Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, motion picture based on the play by Tennessee Williams about a dysfunctional family. Released in 1958, this film stars Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor as Brick and Maggie Pollitt. Brick’s father is dying, and his grown children are all vying for bigger portions of his will. Though Brick is his father’s favorite son, he and Maggie have fallen from his graces because they haven’t borne him a grandchild. They have no children because Brick will not make love to his wife.

Director

• Richard Brooks

Cast

• Elizabeth Taylor (Maggie Pollitt)
• Paul Newman (Brick Pollitt)
• Burl Ives (Big Daddy Pollitt)
• Jack Carson (Gooper Pollitt)
• Judith Anderson (Big Mama Pollitt)
• Madeleine Sherwood (Mae Pollitt)
• Larry Gates (Dr. Baugh)
• Vaughn Taylor (Deacon Davis)
• Patty Ann Gerrity (Dixie Pollitt)
• Rusty Stevens (Sonny Pollitt)
• Hugh Corcoran (Buster Pollitt)
• Deborah Miller (Trixie Pollitt)
• Brian Corcoran (Boy Pollitt)
• Vince Townsend, Jr. (Lacey)
• Zelda Cleaver (Sookey)
• Tony Merrill (Party guest)
• Jeane Wood (Party guest)
• Bobby Johnson (Groom)

Quotes

• Brick: “Now, you keep forgetting the conditions under which I agreed to stay on living with you!”
• Maggie : “I'm not living with you! We occupy the same cage, that's all.”

Trivia

• The Hollywood Production Code, a guideline for self-censorship designed in the 1930s to appease various conservative religious and civic groups, required that Brick’s homosexuality be concealed in this film version of Williams’s play.