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Gooper is wed to Mae (Madeleine Sherwood), a shrill and annoying woman with several obnoxious young children plus another "in the oven." Brick is wed to Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor) but has no children. Both Mae and Maggie compete for the attention of Big Daddy and his frumpy wife Ida (Judith Anderson), in the hopes of obtaining the lion's share of the estate when Big Daddy passes.
Big Daddy understandably dislikes Mae and her kids, but Maggie's cause is undermined by Brick's behavior. He is depressed, unmotivated, and drinks continuously. Perhaps worst of all, he refuses to touch his gorgeous wife, because he blames her (as well as himself) for the death of his best friend, Skipper. Following a bad game and a hotel room visit by Maggie, Skipper jumped from a high rise hotel room.
How others will see it. This 1958 version of the famous Tennessee Williams play is the earliest and best known screen adaptation. It was nominated for six Oscars, but failed to win any, largely due to Gigi. The cast is first class: Taylor, Newman, and Carson were household names, while Burl Ives soon would be. Taylor is ravishing and provides sumptuous eye candy, and women would likely say the same about Newman.
Williams' exaggerated characters and situations create a tumultuous soap opera plot involving latent homosexuality, suicide, terminal illness, golddigging, and alcoholism. The movie is at the same time hard to watch yet hard to turn away from, similar to the scene of a devastating car accident.
How I felt about it. It is said that Williams hated this adaptation of his long-running Broadway play. I have not read the source play, but it appears that Brick had homosexual feelings for the ill-fated Skipper, and the ending is modified by a return to the stage for Ives and a happy ending for Newman and Taylor. The commercial and critical success of the movie redeemed the decisions of Richard Brooks, regardless of whether or not Williams cared for them. It can be certain that he enjoyed depositing the six or seven figure check for the movie rights.
Since I am unfamiliar with the play, it is difficult to know whether to blame Williams or Brooks for the ridiculous characters. Mae and her bratty children are uniformly obnoxious to such an extent that they are parodies, particularly when they are trying to be charming. Taylor as Maggie hits fewer wrong notes, but her character is even less credible. Apparently, she has about ten conversations with her husband each day, all of which involve her trying to get him to have sex with her. You would think that eventually she would get the message.