Maggie still adores Brick, though she is troubled by his self-destructive behavior, and Brick is angry and sullen towards Maggie because of a yet unspecified incident involving his recently-deceased friend.

Brick, recovering from his leg injury on crutches, spends all his time in his bedroom, drinking heavily and argues with Maggie about the dismal state of their marriage. Brick's wife Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor), a poor woman originally from New Orleans where they currently reside, is clever, intelligent and outspoken, and holds no small amount of contempt for Gooper and Mae's entitled attitudes and five spoiled and obnoxious offspring (which Maggie frequently refers to as 'no-neck monsters') who run around the house unsupervised and cause physical damage to the house. Gooper has lived his entire life in accordance with his father's casual instructions, and he and Mae have a 'dynasty' of five children to carry on the Pollitt name. Gooper, a lawyer who lives in Memphis and his shrew wife Mae (Madeleine Sherwood) have gone to great lengths to stay in Big Daddy's good favor. The family rumor is that the wealthy patriarch 'Big Daddy' Pollitt (Burl Ives) may have developed colon cancer and would be forced to quickly settle his will, leaving his money and land to one of his two sons before he dies. Some days later, Brick and his older brother, Gooper (Jack Carson), visit the family cotton plantation in eastern Mississippi to celebrate their father's 65th birthday on a hot and humid August day.

In the opening scene, Brick Pollitt (Paul Newman), a former high school football star, spends a drunken night jumping hurdles on a school athletic field at Eastern Mississippi High School in a tragic attempt to recapture his glory days.

Cat on a hot tin roof book review