Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

A Tennessee Williams play adapted for film by the director of Cleopatra (1963). It’s an amazingly well-constructed Southern Gothic period piece.
Elizabeth Taylor has a dark secret. Katharine Hepburn is rich and has an agenda. They clash over the truth. Montgomery Clift tries to be the catalyst. It’s almost perfect.

4½ scorching white-hot days out of 5

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

Maggie and her husband Brick have relationship problems and in a house with no locked doors privacy is impossible. They're gathered with the rest of the family for Big Daddy's birthday, a man who knows that such gatherings are a boiling pot of arrogance and resentment.
Big Daddy (Burl Ives) thunders his way through every scene; it's a joy to watch. Taylor and Newman are on fire. Hell, even the pathetic fallacy is welcome.
The third act is essential viewing for any lover of good drama.

4 shouty Mississippians out of 5