as Blanche's seemingly respectful suitor Mitch. Now over ninety, Malden is on hand to provide his own eloquent recollections of the production on an alternate track, and film historians Rudy Behlmer and Jeff Young provide more objective commentary on another track. Film critic Richard Schickel's 1995 feature-length look at Kazan is the centerpiece of the second disk, and there is also a more interesting five-part documentary on the film and original Broadway show, the best portion focusing on censorship and the several minutes that have been reinserted in the DVD version of the film.

1964's "The Night of the Iguana" deals with a similarly dysfunctional group of people, but this time the setting is a dilapidated Mexican beach resort where Reverend Shannon, newly defrocked, has taken a group of spinsters from a women's college. Huston made his reputation on his strong literary adaptations, and his affinity shows in the fulsome characterizations, striking visuals and dark humor. Richard Burton is in peak form as Shannon, and there is also sterling work from Deborah Kerr as the spinsterish Hannah and especially Ava Gardner as the slatternly resort owner, Maxine Faulk. The DVD contains a recent making-of featurette and a vintage video, both fascinating.

"Baby Doll" is an entertaining hoot that doesn't seem as sensationalistic as I'm sure it was when the film was first released in 1956. It's simply a Southern-fried farce about the potential deflowering of a nineteen-year old child bride with a nice, pouty turn by Carroll Baker in the title role and a surprisingly funny one by Karl Malden as her randy husband, cotton mill owner Archie. 1958's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is far more vaunted but ultimately hamstrung by the overly careful portrayal of Brick as an asexual protagonist, this in spite of stellar performances from Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman and Burl Ives.

Newman is even better as gigolo Chance Wayne in 1963's "Sweet Bird of Youth", and he is matched all the way by Geraldine Page's all-cylinders-on performance as faded movie queen Alexandra Del Lago (a role that would have ironically been ideal for Ava Gardner). The weakest film of the set is 1961's "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" about an aging American actress living in Rome who falls recklessly in love with an indifferent gigolo. A decade after "Streetcar", the glamorous-looking Leigh excels in the title role, while a young Warren Beatty fits the physical requirements as the gigolo Paolo even though his faux-Italian accent is a little too emphatic. All four of these movies come with making-of featurettes and original trailers, and "Cat" also includes commentary from Williams' biographer Donald Spoto.

The focal point of the eighth disc is a 1973 documentary, "Tennessee Williams' South", which highlights insightful interviews with Williams in the New Orleans area. The film also includes classic scenes from his plays reenacted specifically for the documentary. You can have the privilege of seeing Broadway's original Blanche DuBois, Jessica Tandy, and compare her work to Leigh's, as well as an impressive turn by Maureen Stapleton as Amanda Wingfield in "The Glass Menagerie". This is an incredible film collection for anyone who wants to see some of the greatest performances of mid-20th century American cinema.

The Elizabeth Taylor Signature Collection (National Velvet / Father of the Bride / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof / Butterfield 8)

Average customer rating:

A nice fan for Lizzy
Fine collection

The Elizabeth Taylor Signature Collection (National Velvet / Father of the Bride / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof / Butterfield 8)
Starring: Mickey Rooney , Donald Crisp , Elizabeth Taylor , Anne Revere , and Angela Lansbury
Director: Clarence Brown , Vincente Minnelli , and Daniel Mann
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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ASIN: B0002Y4TNI
Release Date: 2004-10-12

Customer Reviews:

A nice fan for Lizzy.......2007-03-09

Four excellent DVDs are contained in this box, This is Elizabeth Taylor's box, and although our fascination goes more to the boxed set of the Legendary Duo: Taylor/Burton, this nevertheless is a must buy too.

It covers almost thirty years of Liz Taylor's career, starting with "National Velvet" in 1944, followed by "Father of the Bride", the original version of 1950 which actually has Spencer Tracy starring in it, Elizabeth just having a secondary role there, cued by the mythical "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1958) and ending with the melodrama "Butterfield 8", the only one in which Liz played opposite her own then husband: Eddie Fisher and co-starring Laurence Harvey in 1960.

The first two come in a full screen presentation (Cinemascope and Panavision widescreen presentations were only introduced in 1953). The other two come in their correct theatrical ratio.

There are no frills here, like specials, interviews or some other fluff, but the movies were decently transferred and the sound, although mono on all four, is fairly crisp and well polished.

