Red Hot Liz
Red Hot Liz
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
1958 Director: Elia Kazan
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Jack Carson, Judith Anderson
“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” from 1958, is an important classic with Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman as the leads. It tells the story of a dysfunctional family in the South, led by “Big Daddy” Pollitt (Ives), a wealthy plantation owner. The clan has gathered to celebrate his birthday and are thrilled by the news that he does not have cancer; although, in reality most are there to curry favor and secure their part of the inheritance, in case he dies soon. The tempestuous film is based on the 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tennessee Williams. It received several Academy Award nominations and other accolades.
In the original play by Williams, “Brick” (Newman) is gay. In the film, he is merely distraught over, and even obsessed with, the death of his best friend, Skipper. The playwright was dissatisfied with the screen adaptation’s removal of almost all homosexual overtones. The Hays Code censors “sanitized” the portrayal of Brick for a general audience.
The removal of this aspect of the film is unfortunate, but its subtle suggestion that remains is understood. In the film, Brick rejects his wife, Maggie (Taylor), blaming her for an affair with Skipper. Maggie cannot convince him otherwise and she pleads for his affection incessantly. Brick is apparently in love with both Skipper’s memory and with Maggie. Brick’s attraction for his wife becomes evident when he enters the bathroom, finds her filmy nightgown hanging from the door, and deeply inhales her lingering fragrance on it. He is intoxicated with desire for her but refuses to show it. This is a key moment that betrays his negations. How could anyone—male or female—at that time or since, not find Elizabeth Taylor’s character absolutely beautiful and desirable? (And for that matter, Paul Newman’s, with his baby-blue eyes, and the chiseled features of a Greek statue?)
One element here is important to stress: Elizabeth Taylor’s slip; I speak of her filmy undergarment. This extremely form-fitting, sartorial element is worthy of discussion. As can be seen from the advertising poster, it helped sell the movie. The image shows her sitting on a bed in the slip, staring squarely and seductively at a presumed male audience. She seems to dare the viewer to reject her or not be seduced by her come-hither looks. The poster is an illustration, not a photograph. The artist, whoever it might have been, did not capture Taylor’s extraordinary and exquisite beauty in this film. Her face is almost a bit hard in this image. But really, who cares? The point would have been to look at her in her slip, ready for seduction, and ready to bring viewers into the theater. The slip would be used again, successfully, to sell Taylor to audiences in “Butterfield 8,” only a couple of years later.
The nightgown and slip assure moviegoers of Brick and Maggie’s inevitable detente. Of course, in 1958, films often stressed marital reconciliation. The audience, then and now, would certainly have wanted to see these two people, both played by actors at the height of their careers, attractiveness and appeal, wind up together. How could this movie end otherwise?