The Long, Hot Summer (1958)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Sorry, this movie sucks

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

RELEASED IN 1958 and directed by Martin Ritt, "The Long, Hot Summer" is a Southern Gothic drama about an accused arsonist and opportunist (Paul Newman) who drifts into a Mississippi town and ingratiates himself with the wealthiest family, the Varners. Orson Welles plays the widower Varner patriarch, who's disappointed in his weak son (Anthony Franciosa) and unmarried daughter (Joan Woodward). Thus he sets his sights on the ambitious newcomer to properly carry on the Varner legacy. Lee Remick plays the son's wife and Richard Anderson appears as the daughter's seeming suitor, a Mama's boy. Angela Lansbury is also on hand as Varner's mistress who longs for marriage.The notable cast is great and the beautiful southern locations are magnificent. So I was expecting a quality drama, but the writing is weak. Examples: Would this new drifter really be able to switch from being a sharecropper to a horse seller to a store clerk so successfully in the matter of a few days? I could handle this, though, and the bulk of the movie is okay late 50's drama; nothing great, but okay.The lousy writing in the last act, however, ruins everything: Would the townsfolk really rush to lynch someone who clearly was nowhere near the crime scene? Would one character so readily warm up to another who idiotically just tried to murder him and slay several innocent creatures? After two hours of tension and bickering, even murder plots, would everyone just smile & hug and that's the end? Then there's the contrived "treasure in the front yard" element. Why sure! In other news: This was the film where Newman and Woodward met. They married the same year the film was released and stayed together until Paul's death in 2008 (50 years!).THE MOVIE RUNS 115 minutes and was shot entirely in Louisiana. WRITER: Irving Ravetch & Harriet Frank Jr. wrote the script from William Faulkner's novel.GRADE: C-/D+ (3.5/10)

1958 was certainly the year for Paul Newman and southern drama. He appeared in both THE LONG HOT SUMMER, adapted from Faulkner short stories and one novel, and Williams' CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF. The coincidences don't end there.SPOILERS FOLLOW IN ANALYZING THE PLOTS:Both works have an overweight "boss" - Will Varner in the first, Big Daddy in the second. Both have returned from a hospital visit. Although Big Daddywill have a terminal diagnosis, Varner has seemingly none at all, although we expect any moment to learn otherwise, as Varner seems pushed to get his first daughter married and pregnant, which would seem to indicate he is aware of his mortality.Varner has an ineffectual son, Jody, who can do nothing right. Big Daddy has a son who can do nothing right, Gooper. Both Varner and Big Daddy have a fondness for the characters played by Newman, Ben Quick and Brick. There is a strong, defiant woman in each, Clara Varner and Maggie.Switching to Williams' SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, Newman plays a drifter, Chance Wayne. In THE LONG HOT SUMMER, Newman plays a drifter, Ben Quick. In THE LONG HOT SUMMER, Varner has a local mistress, Minnie. In SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, the Big Daddy character, Boss Finley, has a local mistress, Miss Lucy.So you can see someone stole from someone. Since the names of the Faulkner stories are not given credits, unless one is a Faulkner scholar, one can't look up the publishing dates. These could be applied to the dates both of Williams' plays premiered on Broadway. I tend to think there is a good chance that it was Williams who stole these plot ideas from Faulkner. It might be an interesting topic for a school or college paper.As far as the film THE LONG HOT SUMMER goes, it is compelling, constantly interesting, superbly directed by Martin Ritt, and universally both well cast and well played. The heat between Newman and Woodward off screen leaks convincingly on screen, helping the performances of both. Welles steals the film as the patriarchal tyrant, Will Varner - I would have given him an Oscar nomination for this performance. Lansbury is wasted in a small role as Varner's mistress, as is Remick as Varner's vapid second daughter. Franciosa is excellent as the unloved son, his pain and frustration constantly evident. However, it is Woodward who shines best. Her character is level-headed, sensible, but passionate beneath. She is as much a cat on a hot tin roof as is Williams' Maggie, seething beneath the surface with sexual passion, but unable to fulfill it.Playing CAT and SUMMER as a double bill would be an interesting event for a college level class with discussion following.SUMMER is an excellent film, well worth your time.

