I’m just now beginning to look at the astonishing career of the late Paul Newman, but there’s no need to see a lot to know we have just recently lost one of the greats. I’ve taken a look at Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and the Hustler recently, and I have previously seen Cool Hand Luke, The Sting, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid among a few others. His striking good looks and mesmerizing screen presence makes for one memorable performance after another (my favorite being his terrific work in The Hustler, so far). His break-out role in this stage adaptation, co-starring the lovelier than ever Elizabeth Taylor, showcases his great talent immediately, and he by far has the most interesting role, playing a guy who’s a mere shell of the ambitious football player of old who had his whole life ahead of him. Taylor, who is one of the few actors of this time period whom we really got to see grow up on screen (starting with National Velvet in 1944 and continuing into the 50s and 60s), is really great in this too, especially considering she was going through a loss at the time (one of those husbands of hers died during production). While I didn’t find this adaptation of a Tennessee Williams play to be nearly as memorable or incendiary as the 1951 film production of A Streetcar Named Desire, starring Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh. But it is a solid film that brought the wonderful Paul Newman his first big break, and for that, we are all very lucky.