Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Orson Welles, Anthony Franciosa, Lee Remick and Angela Lansbury co-star in this riveting tale of life in the Deep South. Provocative and compelling, it simmers with sexual tension, bawdy humor and a powerful clash of personalities. When Ben Quick (Newman), a suspected barnburner drifts into town, he catches the eye of Will Varner, a tyrannical, intimidating patriarch (Welles) who decides Quick is the ideal husband for his spinsterish daughter (Woodward). But once the loner moves in, the two men lock horns, drawing Varner's family into a complex web of emotions and actions that leaves all of them changed forever.
Paul Newman has his glorious youthful swagger in this southern-fried melodrama, which marked his first picture with Joanne Woodward (they married after shooting ended). The script is a melange of William Faulkner stories, although it appears more under the influence of Tennessee Williams and Picnic than the Nobel Prize winner. Drifter Newman catches the eye of schoolmarm Woodward and her father, a rural Mississippi bigshot (Orson Welles). This is not one of Welles's better moments; he appears to be conducting make-up experiments. There is some enjoyable flapdoodle along the way, in the Freud-meets-Gone with the Wind manner of '50s southern cooking, but the ending is embarrassingly compromised. The same production team would leave out the box-office concessions a few years later on Hud. A studly Newman justifies this description of his character: "I wish I was Ben Quick. He's got the whole state of Mississippi to graze on." --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
One of my favorite Pual Newman Movie:
Love this movie! I cannot tell you how many times I have seen this movie. All the actors are excellent in this and Paul.....whew, looks Great!!
The Long, Hot Summer:
Paul and Joanne at their best. This and "Cat on..." are both in the same category...excellent movies at their best!!!
The Long Hot Summer:
This was a great movie in excellent condition and received on time. I really appreciate it and will keep ordering. Thank you,
Barbara P.
Great Summer:
This is one of my favorite "summer movies" that I remember from when I was growing up. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward are wonderful together.
