FILM 1151: CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF
TRIVIA: Montgomery Clift turned
down the part of Brick.
This film was originally to be
filmed in black and white, as was the standard practice with
"artistic" films in the 1950s. (Virtually all film adaptations of the
plays of Tennessee Williams had
been in B&W up to that time.) However, once Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor were cast
in the leads, director Richard
Brooks insisted on shooting in color, in deference to the public's
well known enthusiasm for Taylor's violet and Newman's strikingly blue eyes.
Elizabeth Taylor proceeded
with filming even though her husband Michael Todd was killed in
a plane crash on the same day the film began shooting.
Playwright Tennessee Williams so
disliked this adaptation that he told people in the queue "This movie will
set the industry back 50 years. Go home!"
The references to homosexuality in
the original play were removed from the screenplay to comply with the Hollywood
Production Code.
When Paul Newman agreed to play
the role of Brick, he was under the impression the film would simply adapt the
original script into a screenplay. When the screenplay deviated wildly from the
stage text over Tennessee
Williams' objections, Newman expressed his disappointment.
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