Well worth its price if you asked me, and you did not...

Fine collection.......2005-04-21

What a great way to view the first half of her career all in one fell swoop. In National Velvet, of course, she plays young Velvet Brown, the most beautiful little girl ever born, with a love for her horse that knows no bounds. What a shame injury prevented her from playing in International Velvet for Bryan Forbes many years later, though Nanette Newman was very good in the part as well. In FATHER OF THE BRIDE, Taylor is all of a sudden very grown up, and Vincente Minnelli really showcases her youthful beauty and high spirits and passionate nature. The movie is wonderful with details, and although it is really Spencer Tracy's story, both Taylor and her look-alike movie mom, Joan Bennett, have some great scenes and both look ravishing. Yes, Liz was all grown up but the movie doesn't really go to the place of sexuality in the same way that Richard Brooks' CAT ON A HIT TIN ROOF does. Taylor kind of wears that white slip, otherwise it looks like it's falling off of her, and Paul Newman seems suitably aroused, and yet the whole premise of the picture is that for some reason, and what could it be, he's just not up to having sex with her. It's a very funny movie despite its torrid plotline and the sterling performances of all concerned. While Taylor received the Oscar for BUTTERFIELD 8, the final movie of our quartet, she really should have been handed the statuette for her superior work in CAT. As Maggie she created an indelible image that ranks with her finest work (such as PLACE IN THE SUN and WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF).

This DVD set is a good bargain and the films themselves have rarely looked better, though there is some flaking around the edges during early reels of BUTTERFIELD 8.

Average customer rating:

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Not as good as I expected...
classic! one of the best movies ever made!
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Deluxe Edition)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor , Paul Newman , Burl Ives , Jack Carson , and Judith Anderson
Director: Richard Brooks
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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ASIN: B00004T32L
Release Date: 2000-01-27

Amazon.com essential video

Description

Thrilling performances by Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, and Burl Ives make this adaptation of Tennessee Williams' story about a wealthy plantation owner succumbing to cancer, one of the most acclaimed movies in history. Year: 1958 Director: Richard Brooks Starring: Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, Burl Ives, Jack Carson, Dame Judith Anderson

Customer Reviews:

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.......2007-08-23

Outstanding movie with paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor. One of my all time favorites. The quality of the DVD is excellent

Not as good as I expected..........2007-07-14

classic! one of the best movies ever made!.......2007-07-10

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Deluxe Edition).......2007-06-27

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.......2007-06-25

Average customer rating:

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Jones and Lange smolder, Torn founders
Excellent reendition of Williams' classic play
The Story Finally Makes Sense
accept no imitations. THIS is the best version ever done

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Starring: Penny Fuller , Rip Torn , Neta Lee Noy , Tommy Lee Jones , and Jessica Lange
Director: Jack Hofsiss
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
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ASIN: 6305081905
Release Date: 1998-08-05

Amazon.com

It sounds like perfect casting: Jessica Lange and Tommy Lee Jones do one of Tennessee Williams's most powerful works. But this filmed stage play doesn't quite fulfill the promise. Lange certainly has all the right ingredients: the sensual moves, the fluttering neuroses, the scheming-with-a-smile, but it doesn't quite ring true. It's as if the star and her director failed to make the full transition from stage acting to the smaller, more nuanced acting demands of film. Jones is badly miscast as Brick--the character is mopey and riven with insecurities, while Jones's forte is garrulous confidence. It feels like he's acting with a muzzle on. Rip Torn is terrific as Big Daddy (his scenes with Jones are the best in the piece) and the rest of the cast is all up to the game. Tennessee Williams reworked the script for this American Playhouse production, restoring some sexual frankness lost in earlier productions. The piece has some real fireworks, and not just in the places you might expect. Lange and Jones would team up again to better effect in the 1994 drama Blue Sky. --Geof Miller

Description

In a sordid tale of faded dreams and family feuds, Tennessee Williams delivers perhaps his greatest play. Tommy Lee Jones and Jessica Lange star in this award-winning adaptation.

Customer Reviews:

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.......2007-04-05

Not many folks know about this TV version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. I have been looking for it everywhere and finally found it on Amazon. I think it's a fabulous rendition of the Tenessee Williams play featuring an ex-football jock, his frustrated wife and the dynamics of a family hankering for a piece of a dying man's fortune. Tommy Lee Jones and Jessica Lang are outstanding as Brick and Maggie the Cat.

