Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

From the Tennessee Williams play of the same name. This has everything you want and expect from Williams, decay among the Southern ruling classes, strained relationships, smouldering desires, alcoholism, unrealized dreams, along with Elizabeth Taylor in body hugging white. Film centers around the 65th birthday of Pollitt family patriarch "Big Daddy" (Burl Ives) in which he learns that he is fatally ill. Long impassioned arguments and various family skeletons surface on three different floors of the old estate though Brick's (Paul Newman) homosexuality is extremely toned down. Jack Carson does an admirable job as the older brother, fitting perfectly the needs of a kind of small and understated role, easy to overlook amongst the more well known and expressive members of the cast but beautifully rendered, probably his best work. Williams knows how to use a small space for tension and though not exactly a drawing room drama in the truest sense, it contains some of the finner elements of that kind of production. Essentially a big existential therapy session on film. Thumbs up.