The Long, Hot Summer

Passions ignite in the blazing summer sun when Paul Newman rolls into town and gets everyone hot under the collar in this steamy drama based on the work of legendary Southern novelist William Faulkner. Handsome drifter Ben Quick (a swaggering Newman), returns to the small Mississippi town his late father (a rumored pyromaniac) called home, after being run out of another town following accusations of barn burning. Ingratiating himself with the ruthless and powerful local businessman Will Varner (Orson Welles), Quick soon finds himself at odds with the entire Varner family. Varner’s daughter Clara (Joanne Woodward), a prim schoolteacher, is determined to resist Quick’s questionable charms, but finds it impossible to stay away. Quick hatches a plan to settle down in the quiet little town under Varner’s wing, but his shady reputation soon catches up with him and threatens everything he has worked to achieve. Based on three works by William Faulkner, and co-starring Anthony Franciosa, Angela Lansbury, and Lee Remick, The Long, Hot Summer (which also marked the first major onscreen pairing of future couple Newman and Woodward) is passionate ‘50s drama at its most incendiary. (Dir. by Martin Ritt, 1958, USA, 115 mins., Not Rated)