Kim Stanley is Big Mama - 1/2 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

"Some men stop drinking when they get married - others start." The one and only Kim Stanley plays Big Mama in one of her all too rare TV performances. She was often called the Female Brando.and Marlon said after watching Kim Stanley's performance in the TV adaptation "Perhaps the most brilliant interpretation of one of Tennessee's characters since Vivien Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire."

[@martinpascoe7678]

Jessica Lange and Kim Stanley together! They must have loved working with each other , remember the two of them cat-fighting in FRANCES

[@JoanBette]

Kim Stanley is genius in this...I just keep watching over and over again just for her performance

[@surejack5]

OMG - brilliant actress - I get chills, always have. "The Goddess" is beyond compare.

[@jubalcalif9100]

I heartily concur ! It's shame she didn't do more films & TV !! One of the true icons & a true National Treasure !!

[@JoanBette]

Kim Stanley is perfect...I grew up in the South and there were many women just like Big Momma and she gets it just right.

[@lotteweill]

Brando gets it exactly right. Kim Stanley nails every syllable WOW Big Mama becomes the richest character in all her scenes. Not by scene stealing but by being the one revealing the most truth, as written by T W.

[@makeittrue]

Love Kim Stanley and her lines: "Oh, I hate locked doors in a house!" Maggie: " ....people need some moments of privacy don't they?" Big Mama: "No ma'am,... not in my house."---Big Mama's two lines here....underlying her own frustration subconsciously about her relationships with Big Daddy, Brick.....Love it!

[@Calers-gu1ib]

Kim was a great actress. Burl Ives, Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor and Jack Carson in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, you'd think people would be too afraid to remake it

[@noelnewlon]

Kim Stanley comes across as supremely genuine.

[@wilfordfraser6347]

This woman is captivating to watch

[@bunkaunk]

This is from the 1984 TV movie which was probably the first time a national audience was able to see "Cat" in something resembling the way T W wrote it. It starred Tommy Lee Jones as Brick, Jessica Lange as Maggie, Rip Torn as Big Daddy and, of course, Kim Stanley as Big Mama. The production was effective and presented the play so the audience could see the full effect of the themes and the social satire brings the play alive. This cannot be said of the Taylor/Newman version. I say Taylor/Newman but they are both fine actors and are not to blame for what was done to the play. The film changed the plot, cut half the lines while adding non TW lines and sanitized everything about it so that the original play is barely recognizable. They did not even hint at the homosexual themes and social satire that that are the basis of the play. Williams actually recommended that movie goers not see that film. While this is a good version, there were some things that dampened the effect of the play that are common to all the movie versions with the exception of the recent NTL version from 2018. The play has to be understood by the actors and director. There is a lot of humor in it and the social satire has to be played with a bit of twinkle. Too often Cat is presented without making the lines humorous, and comes off as a dreary tragedy. The other thing is that movie makers can't stop themselves from trying to "improve" things with "opening up the play," by placing some of the scenes outside of Brick and Maggie's bedroom. I think they imagine that the only reason everything is in the bedroom is because it is too hard to change scenes in a play. While that can work in some cases it is not the case here. The bedroom ties all the characters together and gives the impression that they are all imprisoned by their lies and by their social repressions. Like Big Daddy their world is dying and they have no real way out. Lying will not save them, the truth without courage and love will not save them. and love will not save them without truth and courage. They make attempts at telling the truth and loving and even say they are doing that, but they can't seem to muster the courage to make it happen at the same time. "Oh you weak people, Oh you weak beautiful people, who give up with such grace," says Maggie in a moment of clarity. The concept is captured in the last words of the play after Maggie tells Brick that she really does love him and he replies, "Wouldn't it be funny of that were true."

[@TheUnabashedQueer]

Kim Stanley. Wow.

[@teeniebeenie8774]

she should have gotten the emmy for this monumental role!!!!!

[@alexfernandohuenten1374]

Awesome

[@deanbellais3649]

Honey...Kim Stanley IS the South. She is my Mama Mutt through and through. All these other folks are pretenders.

[@jacktwist5907]

wow!

[@judywhiting1675]

Ive been in the theatre my whole life...had the leads in other 65 musicals and some plays (my fave is Sondheim)...lll probably be horsewhipped but lm not a Williams fan...all... absolutely everyone of his plays are GRIM. Torturous...all over the edge...ready for an asylum.....l adore Vivien Leigh...and lm ALWAYS fascinated with Willians novella.....ROMAN SPRING OF MRS STONE ..the ending of course is very ambiguous...but fascinating....Warren Beattys.accent was hideous(almost ruined his career)..but Vivien was still gorgeous and wore THE most stunning clothes.,...lve done. Moliere..Sondheim.. Candide....G&S.. lotta shows...no Williams.tho.....well.his pkays are enthralling...and have stayed the test of time(l thot Tommy Kee looked divoon)

[@danielstanwyck2812]

the movie with baby-voiced luscious Liz Taylor was a slow-hauling epic cry baby everybody lets feel sorry for ourselves show. the play itself is filled with over-played characterizations. this play doesn't even have a hint of poetry, just a bunch of yapping screechy actors dong the playwrights bidding. and not a one of them are especially, or even remotely likable. who gives a crap kim stanley is delectable, even with the maudlin overtones of her character. too much crying in their salty beers.

[@krasnerd]

Has it occurred to you that the parents are called BIG Daddy and BIG Mama? That they're supposed to live up to their names? What drama school did you graduate from, anyway?!

[@infonut]

Stanley flubbed a few lines. I don't know WHERE Rip got his. And Tommy was smoldering, as usual. (We could have used more beef as he has GREAT legs and nice chest). But it's Lange that blew me away when I fist saw this. I didn't think she had it in her. She glides. Real smooth.

[@photo161]

Sorry, but to me, as someone who has worked in the theatre for decades, in my opinion, Stanley is overacting, plain and simple. And I see a tendency to upstage as well. although I readily confess that that is largely conjecture on my part. In any case, she doesn't seem to be creating a character that would have been for all these years so totally subservient to Big Daddy nor so apparently self-effacing, self-sacrificing and seemingly so readily overlooked by the others in the family. She seems rather to be quite histrionically self-important and demanding of attention, even of authority...a very "big" performance in any case, for better or not.

[@krasnerd]

Sorry, but you wouldn't know great acting if it fell on your head.

[@vl9919]

That overacting is very Southern matriarch. I’ve seen that behavior many times. I haven’t seen this entire performance, but it seems to me that she nails it.

[@kdohertygizbur]

Her character is written that way, next you will complain that Big Daddy should whisper his Mendacity Speech