Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Richard Brooks, 1958) play Tennessee Williams, screenplay Brooks, James Poe; Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives
[Brick, an alcoholic ex-football player, drinks his days away and resists the affections of his wife, Maggie. His reunion with his father, Big Daddy, who is dying of cancer, jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son.]
In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, another Brooks/Williams film, it's homosexuality that is concealed.* At the end of the film, Brick shuts the door and explicitly heads for the featured bed with Maggie, to consummate his legitimate heterosexual desire for her. The episode Brick recounts in the middle of the film to Big Daddy - his Brokeback Mountain moment with Skipper, his real love - is discounted, as he reaffirms his conventional sexuality.
*In Sweet Bird of Youth, it's castration. In A Streetcar Named Desire, it may be a form of prostitution.
Garry Gillard | reviews | New: 14 September, 2018 | Now: 5 February, 2022