Cheap The Long, Hot Summer (DVD) (Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward) (Martin Ritt) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Long, Hot Summer

Steam Heat
I rated this film with four stars though on most measurable levels, it is worthy of maybe three. The plot is a montage, some say mish-mash of Faulkner's literary works. Still, the film works..... most of the time. Jerry Wald's production has 1950's sensibilities written all over it. A real strength of this film lies in the charismatic on-screen performance of young Paul Newman's Ben Quick and his incendiary relationship with Orson Welles' Will Varner. It is said the editing room had to re-do much of Welles' dialogue to make it intelligible for the audience. Whatever. I am fascinated by virtually every word uttered in Welles' quirky interpretation of a portly, gravelly voiced redneck hell-bent to leave his greasy thumbprint on all who would come under his influence. For 62 year old Varner to race about town in a Jeep as his personal conveyance of choice completes the picture of a man unbowed in the presence of all others. Eager to marry his daughter off to perpetuate his legacy, Will encouraged Ben anyway he could. In all things, he could be demanding and callous, yet in a rare display of affection, Will uncharacteristically and tenderly explained to his sensitive daughter Clara, (Joanne Woodward) "Sometimes the strong just rolls over the weak." Angela Lansbury played Minnie LittleJohn, a retired women of the evening. As an inevitable consequence of age, her world weariness and palpable sense of urgency that time was running out expedited a patient and sincere pursuit of Will for his hand in marriage. Richard Anderson portrayed Alan Stewart, Clara's long-time supposed suitor, an elegant, tasteful and honorable southern gentleman. Outed by an impatient Varner, and forced to declare his sexual orientation, he had to finally declare his unsuitability for Clara's hand in marriage. To me, the one miscast major actor in this film was Anthony Franciosa as Will's disaffected son, Jody. It was difficult for me to accept a dark and somewhat ethic Franciosa as a privileged son of the deep south, though Lee Remick positively shined as his highly desirable sexually charged wife Eula. The obvious on-screen chemistry shared of Newman and Woodward in "The Long, Hot Summer" is the stuff of Hollywood legend. Those were real sparks of passion arcing between them, the camera just documented the fireworks for posterity. Their highly charged scenes make the price of admission all the more reasonable and justification enough for me to rate this film with 4 stars.

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A LONG HOT SIZZLER WITH EXTRAS TO BOOT
"The Long Hot Summer" was (for its time)a steamy study of sexual repression and sensual misbehavior. It starred Paul Newman as a drifter accused of barn burning who sets up house-keeping with the daughter (Joanne Woodward) of a rich plantation owner (Orson Welles). The on screen chemistry is certainly there and why not. This film just happened to be the catalyst for the real life romance between Newman and Woodward. Contextualizing the fact that the censors still reigned supreme during the time of its production, "The Long Hot Summer" still proved to be a smoldering, sexy drama fraught with tension and chaos.
THE TRANSFER: Fox has done a particularly nice job on remastering this movie. Yes, the flicker of scene changes (inherant in all early Cinemascope films)remains present and yes, color consistancy leaves something to be desired. But over all, colors are nicely balanced, if showing slight fading. Contrast and shadow levels are well represented. Pixelization, shimmering and edge enhancement, though all present, are kept to a bare minimum. The audio is Stereo surround and, even though considerably dated, still manages to have a hearty kick in all of the speakers.
EXTRAS: Very nice - the Backstory featurette that details the production of the film, a Paul Newman gallery, original movietone snippet and the film's theatrical trailer.
BOTTOM LINE: This is a nice presentation and a pretty good film besides. At the extremely economical price that Fox has advertised it at, "The Long Hot Summer" is guaranteed to burn up your DVD player.

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Infinitely superior to the Don Johnson remake.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The TV-movie version of "The Long, Hot Summer" suffers from miscasting (Judith Ivey was passable, but just, and I can't decide if Don Johnson's attempt to fill Paul Newman's shoes represents touching bravery or misguided arrogance), dreadful accents, and jarring anachronisms.
This film, the 1958 original, leaves it in the dust. Newman and Woodward generate palpable heat, and Orson Welles--clammy, jowly, bullfrog-voiced, crudely vigorous--is unforgettable as a classically bullying, overbearing Southern patriarch. In contrast to the pallid TV remake, it features a top cast whose work transcends the sometimes creaky melodrama of the plot. Nearly every white Southern archetype is brought to life: the brutish, domineering, castrating patriarch; the arch, charming, coyly seductive belle with hot pants; the aging good-time girl, simultaneously randy and prim, with her eye on the prize of a rich widower; the hotheaded but weak son and heir, cuckolded by his wife and utterly dominated by his father, whom he both adores and despises; the sharp-tongued old maid, smoldering with repressed fire, who just needs a "real man" to take the place of her suspiciously lukewarm long-term suitor; and, of course, the roguish, charming, sexy, potentially dangerous outsider, spiritual heir to Rhett Butler, who gets both the community and the heroine in a lather. There's even a lynch mob--chasing a white man, for a change.
Skip the TV-movie remake, which at best is a clunky imitation, in favor of the classic--if for no other reason than to see Paul Newman, at the peak of his beauty, in an undershirt. If that's not inducement enough, it's also marvelously cast, scripted, acted, and directed, and it captures Southern family dynamics with humor, pathos, and wince-inducing accuracy. Florence King would be proud.