MovieChat Forums > Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1984) Discussion > How true to the play is this production?

How true to the play is this production?


I found that I could not make it through this performance on DVD, because I thought Jessica Lange's acting lacked imagination and that the action was very slow and her choice of "activities" very limited. I also got annoyed with the constant references in Act I to being a "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". Is this constant repetition of this line consistent with the play?

I may sound like a fool, but I really preferred the earlier film production with Taylor/ Newman, et. al., though I did miss hearing the line where Maggie says "if I thought you would touch me again, I would just kill myself" (or something to that effect).

I could answer these questions myself, of course, by getting a copy of the play, but I am also interested in people's feelings about each productioin.
Thanks..

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‘You know, if I thought you would never, never, never make love to
me again – I would go downstairs to the kitchen and pick out the longest and sharpest knife I could find and stick it straight into my heart, I swear that I would!’

Last night I saw an amazing production in London of Cat, with James Earl Jones as Big Daddy and Phylicia Rashad as Big Momma. The titular line is indeed repeated a number of times in the first act. I would like to try watching the movie, although I understand it removed the theme of supressed homosexuality, which is somewhat key to Williams' intentions with the story.

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I bet that was an amazing production! To be fair to the Newman/Taylor version, the Hayes code at the time forced them to remove any references to homosexuality. The story suffers for it, because then much of the problem between Brick and Maggie didn't make a lot of sense. I was glad that they brought that aspect of the play back for this production (the Jones/Lange version), because now it makes more sense why Maggie was so jealous and why Skipper committed suicide.

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