I also own the Paul Newman/Elizabeth Taylor version of this play. It's an undisputed classic, but If you are a fan of the story, you should also view the Jessica Lang/Tommy Lee Jones version. In some ways, I think this version is even more intense than the more universally known classic.

Jones and Lange smolder, Torn founders.......2006-09-22

The acting in this is fine; Lange is delectably sultry, Jones is excellent as a washed-up drunk.

But the accent Rip Torn uses in this has got to be the worst Southern accent ever committed to film (and that includes Kevin Costner's execrably awful accent in Oliver Stone's 'JFK'). Sounds like Foghorn Leghorn channelling Leon Redbone. I broke up laughing at how bad it was.

Agreed, this is much better than the Taylor-Newman-Ives Hollywood piece. But viewers might want to check out the version made with Olivier as Big Daddy, Natalie Wood as Maggie and Robert Wagner as Brick. Excellent all around, and Olivier sounds much more like an arrogant Southern planter than Rip Torn does. At least you're not laughing at it.

Excellent reendition of Williams' classic play.......2006-09-10

I can remember watching this on Showtime back in 1984, and both then and now, I can not deny just how much justice the cast and crew did to Williams' classic play of alcoholism, homosexuality, death, and so on. Jessica Lange is incredibly sexy as the sexually frustrated Maggie the Cat, while Tommy Lee Jones is superb as her alcoholic ex-sports announcer husband, Brick. Gorgeous set designs and powerful acting from the entire accomplished cast make for a wonderfully entertaining, updated version of a modern classic.

The Story Finally Makes Sense.......2006-03-27

Of course everyone will compare this 1984 remake of one of Tennessee Williams' best plays with the 1950's version starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman. The director, actors and everyone else involved in this production have nothing to be embarrassed about for this is a fine movie indeed. In fairness to the Taylor-Newman movie, because of the censorship of that repressed era, the plot does not make a lot of sense. These actors though have the advantage of working with a story that Mr. Williams had revised so that the relationship that Brick and Skipper had that keeps interfering with Brick's marriage with Maggie now makes sense. ("A pure and true thing is not normal.") Additionally Taylor and Newman are so incredibly attractive that sometimes their good looks get in the way of their acting. Here we have really stellar performances by Jessica Lange as Maggie, Tommy Lee Jones as Brick-- he's a lot better than many of the critics say-- Rip Torn as Big Daddy and Kim Stanley as Big Momma. Tommy Lee Jones does some terrific acting with just his eyes and facial expressions alone. Jessica Lange continues to demonstrate that she is one of the best actresses of her generation. She gives a beautifully nuanced performance, expressing a wide range of emotions and can go from a vulnerable, lovable kitten to a clawing cat at the turn of a fan. The scenes between Big Daddy and Brick, through excruciating, are very moving.

While Mr. Willams as usual places his characters in the South, they resemble dysfunctional families everywhere. Greed, sexual repression, sibling rivalry, dishonesty, awareness of one's own mortality and family in-fighting know no geographical boundries.

Mr. Williams would be proud of this production.

accept no imitations. THIS is the best version ever done.......2005-10-03

One simply couldn't ask for a better incarnation of 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' than this one.

Both the Amazon reviewer for this film, (and some of the subsequent Amazon audience reviewers), exhibit really stellar blindness in critiquing this tv adaptation of a fine Williams play.

Did someone actually submit that the simpering 1958 version was still better? Come ON. Holy hannah. That absurd piece of Hollywood fluff, which did its best to dodge every subtext the play had to offer? Gimme a break.

Theatre fans, this Torn/Jones/Lange version has what it takes to do the play justice. Toss the negative reviews out the window, they aren't worth the narrow bandwidth they were written on. Sheeeeesh.

Tennessee Williams' South [DVD] Authentic Region 1 US DVD

Average customer rating:

Williams' South

Tennessee Williams' South [DVD] Authentic Region 1 US DVD

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Biography | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B000FLCTU8

Product Description

The brutes and the belles. The gadflies and the good ol' boys. The taboos and the profound truths. They're all part of a tennessee state of mind -- a realm of places, personalities and ideas. Williams is front and center for this exploration, reading from his works, placing them in the context of his life, and serving as guide in visits to his career-shaping refuge in New Orleans and his later-day writing quarters in Key West. Also, dramatizations by distinguished actors -- including Jessica Tandy, Broadway's original Blanche DuBois, in a recreation of her A Streetcar Named Desire triumph -- give flesh-and-bone immediacy to some of the writer's famed works. In his own words. In his own places. The resilient character and memorable characters of one of our greatest writers reside in Tennessee Williams' South.

