US, 1958, 108m, Metrocolor, MGM/Avon, directed by Richard Brooks. Starring Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, & Burl Ives.

The Scrutineer’s Film Chart for this film reveals a portrayal of family conflict in layers and depth.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof conveys Tennessee Williams’ vision of the dark, primitive elements that lurk beneath superficial civilisation of the American South. One hot summer night in the house of the Mississippi Delta’s richest cotton-planter, a family imprisoned by the past is torn apart by the revelations of feelings of lust, greed and envy.

The Scrutineer’s Film Chart symbolises in colour and image the themes that can be discovered in this film. Coloured panels are used in differing shapes and sizes, to reflect the conflicts between characters and the geographical placement of them on set.

Paul Newman (Academy Award Nomination) plays Brick

30 years old
Steel blue eyes, icy blue – hard as steel, ice cubes
Alcoholic
Ex-football pro
Irresponsibility/youth
Skipper – best chum, intensity of relationship (gay?) the secret concerning the past – something awful (!?)…
Impenetrable – icy/cool air of detachment (tho‘ on a deeper level, he is far from peaceful – the secret…)
Ice chinking in a glass
On thin ice: the truth will out
Steel: suitable material for cutting instruments
Cold steel: cutting or thrusting weapons
Steel-hearted: hard-hearted
Steel: to render insensible to impression (no matter how hard Maggie tries, he will not address her frustration/the past/the truth).
Break the ice: to break through cold reserve, (more ice is brought for his drink, ice chinks in his glass, icy blue eyes…) we see him nearly succumb – face full of nightie on the back of the bathroom door
Cause of hard, steel exterior?… Skipper, grief, shame, disgust?
“disgust with mendacity” (habitual lying or deceiving)
Visual/symbolic summary
steel
ice
colour
blue

Elizabeth Taylor, (Academy Award Nomination) plays Maggie

Sultry/slinky
Cat, kitten – sexy/purring/scratching
Frustrated/manipulative/restless
Cat on a hot tin roof: burning, restless
How long can she stay on a hot tin roof?
To turn cat in pan: to change sides
See which way the cat jumps: see which direction events are taking
Let the cat out of the bag: disclose a secret cat’s ice: thin ice in shallow places
“I don’t live with you, we just occupy the same cage, that’s all”
Visual/symbolic summary
cat
colour
red, pink – from salmon to claret

Burl Ives (Academy Award) plays Big Daddy

Patriarch/domineering plantation king
Immovable object – not subject to change, unyielding, emotionless, impassive – solid/powerful/rigid
Earthy – warmth of the soil
Stony (heart of stone)
Dictator – his word is law – violence/aggression in his delivery
Kill two birds with one stone – accomplish two different purposes by the same act (greed, mendacity)
Leave no stone unturned – try everything in order to bring about a desired result
To set a stone rolling – set a course of action which may lead to unforeseen (poss. disastrous) consequences
To cast a stone – make an attack, bring an accusation (the truth about Skipper)
“a storm liberates”
Visual/symbolic summary
stone
colour
stone (heavy, dull)

Relationships with fellow character

Brick’s relationships with main characters:

Maggie – despises, resents
Big Daddy – despises, resents, has his head down, pushing against him (American football position)
Gooper – feels sorry for him
Big Mama – feels nagged/switches off
Mae (Sister Woman) – finds amusement in Maggie and her bickering
Children – detached Skipper – grief-stricken, ashamed, defensive…the un-answered telephone ringing/Skipper screaming for his help, disgust with himself

Maggie’s relationships with main characters:

Brick – passionately desires his attention, his warmth, acknowledgment
Big Daddy – flirts with him, seeks his favour and approval
Gooper – sees him as loafish, lumbering
Big Mama – resents?
Mae (Sister Woman) – despises, loathes
Children – “no neck monsters”

Big Daddy’s relationships with main characters:

Maggie – flirts, drools…
Brick – favourite golden-boy
Gooper – no love lost on his ‘yes, sir’ first-born
Big Mama – “I haven’t been able to stand the sight, sound or smell of that woman for forty years now! – even when I laid her”
Mae (Sister Woman) – can’t stand to look at her children – screaming monkeys

Sound and visual metaphors:

