FredCDobbs

Here is a strange 1970s live-TV version of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF. Guess who is Big Daddy?? Go to YouTube and use the keywords: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976) - pt4

From IMDB: The original stage play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" by Tennessee Williams premiered at the Morosco Theater in New York on March 24, 1955 and ran for 694 performances. It was nominated for the 1956 Tony Award (New York City) for the Best Play. The play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1955. Tennessee Williams wrote the role of Big Daddy with Burl Ives in mind. Prior to the original stage production, Ives was known primarily as a folk singer, and many within the theatre community question Williams' decision. Ives won rave reviews in the role on both stage and screen, and went on to a long and prestigious acting career.

I'm not going to argue with anyone, because art is in the eye of the beholder. I'm glad we can all discuss these issues, because I like to know what other people think about different films that we all watch.

Yes and I would like to have seen many more minutes of that rather than all that other stuff and Varner mumblng on and on and on.

I thought the ending was very sad, with Howard so depressed without his true love, with the knowledge that she died young without ever marrying, and with the grim thought that he might not ever meet her in "heaven", and the tough decision looming over him about whether he sould continue to live, or take a chance and die so he could maybe reunite with her. Also, by deciding to go back into the future, to 1933, HE wound up being the one who killed her in the 18th Century.

Both films were released in 1958 by two competing companies. Jerry Wald Productions/Fox, and MGM. It is obvious that in trying to beat MGM to the big screen, Jerry Wald rushed his film into production using a patch-work of different Falkner stories, while MGM used a major high quality Tennessee Williams play and made a well-produced film out of it. In popularity, the poorly made Long Hot Summer lost out to the higher quality of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which was nominated for 6 Academy Awards.

I think THE LONG HOT SUMMER is a very poor "adaptation" of several different Faulkner stories. The acting is bad, Varner trying to marry his daughter to a jobless bum and drifter is silly. The fake Mississippi accents were awful. This seemed to be a look-alike imitation of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, like in the beginning when Boss Varner returns from Memphis in an ambulance after serious medical surgery. I expected the little no-neck kids to start running and screaming around the big house.

A lot of old movies in the 30s and 40s have actors referring to men or groups of men as "mugs". I've never heard this term used in real life, so I wonder if it is strictly a movie term for "guys", "boys", "saps", "bums", "jerks", or just the main term for "average men". What is a "mug" anyway? Where did the term come from? "face"? "mugshots"? Dictionary dot com says its a British slang term for: " a gullible person; dupe; fool."

I wonder if "lookit" actually might be shorthand for "look at it this way....."

During my years in the news business, I traveled around the country a lot, and one summer I was all over the country several times in about three months, going to many large and small cities. Well, that summer, I met 3 total strangers twice in different cities. A young guy in a bar in Chicago, then again in a Buddhist temple in San Francisco a couple of months later. A lady street singer/beggar in Chicago, then about two months later in New York. A young man in New Hampshire, then again at a casino in South Lake Tahoe. That made me wonder how many other people I would meet twice every few months, if I had continued to travel for another year. And how many people did I almost see a second time, but we were a block or two apart when we were near each other the second time. I figured there must have been a few dozen people in the same city at the same time as me, at least twice each, but we just didn’t see each other that second time. I had a friend in Mississippi who went to New York twice a year on buying trips, and I went to New York about once a year on business during the 60s and 70s. We agreed that we both might be in New York at the same time someday, so we agreed to call each other any time we planned New York trips. And sure enough. One time we were both in New York at the same time, and we had a lot of fun together. One time in 20 years.

LOL, there were at least 2 of those guys, huh?

Here's one for sale at a local Indian trading post:

I think it was a radio and magazine advertise campaign with that phrase in it. Meaning, gas was quick and easy to light and adjust, and was the modern way to cook.

LOL, you young whippersnapper! When I was a little kid in the mid-40s, my folks rented a small apartment in a small Southern town, and my mother had to cook our dinner on a wood-burning kitchen stove. In my Grandmother's rural home, she used a kerosine kitchen stove into the early 1960s.

Sleazy detectives and dangerous dames, filmed mostly at night.

I think one reason I liked the zither music all the way through the film is because every time I went out of this country, for work or on vacation, where ever I went had its own local music playing on taxi radios, in cafes, and on family and store radios as I passed by them, all over town and in the rural areas too. So it was always like a trip "theme song" all the way through each of my trips. I even bought some local music tapes so I could replay that local music when I got back home, so I could better remember my trips. Like this.....

Abbie was a harmless clown. The FBI would have gone after Dellinger if they did that sort of thing. He was far more dangerous.

Well, in the news business... I met several killers.... some before they were arrested and some afterwards.

I thought it was great!

Hey lydecker.... get wise to yourself.

RMS Mauritania Mid-Atlantic Vautrin, Steerage Class, Please send more Vera Miles cheesecake photos STOP I will arrive in London Thursday afternoon STOP Meet me at Victoria Station at 3 PM STOP Fred C. Dobbs

People who hate seeing a lot of snow in movies.

I think a lot of us have a few films that we can watch any time they are on, and THE THIRD MAN is like that for me. I love this one. It is quite experimental, such as with the type of background music, and all those Dutch Tilts, more than any other movie. And those large vast street scenes at night that required so many big arc lights and wet streets to reflect the light to brighten up the wide night scenes. And all the Austrian actors in the film, who were really good. I study the film every time it is on. By the way, the older lady eating the soup in the cafe is an English actress, suggesting to me that the indoor scenes in the cafe were filmed in England. She was in HOBSON'S CHOICE, and her name was Madge Brindley.

This scene was set up and timed out to match the pre-recorded music. Even the falling of the leaves is timed to match the tempo of the music. Note that men on ladders are slowly dropping the leaves at a certain rate to match the music. (Note that more leaves have accumulated in front of Joseph Cotton than anywhere else along the road.... because of the leaf-men on the ladders).

Well.... personally.... I think the zither music in this film is the best movie music ever used in any film. I had the movie on last night while I was in bed, with my eyes closed, and I could follow the visuals of every scene when the music was playing. Perfectly recorded and edited and much of the film was edited to match the music, rather than the music being written to match the edited film. I know this after years of editing film to pre-recorded music while making documentary films.