Customer Reviews:

Williams' South.......2006-06-24

Tennessee Williams is interviewed in Key West and New Orleans, and talks about his childhood, family, religion, race relations in the south, his eccentricies and demons and his love for Chekhov. His observations are often illuminating and provide good analysis for some of his writings. He also reads some of his poetry and prose (the poem from "Night of the Iguana" and "Life Story" and a section from "The Glass Menagerie"). This odd film also contains dramatic pieces at intervals with Williams commenting on the characters and their motivations. The dramatic clips are about 5 minutes each and include Burl Ives in a scene from "The Last of my Solid Gold Watches," Jessica Tandy in "A Streetcar Named Desire," William Hutt in "Small Craft Warnings," Colleen Dewhurst and John Colicos in "Night of the Iguana," and Maureen Stapleton, Michael York, James Naughton and Carol Williard in "The Glass Menagerie."

Average customer rating:

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Not as good as I expected...
classic! one of the best movies ever made!
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Deluxe Edition)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor , Paul Newman , Burl Ives , Jack Carson , and Judith Anderson
Director: Richard Brooks
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $9.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

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ASIN: 0792836936
Release Date: 1997-10-01

Amazon.com

Elizabeth Taylor has never been sexier than as Tennessee Williams's hot-blooded Maggie "The Cat" Pollitt, prowling around her boudoir in a slinky white slip. That's how you know her alcoholic, ex-football-player husband, Brick (Paul Newman), must have more than just his leg in a cast. It's the 65th birthday of wealthy (but dying) southern patriarch Big Daddy (Burl Ives), and his sons Gooper (Jack Carter) and Brick have come to suck up to him for $10 million in inheritance money. Gooper is a family man and father to a brood of "no-neck monsters"; youngest boy Brick is papa's favorite (as if you couldn't tell from the fellows' names), but hasn't sired progeny. Maggie is definitely in heat, but Brick refuses to sleep with her because he suspects her of being unfaithful with his best friend, who recently committed suicide. Although toned down for the movies, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is vintage Tennessee Williams. The film was directed by Richard Brooks (In Cold Blood, Blackboard Jungle, Elmer Gantry). --Jim Emerson

Customer Reviews:

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.......2007-08-23

Outstanding movie with paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor. One of my all time favorites. The quality of the DVD is excellent

Not as good as I expected..........2007-07-14

classic! one of the best movies ever made!.......2007-07-10

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Deluxe Edition).......2007-06-27

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.......2007-06-25

Average customer rating:

Butterfield 8/Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor , Laurence Harvey , Eddie Fisher , Dina Merrill , and Mildred Dunnock
Director: Daniel Mann , and Richard Brooks
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( B ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B0007514J4
Release Date: 2005-01-18

Average customer rating:

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Not as good as I expected...
classic! one of the best movies ever made!
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Deluxe Edition)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof [Region 2]
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor , Paul Newman , Burl Ives , Jack Carson , and Judith Anderson
Director: Richard Brooks
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B00005KKJO

Amazon.com essential video

Customer Reviews:

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.......2007-08-23

Outstanding movie with paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor. One of my all time favorites. The quality of the DVD is excellent

Not as good as I expected..........2007-07-14

classic! one of the best movies ever made!.......2007-07-10

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Deluxe Edition).......2007-06-27

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.......2007-06-25

Average customer rating:

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Not as good as I expected...
classic! one of the best movies ever made!
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Deluxe Edition)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof [Region 2]
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor , Paul Newman , Burl Ives , Jack Carson , and Judith Anderson
Director: Richard Brooks
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B000059RNK

Amazon.com essential video

Customer Reviews:

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.......2007-08-23

Outstanding movie with paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor. One of my all time favorites. The quality of the DVD is excellent

Not as good as I expected..........2007-07-14

classic! one of the best movies ever made!.......2007-07-10

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Deluxe Edition).......2007-06-27

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.......2007-06-25

DVD:

DVD

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