Perfect Soap formula

[rhinohide]

I'm watching one of my favorite movies. Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. I've loved it for forty years. Tennessee Williams wrote it. The writing was so poignant and clever. And soapy! The acting? So OTT. Paul Newman and Liz Taylor pulled it back a little. Burl Ives made this movie, he was amazing, but i have a hard time hearing his voice without picturing Frosty The Snowman. But as I'm watching I think of how we'd crucify these performances if someone on Days or GH or heaven forbid, Y&R yielded them.

But the writing?!!! It's the perfect formula for a soap. Multigenerational, family oriented. Character driven. Perfect. The entire movie is like each of the characters are onions and we see the layers peeled away one at a time.

"Ain't nothin more powerful than the odor of mendacity."

PS: Paul Newman saying "Lock the door" is sexier than any shirtless scene or explicit sex scene EVER.

[edgeofnik]

Try to sustain a movie or prime time TV series for 30+ years. Most films that even produce a sequel fail.

[rhinohide]

I totally agree. But the base? The core? Has to be about the characters. And not what happens to them, but what changes them.

[SFK]

David Jacobs used the basic Pollitt family structure for his Ewings on Dallas. Big Daddy and Big Mama: Jock and Miss Ellie, J.R. and Sue Ellen: Gooper and Mae, Brick and Maggie: Bobby and Pam. Jacobs' original intent was for Bobby to be much more Brick-like, reckless and fading golden boy !@#$%^&*]-up who the parents doted on while responsible business minded J.R. a la Gooper actually got [!@#$%^&*] done and no love for it. Bobby was going to die and Pam would be left to fend for herself among the Ewings.

[allmc2008]

I feel the same way about a lot of movies. Peyton Place, of course, became a soap. I wonder if something like ROOTS could become a historical soap? I think Queer as Folk could make a good daytime soap. That, and West Side Story.

[quartermainefan]

Brick was gay and the movie toned it down. That was a great movie, and Big Daddy may the the premiere role for mature actors (of a certain weight). It is easily top five all time great roles. Burl Ives was brilliant in the role, and no soap actor could turn in that performance. Ives couldn't turn in that performance on a soap what with there lack of rehearsal. There are so many great perfomances in old movies but the acting style was less realistic. There wasn't really an attempt to be ultra realistic until Brando came along and changed acting for film.

Anyway, if you want to watch a great old soap movie, try "Home From The Hill" with Robert Mitchum. In many ways it seems like it was a template for DALLAS. Here is a link to it streaming but there is a pop up ad attached

http://filenuke.com/82ax07nkd7qv

As soap opera as a movie gets, and not in that OTT Lana Turner weepy way. (click Free)

[rhinohide]

Wow. That's interesting. I thought Dallas was more GIANT continued. Thanks for that info.

[rhinohide]

I always thought H B Lewis on Guilding Light was very Big Daddylike. And since the actor who played the Lewis Patriarch also played the doctor in the movie, I often thought he may have patterned his character after Big Daddy. Come to think of it, Josh and Billy had the Brick/Groober dynamic.

As for Brick being gay, there are definitely not so subtle tones throughout the movie. As much as I love Paul Newman in the role, Montgomery Clift would have been better.