Year Released: 1958
Directed by; Martin Ritt
Starring: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Anthony Franciosa, Orson Welles, Lee Remick, Angela Lansbury
(Not Rated, 115 min.)
Genre: Drama

Cannes Film Festival 1958
Best Actor: Paul Newman

The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” –William Faulkner

Yes, he’s a con man at best, and a ruthless opportunist who doesn’t seem to care whom he hurts along the way, but his slick charm draws us in even if the prim Clara seems immune to it.

Accused barn burner and conman Ben Quick (Paul Newman) arrives in a small Mississippi town and quickly ingratiates himself with its richest family, the Varners

Don’t be put off by a cheesy theme song that really doesn’t fit the film, or the equally cheesy trailer. The film itself is one of Paul Newman’s best, in Different Drummer’s opinion.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof might be a greater classic, since it is a pure bred, all Tennessee Williams. But Newman’s performance in The Long, Hot Summer is electric, one reason he won the Best Actor Award from the Cannes Film Festival that year.

The Long, Hot Summer is a hybrid based on 3 short stories by William Faulkner, with a nod to Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The 3 being the 1931 novella Spotted Horses, the 1939 short story, “Barn Burning,” and the 1940 novel The Hamlet. “Some characters, as well as the tone, were inspired by Williams’ 1955 play, also starring Paul Newman, which was released five months later.” –Gabriel Miller

Another excellent analysis of the relationship between Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Long, Hot Summer:

Like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, there’s a crude, fearsome Big Daddy type, Will Varner (Welles.) Ditto Cat’s Brick, there’s a man-child son, Jody (Franciosa.) Jody’s wife is a sexy Maggie the Cat type, Eula (Remick.) Will is a widower, so he doesn’t have a Big Mama to mistreat, but he does have goodhearted town whore to selectively ignore, Minnie Littlejohn (Lansbury.) –Rick’s Real/Reel Life

By the way, Orson Welles, looking more like the corpulent “I will sell no wine before its time” huckster he ended up becoming in his latter years, hated the role, and it is evident in his phoned in performance as Different Drummer sees it. By the way, Welles was only 42 years old when he played the part of 62 year old Will Varner. It turns out that Welles only took the role to pay off a tax debt of $150,00. Years later, he confessed, “I hated making Long, Hot Summer, I’ve seldom been as unhappy in a picture.”

This film marks the first film pairing of the real life married couple Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, but they were in several other films together. They were married for fifty years, from 1958 until Paul Newman’s death in 2008. Here is what Newman once said of his wife:

“I don’t like to discuss my marriage, but I will tell you something which may sound corny, but which happens to be true. I have a steak at home. Why should I go out for hamburger?”

Take a look at some of their cinema sparks here:

One can see why Paul Newman fell in love with Joanne Woodward in the film and in real life. She is the real thing, a woman of great quality, and she tells Newman’s Ben Quick exactly that when her daddy tries to barter her away to him in order to add some virility to his lineage.

I am a human being. Do you know what that means? It means I set a price on myself, a high, high price. You may be surprised to know it, but I’ve got quite a lot to give. I got things I’ve been saving up my whole life! Things like love and understanding and... and jokes and good times, and good cooking. I’m prepared to the Queen of Sheba for some lucky man …or at the very least the best wife a man could hope for. Now that is my human history … and it’s not going to be bought and sold …and it’s certainly not going be given away to any passin’ stranger.

And that is about as close to feminism as you are going to get in 1958, and it outclasses most of the ranting screeds we hear today. It is the simple truth from someone who sees her own worth as a full human being.

Take a step back to a simpler time, and enjoy this sizzler.

–Kathy Borich
🥁🥁🥁🥁

Trailer

Film-Loving Foodie

I will let Sarah Ramsey of Wide Open Eats.com take it from here:

The mint julep was one of Faulkner's signature drinks (the other was a hot toddy), so much so that during his over 20 years writing screenplays in Hollywood, the bartenders at Musso and Frank's Back Room allowed him behind the bar to make his own mint julep.

Maybe it's not surprising then that the writer and the race crossed paths. In 1955, Sports Illustrated invited Faulkner to cover the 81st running of the Kentucky Derby.

Faulkner was no stranger to horses, as his father had owned a livery stable in Oxford, and he loved to ride. Horses also featured in some of his work; his last novel The Reivers culminates in a horse race.

But his knowledge wasn't why the fledgling magazine wanted him. They were looking for A-level talent to raise the profile of the publication, and Faulkner had already won his first Noble Prize in Literature. In fact, it was as Faulkner arrived in Louisville, Kentucky, in May 1955 that he learned he had just been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The story goes that sports writer Whitey Tower was supposed to keep Faulkner away from the whiskey, at least enough to turn in 300 words a night.

According to Whitey Tower, who was to cover the actual race while Faulkner was to cover the days leading up to the race, Faulkner was a character, and maybe a little like the hard drinking ones he created:

Faulkner saw Swaps whip Nashua in the memorable Derby of 1955, but what he relished most of all during his week in Louisville was an introduction to Red Smith and a visit to the aging stallion Mahmoud at a Lexington farm. Faulkner wrote 300 words a night on his old portable, and the Western Union chief to whom I turned this copy in around midnight thought I was playing a game with him. All 300 words were written without punctuation of any sort, not even a final period. –Whitey Tower

Enjoy his delicious Mint Julep, today even if the Kentucky Derby was almost two months ago.

William Faulkner’s Mint Julep

· Bourbon whiskey, 2.5-3 ounces

· One teaspoon of sugar

· One or two sprigs of fresh mint

· Ice, crushed

Place the mint leaves and sugar in the bottom of the glass and crush the mint leaves, mixing them with the sugar. (To be completely authentic, use a pewter cup that's been sitting in the refrigerator or freezer long enough to be frosted.)

Fill the glass or cup with crushed ice, then add the bourbon. Add a few mint leaves to the top of the ice or stick a sprig in the glass.