Drama in pajamas

Last night my plans were changed due to poor weather. It actually worked out okay, as I was trying to determine a night for me to stay in, and watch a couple of old movies.

I recently DVR'd a movie I'd never seen, 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'. The movie stars Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, and Burl Ives, (whom you may only know as the narrator in the Christmas classic 'Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer' - and yes was in real life he was shaped rather like a snowman).

I'll start first by saying that I thoroughly enjoy old movies. I like the over-acting that dominates mid century films. I revel in the cheesy story lines, hand painted backdrops, period language and clothing, and the general camp-y-ness feel of the entire production.

Now relatively speaking I have seen very few of these silver screen gems. My (so far) all time favorite, hands down, is 'The Seven Year Itch'. It completely embodies all of the above mentioned qualities. If you have not seen 'The Seven Year Itch', I highly recommend it. It stars Marilyn Monroe, and Tom Ewell. The story is basically about a man who fantasizes about his upstairs neighbor, while his wife spends the summer, (with a hunky guy?) at the lake. He has dreams, and imaginary sequences and some very real encounters with the ditzy character played by Monroe. It is the best!

So now I feel that I can properly continue on about 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'. I had no idea what it was about, and I found it to be really entertaining. It captures the attention of the audience very early with interal questions like, "Why does Brick drink so much? Why does he hate Maggie? Who is this mysterious best friend?

The movie deals with the issues of alcoholism and 'mendacity'. The lies told, believed, and lived by others. Something that really stood out to me, (and the enitre point of today's article...) is the way the wives behave in this film. It is comletely parallel of people I (used to) know very well. There is the husband stomping around, making demands, and generally crusty, however, that is his natural character in public and private. Then there is the wife, running behind the husband, making excuses for his poor behavior, trying to distract everyone with jokes and songs. (Just because that it someone's behavior, doesn't make it acceptable...)

Let me describe this in a way we can visualize:

Imagine an empty front yard in perfect suburbia.
Imagine a pretty wife standing in the front yard, chatting to the neighbors, waving to the kids on bikes that pass by.
Uh-oh, here comes the husband in a huge, loud, stinking dump truck!
The wife continues to smile and wave.
The husband wrecks the grass, runs over th garden gnome, and dumps a huge load of fresh shit right on the wife's feet, and drives away laughing, (is he drunk?)
There's the wife still smiling and waving, telling the neighbors how nice it was that her husband went out of his way to drop off fertilizer for their garden! "So considerate!"
"Oh how the flowers will grow in this lovely manue!" she exclaims.

The exact expression escapes me right now, but it is something like, "he spews shit, and she plants flowers in it."

Watching this movie was like a walk down memory lane. The drama of greed in families, and alcoholism in relationships. Glad I'm off that road!