Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Had heard of the movie but finally managed to see it recently at home... This is one movie I rate very high on excellent dialogue and screenplay. Its an old classic set in late 1950s and Liz Taylor plays Maggie the Cat and Paul Newman plays her husband Brick.. They go visiting Brick's parents on Big Daddy's 65th B'day and what follows is a delightful exchange of a family that learns of the terminal illness (cancer) Big Daddy is down with and a huge inheritance he will leave behind..

Brick has a drinking problem as he is depressed about his best friend's death and the dialogues he has with his dad are a treat indeed!! I reproduce some of the most memorable in this post..

Big Daddy: You're a thirty-year-old kid. Soon you'll be a fifty-year-old kid. Pretendin' you're hearin' cheers when there ain't any. Dreamin' and drinkin' your life away. Heroes in the real world live twenty-four hours a day, not just two hours in a game. Mendacity! You won't live with mendacity? Well, you're an expert at it! The truth is pain and sweat and payin' bills and makin' love to a woman that you don't love any more. Truth is dreams that don't come true, and nobody prints your name in the paper 'til you die.

Big Daddy: What's that smell in this room? Didn't you notice it, Brick? Didn't you notice the powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room?

Another quote from the film that stands out is between Brick and Maggie as she tries to win him over...

Maggie: I'll win, alright.

Brick: Win what? What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof?

Maggie: Just staying on it, I guess. As long as she can.

And nothing's more determined than a cat on a hot tin roof. Is there? Is there, baby?

The film completely skirts over the homosexual undertones of Brick and Skipper's relationship, maybe due to the time it was produced. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is definitely worth watching, one of Elizabeth Taylor's greatest roles.