Truly Dreadful Film

hyped garbage

Highly Overrated But Still Good

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

The Long Hot Summer (1958) is a Classic Drama starring Paul Newman as Ben Quick. Ben Quick is accused of being a barn burner and a con man. He hitches a ride with two fancy ladies into a small town in Mississipi and finds out that the two fancy ladies are the daughters of the richest man in town, Mr. Varner. The film is quite long, but it is interesting. Paul Newman is excellent in this film, as usual, and his character is likable. I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys Old Dramas as this film contains all of the elements that are common in dramas from the 50s. It was a bit longer than I personally feel that it should have been, but there were some funny moments and sweet romantic moments that made this feature worthwhile.

Plot: A dangerous drifter becomes friends with the richest family in a town in Mississippi More of a play than a film, this garish monstrosity combines most of the worst features of 1950s American film-making. There is simply too much music, too much make-up, too much studio shooting, too many static shots, too much of everything. Orson Welles in particular doesn't so much as chew the carpet as eat the whole darned house, in a dementedly florid performance. The two genres that age worst tend to be teen rebel and sex films, because what is provocative to one generation is tepid to another; which is exactly what happens here. The film also makes the mistake of thinking itself positively Shakespearian because it has broad Southern accents. It isn't. It's a fairly run of the mill family melodrama as daddy tries to arrange his brood to provide him with grand-kids, whilst the nice school teacher rejects Paul Newman's tough drifter in such a way that you know that they will inevitably end up together. As indeed they do.

A drifter comes into a Mississippi town and is taken under the wing of the town big shot in this drama based on multiple works of Faulkner. Newman is solid as an ambitious worker trying to escape his past. Welles steals the film in a wonderfully hammy performance as a larger-than-life character who rules over not only his two meek children but also the entire town. Franciosa is fine as Welles's wimpy son, but Woodward's performance seems somewhat wooden. Remick is given little to do except look pretty, which she does well. In the first of six films he made with Newman, Ritt creates an atmosphere befitting the title. The plot element concerning fire-starting is rather silly.

A wealthy but repulsive curmudgeon named Will Varner (Orson Welles) lords over a small Southern town, spouting out orders and expectations to everyone in his orbit, especially his two grown children: Clara (Joanne Woodward) and Jody (Anthony Franciosa), neither of whom have any kids. Thing is ... papa Varner wants grandchildren, to carry forth the Varner empire.One day a drifter named Ben Quick (Paul Newman) wonders into papa Varner's orbit. Quick has developed a reputation among the locals as a no-good drifter. But he's handsome, and he's ambitious, self-assured, bold, and swaggering, just what Will Varner is looking for in a future son-in-law. And therein lies the basis for conflict among the various characters.I didn't much like this film. The plot is cliché-ridden, with clearly a trend toward pasteurized outcomes, wrought by paternalistic Hollywood script writers. Further, all the characters seem fake. Will Varner is highly stereotyped, and so is Ben Quick. Clara is aloof and unapproachable. Jody exists only as a convenient foil for his overbearing father. In short, the script seems watered-down, sanitized from what it could have been.Casting is poor. Most of the actors are not convincing as small town Southerners. Orson Welles tries too hard. And his overdone makeup makes him look grotesque. His character comes across as an aging Charles Foster Kane with a garbled Southern accent.The wide-screen Cinema-Scope projection is annoying. Color photography is too bright. Visuals look stagy, artificial. The overall tone of the film is way too spry, vibrant, pastoral. At times, it's almost like a musical. I kept waiting for Ben Quick to burst into a rendition of "Oh What A Beautiful Mornin'". I could have wished for a darker, more foreboding tone, suggestive of dripping, smoldering Southern Gothic."The Long, Hot Summer" makes a good cinematic vehicle for Paul Newman. And the story's underlying concept is okay, despite its lack of originality. But a dreadfully bland script, poor casting, and an unfortunate visual style sabotaged what could have been a really fine film.