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 employ 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 is freely adapted from short stories by southern laureate William Faulkner. These opulent, atmospheric films are 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 charismatic as the ambitious, mysterious stranger, ingratiating himself into the secrets and lies of a rich family of cotton planters while romancing a repressed schoolteacher (Joanne Woodward). Lee Remick plays a sexy and manipulative siren married to the shiftless son of Orson Welles' overbearing patriarch.  

This is a dreadful performance from the hugely overweight Welles. He is unintelligible. But I really like this genre, full of poetic, philosophical digressions and obsessed with sex. The film has a wonderfully rich, dreamy ambience but it's a mostly a star vehicle for the young, handsome Paul Newman.

Too Hot to Hustle, Too Slack to Sizzle - The Long Hot Summer review by griggs

The Long, Hot Summer is a steamy Southern potboiler that can't settle on tone—part romance, part family feud, part swaggering star vehicle.

It marked Martin Ritt's return after blacklisting, and you sense him juggling studio gloss with bolder instincts. Sometimes it clicks. Paul Newman strides through the film with effortless charm and a shirt barley clinging to his chest. Joanne Woodward brings fire and wit, while Orson Welles—well, he goes full tilt in a performance that teeters between theatrical and absurd.

The plot meanders, and the tone sways like a porch swing in a heatwave. But it's not without it pleasures: tart dialogue, sultry glances, and a thick Mississippi atmosphere. Flawed but fascinating, it's a film caught between eras—old Hollywood sheen rubbing up against something looser, sweatier and more modern.

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!