Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-01-22 (Wednesday)

On 1/23/2025 3:40 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
 

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (TCM) 1958 drama starring Paul Newman and
Elizabeth Taylor as a bickering married couple visiting Newman's wealthy
father after the father is diagnosed with a terminal illness.  Newman's
brother and sister-in-law scheme to get the inheritance, but Newman is
too busy drinking and feeling sorry for himself to care.  This was my
first time watching this movie.  I really didn't like it.  It was well
enough acted, but none of the characters were likeable, and the way
Newman was treating his family made me actively not like him.  I don't
care that he was a depressed drunk.  Being a depressed drunk doesn't
make a character likeable.

 Elizabeth Taylor as Maggie the Cat was absolutely gorgeous in this.

Yes she was.
I

rather sympathized with the Jack Carson character. In the stage play,
Brick was of course in love with the dead boy in the backstory

I thought so!!!!  I was watching and just kept saying to myself, so they were in love with each other, right?  Dude had Elizabeth Taylor in her prime lusting after him, just begging to get pregnant, and he wanted *nothing* to do with her.  That was the first clue!  LOL.
But it was never mentioned in the movie. Then when they pulled the whole he thought they were having an affair I just dropped it.  But it makes so much more sense if Newman and his buddy were secret lovers.
  but

Hollywood had the temerity to rewrite Shakespeare.
 If you don't care for Paul Newman in this Tennessee Williams adaption,
then I strongly urge you to stay away from Sweet Bird of Youth (1962).
You will not like the ending.
 

Never heard of it before.  I'll try to be sure to avoid it.

The Sugarland Express (TCM) 1974 drama directed by Steven Spielberg and
starring Goldie Hawn as woman who forces her husband (William Atherton)
to escape from prison 4 months before he was going to get out anyway, so
the two of them can steal their kid back from foster care.  Things take
a turn for the worse real fast and the two quickly wind up on the run
with a cop as a hostage and half the Texas police force after them. They
also become celebrities with people along the way coming out to cheer
them on.  I'm not sure if I ever watched this before or not.  I want to
say I probably did years ago, but nothing about the movie seemed
particular familiar.  Anyway, I didn't care much for it.  The movie is
noteworthy for being Spielberg's theatrical directorial debut.  This was
also the first he collaborated with John Williams.

 I thought they had already collaborated on episodes from a tv anthology.
 I've never seen this.

I think the TCM host said it was their first collaboration, but maybe he meant theatrical.  You're not missing much by never having watched it. I suspect it was better in 1974, but today, it's old and dated, and without nostalgia, pretty much a waste of time.  I'm not saying it's a bad movie.  Spielberg brought his A game as director and the cast is great.  But the overall movie just never rose beyond meh.  It suffers from having characters you don't care about, doing stupid things.