Paul Newman: Luck is an Art
"Bolstered by extraordinary performances, this tale's a summer sizzler."—Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle
After Brick Pollitt (Paul Newman) injures himself while drunkenly revisiting his high school sports-star days, he and his tempestuous wife, Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor), visit his family's Mississippi plantation for the 65th birthday of his hot-tempered father, Big Daddy (Burl Ives). Cantankerous even with declining health, Big Daddy demands to know why Brick and Maggie haven't yet given him a grandchild, unlike Brick's brother Gooper (Jack Carson) and his fecund wife, Mae (Madeleine Sherwood).
Adapted from the 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning Tennessee Williams play, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof earned Newman his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. The film received six nominations overall. Later in life, when discussing his own alcoholism, Newman would compare himself to Brick, looking for that “click.”