Paul Newman, Brick, hobbling (leg in plaster), chinking, stubborn, drinking so he can bear living with himself – ‘til he feels the ‘mechanical click’
Judith Anderson, Big Mama, screeching, loud-mouthed, bursting in without knocking (crikey)
Elizabeth Taylor, Maggie, slinky, paws the ground – fighting, smooth, manipulative, insecure, glamourous
Jack Carson, Gooper, lumbering, steady, does as asked as always…, (5 children, 1 on the way)
Burl Ives, Big Daddy, solid, determined, in pain, furious, Madeleine Sherwood, Mae, superficial, greedy, competitive, bursting in without knocking (crikey)
Children, screaming monkeys, no-neck monsters, screaming, howling, blaring, trumpeting, singing, vulgar, spoilt, podgy, bursting in without knocking (crikey)

Mood

The storm
The build up throughout the day, and breaking later in the evening, as does the tension indoors…
Turmoil
Realise storm brewing as Brick hurls crutch around intending to kill Maggie
Big Mama closes French windows to keep the wind out
Brick breaks up family possessions in cellar: destroying the superficiality of their history; mendacity…battle between father and son – height of storm outside Gooper and Mae, meanwhile, in the room immediately above the cellar reveal their true motives as their papers/documents are strewn, (as are the possessions in the cellar beneath them)
As the Truth is revealed the storm calms
“a storm liberates” (BD)

Privacy

The key
What’s overheard, burst into, interrupted and spied upon…
“there’ll be no locked doors in my house”
“is there no privacy!” (BD)
“lock the door Maggie” (B)

Occasion

The lanterns
Celebration
Paper Chinese lanterns swaying as Big Daddy’s birthday party begins – G and M’s children BLARING
Superficiality/transparency Gooper and Mae

Place

Mississippi Delta
Plantation home
Heat of the South
hot, thin-walled house
Upstairs gallery/balcony runs around the entire house painted white, wood, fronted by six pillars/balustrades
Open French windows, white, draped muslin – quality of tender light…
Grace and comfort of the day’s light, reassurance, soothing, soft.
Indoors: doric columns, sweeping staircase.

Time

24 hours
Summer, the early hours to morning, fading to dusk and into night.

1. Brick breaks his leg hurdling fences at 3am at his old High School (drunk, reliving glory years as athlete/pro foot ball player)
2. Morning: family prepare for Big Daddy’s home- coming & birthday party.
3. Late morning: learn of B & M’s tensions (under-currents)
4. Early/mid-afternoon: Big Daddy arrives back from hospital tests apparently not dying, but suffering a spastic shoulder.
5. Early eve: birthday party infront of house. Brick won’t go down so the party comes up to him.
6. Eve: Brick and Big Daddy talk. Brick goes down stairs for more drink. Brick tries leaving in the height of the storm, for fear of revealing Truth to Big Daddy (he’s dying…). Car gets stuck in mud. Brick tells. End up soggy in cellar to come to terms with what’s been said. Bonded, Brick & BD confront bickering family on ground floor. no more mendacity – home truths all round…
7. Late: Brick calls Maggie upstairs to make a baby…

Ground plan

Entrance/exit

1. High School
2. Front of house:
3. B & M’s bed/sitting room: 4) awareness of gallery outside B & M’s bed/sitting room
4. Open field airport (plane arriving)
5. Arriving at plantation, surveying the acres.
6. Front of house 7) stairway to gallery
7. Bed/sitting room
8. Etc

The place: Mississippi Delta, home of the richest cotton planter – housing a family imprisoned by their past.
The time: film takes place within 24 hours.
The storm: a storm brews, whips up, the shutters bang, the rain pours…
The family: Screaming children, superficiality and greed of in-laws, ritualistic birthday celebration (paper lanterns)
The layers/ground plan:
The narrative takes place inside the house; behind white balustrades fronting the isolated, but impressive building like bars of a cell.
We start upstairs, bickering.
(weather close and humid)
Move downstairs to the ground floor as the conflicts increase.
(storm brews)
To the depths of the cellar at the height of conflict.
(storm breaks)

‘A Title sequence Reconsidered’

This project attempts to fulfil several objectives: 1) create atmosphere, mood and emotion; 2) establish the visual character of the film; 3) create a symbolic language which can be applied to distil the gist of the narrative into the 3 1/2 minute sequence; 4) relate individual pictures to eachother in order to represent an idea as a whole; and 5) communicate ideas in space and time.

A title design can provide overall atmosphere for the film. It can establish a style and, if necessary it can also clarify the story content by presenting an abstract and symbolic reference to some elements of the film which occur later.

Exploration; inquiry, probe, examination, investigation Revelation; manifestation, eye-opener, illumination, brought to light, elicit, Nosy frisking scrutineer