Adapted from a Pulitzer Prize winning play of the same name written by Tennessee Williams, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” was one of the biggest commercial and critical successes of 1958. Directed by Richard Brooks, it starred Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman and Burl Ives. Brick Pollitt (Newman) is a depressed alcoholic who keeps dreaming about the sports conquests of his youth. One night he goes leaping hurdles on a track field and injures himself, having to use a crutch for walking. The next day, Brick and his wife Maggie “the Cat” (Taylor) go to Mississippi to his old family home for the 65th birthday of Brick’s father “Big Daddy”. Depressed Brick spends the day drinking inside the house, as his wife chides him about inheriting Big Daddy’s wealth. The family members make a whole bunch of allusions about the state of Brick and Maggie’s marriage, especially the issue of them not having any children. Big Daddy and Big Mama come back from the hospital, where Big Daddy has been tested. He reveals the happy news that he doesn’t have cancer, but the doctor later privately tells Brick and his brother that their father actually has less than a year to live, but that their mother wanted him to die happy. As Brick keeps drinking, he comes at odds with his father who is angered with his son’s behavior. As the family members enter a heated argument, some secrets will be revealed, some lies will be told, and some characters will have their burning resentments resolved, one way or another.
Joan Rivers still in coma
