Rent The Long Hot Summer (1958)

Southern Melodrama. - The Long Hot Summer review by Steve

One of many fifties southern dramas influenced by Tennessee Williams,  which employed similar archetypes: the photogenic drifter; an ailing, corpulent patriarch obsessed with legacy; a cerebral, inhibited (but beautiful) ice-maiden; and a hot, earthy coquette. Plus the sickly remnants of southern aristocracy.

 All these are present in The Long, Hot Summer, which was freely adapted from southern laureate William Faulkner. These  opulent, atmospheric films were soundtracked by orchestral scores and the chirping of crickets.  Usually there is the cry of a lonesome steam train, though here it is a paddle-steamer.

 Paul Newman is terrifically charismatic as the ambitious, mysterious interloper, ingratiating himself into the secrets and lies of a family of rich southern cotton planters and romancing repressed schoolteacher Joanne Woodward. Lee Remick plays a sexy and manipulative siren married to the shiftless son of Orson Welles' overbearing patriarch.  

There is a dreadful performance from the hugely overweight Welles; he is unintelligible. But I just really like this kind of film, full of poetic, philosophical dialogue and obsessed with sex. Martin Ritt does a good job with the rest of the cast. The film has a wonderfully rich, dreamy ambience but it's a mostly a starry vehicle for the beautiful, young Paul Newman.

Review - The Long Hot Summer review by sw

We had real trouble understanding the dialogue and unfortunately there were no subtitles so we gave up after half an hour. Probably quite a good film!