The Long, Hot Summer (1958)

It's not fair. Ladies who watch "The Long, Hot Summer" get the twin eye candy of Paul Newman and Anthony Franciosa for their pains. What do the fellas get? Joanne Woodward playing a spinster schoolteacher -- Woodward's a fine actress, but doesn't exactly ooze sex appeal.

This turgid melodrama is loosely based on a William Faulkner story -- "loosely," because Faulkner never wrote anything so silly as this. Everything starts out promisingly enough with strong acting and a stultifying atmosphere provided by director Martin Ritt that matches the subject matter perfectly. But the plot collapses into hysteria toward the film's end, and the climax is one overheated blur.

Grade: C+

Fmovies: The Long Hot Summer is chiefly noted for the fact that Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward made their joint cinematic debut in this film. One of Hollywood's best personal and professional partnerships, Joanne had won a Best Actress Oscar for The Three Faces of Eve the year before and it took Paul thirty more years to match it for their mantelpiece in The Color of Money.

Based on some William Faulkner short stories, The Long Hot Summer commences when Joanne Woodward and Lee Remick, daughter and daughter-in-law of local patriarch Orson Welles give drifter Paul Newman a lift into town. Woodward's a repressed school teacher and Welles despairs of her finding a suitable match.

Because he started dirt poor and worked his way up to the top, Welles takes a liking to Newman and pushes, a little too hard for Newman and Woodward to team up. That's not sitting real well with Anthony Franciosa who is Welles's son and sees Newman displacing him in the family pecking order.

In fact my favorite in the film is Franciosa, he usually is in any film he's in. When he's on the screen, you don't pay attention to anyone else, not even Orson Welles.

Welles borrows a bit from Tennessee Williams's Big Daddy Pollitt from the Paul Newman film the year before, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof. His Will Varner though is a bit softer around the edges, also lends itself more easily to caricature. I think the creators of The Dukes of Hazzard used Welles in The Long Hot Summer as their model for Boss Hogg.

In fact it's interesting to see the contrast in The Long Hot Summer and Cat On a Hot Tin Roof. It's obvious to me that William Faulkner liked the people of Mississippi a whole lot more than the southerners that are in Tennessee Williams's work.

Almost fifty years later, The Long Hot Summer is still enjoyable viewing and still may be the best of Paul and Joanne's joint ventures.

This is one of the great guilty pleasure movies. Orson Welles, Paul Newman, and Joanne Woodward are all wonderful, and the supporting cast is just fine. The plot is delightfully incoherent, and everyone gets a chance to chew on the scenery. As a big fan of Faulkner, I find the way the screenwriters have jumbled together characters, themes and episodes from various books especially entertaining (although the sensibilities of the characters are more Tennessee Williams, or Tennessee Tuxedo even, than Faulkner, which just adds to the pleasure).

The producer was Jerry Wald, and this has the look and feel that is (at least to me) characteristic of his movies.

The Long, Hot Summer fmovies. I saw this film again last night at an old-time movie palace, in an audience of about 2,000 people. The film, which I had seen before, was even more enjoyable then the previous times I had seen it on TV. For one thing, it has some very lovely and well executed uses of the CinemaScope frame. It shows both the dry openness of the landscape, as well as the lush extravagance of the plantation estate which belongs to Orson Welles' character. I'm not too familiar with Faulkner's stories, but the plot elements of this film flow together rather nicely, and there isn't really a dull moment in the whole picture. The only part which is still difficult for me to take, is the resolution of the conflict between Welles' and Franciosa's characters. That scene builds up to something in a matter of minutes, and then suddenly it's over. I could hear disappointment in some audience members in the theater as well, including one person who shouted "What the heck was that about?". This aside, it's still a worthwhile film to see, and the acting of Newman, Woodward, and Welles are standouts. There are also plenty of (probably unintentional) laughs to be had as well. One of the better soap opera-type films to come out of the late 1950s.

Considering the cast and the fine Faulkner story, I was expecting wonderful things from this movie, maybe another Splendor in the Grass, but I felt badly let down.

The script was, in a word, wretched. There were unmotivated strong emotions, stilted dialog, not helped by poorly faked Southern accents from players who are not not native Southerners, loaded with plot holes and murky relationships that seemed to go up and down like the stock market.

The cast that looked so good on paper didn't cut it. Anthony Franciosa looked like high school senior play. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, who went on to Academy Award performances later, were just over the top and struggling with bad dialog in this one. I thought Orson Welles and Angela Lansbury were was excellent playing off each other, but their relationship in a subplot was undefined and didn't advance the story at all.

My family, with different generations, watched the movie at home on DVD with me and their reaction was similar to mine: a sympathetic disappointment in the work of some of our favorite players.

Interesting and thought-provoking melodrama with marvelous acting from the entire cast , and outstanding Paul Newman as a stranger bringing with him a reputation for burning people's barns if they cross him . As Ben Quick (Paul Newman) , a young opportunist dirifter arrives in a little town and problems brewing . On the basis to get a job , Ben makes a strong impression on his landlord Will Varner (Orson Welles, he was 42 years old, but was cast as a 61 year old man due to his weight ) , the town bigwig and he meets his match in his sassy daughter Clara Varner (Joanne Woodward) . As Ben quickly ingratiates himself with its richest family, the Varners , formed by father , Will Varner (Welles) and sons : Clara , Eula Varner (Lee Remick ) married to Jody (Anthony Franciosa) .



This tense and well performed adapatation is based on two short stories and part of a novel by Nobel winner William Faulkner , set in a small Mississippi town . The picture shot Paul Newmans as a man taken under a Southern patriarch's wing , his wife Joanne Woodward , and Lee Remick to stardom . Newman and his real-wife , Woodward , luckily carry the whole movie as the main roles . This is the first on-screen pairing of Newman and Woodward ; in fact , a month after production wrapped, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward got married in Las Vegas. In this movie there is betrayal , scheming, seduction, improbable luck , suspicion, vengeance , heroism, compassion, and redemption . The locations, the soundtrack by Alex North , cinematography by cameraman Joseph LaShelle and the dramatic moments as well as the love stories between characters deliver an attractive and interesting flick . When the drama emerges there takes place incident and passion , and there's plenty of both . Paul Newman gives a fine acting as an accused barn burner and con man . Joanne Woodward is first-class as the spinster daughter Clara and one of the best characters . Support cast is pretty nice . Anthony Franciosa is fine as Welles' wimpish son who schemes a relentless vendetta . Orson Welles provides a boisterous and top-notch acting as the tyrannical Mississippi ¨pater familias¨ on his larger-than-life role . Lee Remick is wonderful as his sweet-natured daughter ; besides , Angel Lansbury as Will's longtime mistress . Being remade for TV in 1986 by Stuart Cooper with Don Johnson , Cybill Shepard , Jason Robards and Judith Ivey .

The motion picture was well directed by Martin Ritt . The smash hit of the film helped Martin Ritt reestablish himself as a major director. Martin was one of the best and most sensitive American directors of all time, was a director, actor and playwright who worked in both film and theater. He was born in New York City. His films reflect, like almost none other, a profound and intimate humane vision of his roles . Ritt went on to direct 25 more films, including such classics as Black orchid (1958) , Hud (1963), The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) , Hombre (1967) ,The Great White Hope (1970), Norma Rae (1979) and Murphy romance (1985). He was Blacklisted in the 1950s for his alleged support of causes deemed to be "Communist" by the House Un-American Activities Committee