Director Martin Ritt and actor Paul Newman worked together on "Hud" and "Hombre", two masterpieces. Their work on 1958's "The Long, Hot Summer", in contrast, is mostly overcooked trash.A raging rip-off of the works of Tennessee Williams and the films of Elia Kazan (despite being based on several William Faulkner stories), "The Long, Hot Summer" abounds with Southern Gothic and Southern Literature clichés. There's its sweltering hot, antebellum landscapes, its old slave homes, its fat, wealthy land barons, its disgruntled proletariat, the baron's bickering sons, its sexy, ultra masculine drifter and of course a cast of Southern women, some of whom are docile, some fiercely independent, some sexually frustrated, some promiscuous, some in need of being tamed.The film's plot is irrelevant. Better to instead focus on the film's few scenes featuring actor Orson Welles, who plays Will Verner, a hilariously bombastic family patriarch who also owns most of his small, Louisianan town. Newton is superb as well, always slick with sweat and dressed in sexy white vests. The film sports some great dialogue, and is actually well written in parts, but simply can't escape its many clichés.6/10 – Worth one viewing. See "This Property is Comdemened".

Yes, this is another trip to "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" territory. Orson Welles is Will Varner, William Faulkner's version of Big Daddy, but this time, he has the rather frigid Joanne Woodward as his daughter, and Paul Newman (here much more sexually alive as Ben Quick than he was as Brick in that Tennessee Williams classic). Secondary couple Anthony Franciosa and Lee Remick play the Jack Carson/Madeline Sherwood parts, but are MUCH more likable. Drifter Newman arrives in town, having been accused of burning a barn nearby. Already, his name is known. He takes on Welles, who actually seems to like him in spite of his mistrust. Welles is desperate for a grandchild, and Newman seems to be a better studly match for Woodward than mama's boy Richard Anderson. There seems to be some homosexual undertones for Anderson's character who still lives with the seemingly overbearing Mabel Albertson (yes, Darrin's "Bewitched" mother, oh, those sick headaches). Of course, in 1958, it is not mentioned outright (as it wasn't as well in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"), but it's fairly obvious that there's something the handsome but closeted Anderson isn't revealing. While there isn't great chemistry on screen here consistently between Woodward and Newman (married in real life, and partners in quite a few films), they do heat up in a few moments. It is much more interesting to see the work between Newman and Welles. The heavyset patriarch seems at first that he'd never like someone like Ben Quick, but when Quick immediately stands up to him, he begins to consider him like the son he wish he had instead of weak Anthony Franciosa. Quick is soon working in his store, then moves into the Varner house, and finally is ordered by Will to marry his daughter. It seems that this Southern patriarch has no class dividers; He thinks that a studly man like Newman would keep his daughter satisfied and under his thumb as long as babies are being born. What he doesn't count on are two thing's: Franciosa's sudden twist of hate, and Newman's determination not to be controlled by a man he does admire, but would never let dominate him in the way he so obviously wants to. That makes for great drama.Unfortunately, the beautiful Angela Lansbury is wasted as Welles' gal pal; She has a few nice scenes in which she is excellent as always. She is also quite beautiful here, not the harpy of some of her MGM films and certainly not the monster mama of "Manchurian Candidate". Eight years later, she would win Broadway immortality as "Mame", and there are some hints of what she would do in that part here. The beautiful Joanne Woodward had come off her Oscar Winning work in "The Three Faces of Eve", and does fine, but her screen presence as a romantic heroine wasn't established yet. She seems to be one of those actresses more comfortable on stage than screen. She is also one of the few who seemed to get more beautiful as she got older, but it appears that she was being bred to be a new Grace Kelly since that actress had gone and left Hollywood to live with a man of some means in Monaco. When Woodward got films like "Rachel, Rachel" and "Summer Wishes, Summer Dreams", where she could really show her acting chops and not just be another beautiful Ice Princess, she was fantastic. She would have to wait until the studio years were fully done in Hollywood before she could command such roles.Newman, Welles, and Lee Remick get the most outstanding parts. Remick is another one who seemed to be another Grace Kelly on the rise, but here, she gets to be flirtatious even though married to Franciosa, who can't seem to tame her. A scene where local boys call for Remick while her entire family is present is very revealing of what this family is all about. The film is beautifully photographed and a lush musical score (including a lovely title song) adds to the luster of the movie.