"CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF"

It seems to me that the key to any Tennessee Williams’ melodrama, and probably an essential element to most melodrama, is a firm control of the flow of information. Things are gradually and meticulously revealed, and it helps if there is one especially closed off character who opens up emotionally as everything comes to the fore. It is essential for the audience to have burning questions about characters.
For example, here, the audience likes Paul Newman but has no idea why he is so cold to his wife. It’s Elizabeth Taylor! Is it just that she wants the family estate? So she wants a home, that doesn’t seem like a crime. It KILLS us: why, Paul, why? When it all comes out, the film packs an emotional whallop on par with Streetcar.
However, there certainly was a bit more art to the film production of Streetcar. The light and shadows on Blanche’s face, the smoky texture of Stanley and Stella’s apartment…This production, in color, feels more like a filmed play. Naturally, melodrama is enhanced by close-ups—they focus our attention on the emotional state of a certain character. This story also benefits by the filmic possibilities of sound: privacy is a key theme here, and the constant noise of Big Daddy’s grandchildren parading around the green of the manor is effectively grating.
While acting-wise, nearly everyone is good here, one is particularly struck by Paul Newman and the actress who plays Big Mama. Newman gives Brick certain ways of standing, looking at people, and talking; he truly gives the character his own habits and mannerisms—an excellent element of acting that is not practiced as much as it should be.