Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

Judith Anderson: Ida 'Big Mama' Pollitt

Photos 

Quotes 

• Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt : Look, Mama, he's wearing Brick's birthday present. I haven't given you my present yet, but I will now. I have an announcement to make.

  Mae Pollitt : What kind of an announcement?

  Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt : An announcement of life beginning. A child is coming, sired by Brick out of Maggie the cat. I have Brick's child in my body, and that is my present to you.

  Mae Pollitt : Did you ever in all your born days hear such a bold-faced lie?

  Gooper Pollitt : Shut up.

  Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt : [kissing Maggie]  Thank you. Thank you very much.

  Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt : Yes indeed, this girl has life in her body. And that's no lie. Gooper, I want to talk to my lawyer in the morning. Brick?

  Brick Pollitt : Yes, Big Daddy?

  Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt : I'm going to go out and look this place over before I give it up. The place and the people on it.

• Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt : I'm talking in Big Daddy's languge now. I'm his wife, not his widow. I'm still his wif!

  Gooper Pollitt : What we've got here...

  Mae Pollitt : What Gooper's saying is just a plan, a basis.

  Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt : I'll tell you what your plan is. Margaret, what is it Big Daddy always says when he's disgusted?

  Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt : He says bull when he's disgusted.

  Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt : Yes, that's right. I say bull too, like Big Daddy.

  Mae Pollitt : Well, coarse language don't seem called for to me.

  Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt : Bull!

• Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt : We never were a very happy family. There just wasn't much joy in this house. It wasn't Big Daddy's fault. It was just... you know how some families are happy.

• Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt : Do you make Brick happy?

  Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt : Why don't you ask if he makes me happy?

• Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt : Let's go home.

  Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt : Don't you want to ride with the children, honey?

  Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt : No!

  Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt : [laughing]  He's his sassy old self again, all right!

  Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt : Be quiet, woman!

• Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt : This is a deliberate campaign to ruin Brick!

  Mae Pollitt : He don't need no help.

  Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt : [crying]  And for the most sordid reasons on earth! Greed! Avarice and greed!

  Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt : Margaret, darling, don't cry.

  Mae Pollitt : Well, that takes the cake! Who are the tears for? Brick? Big Daddy? Or are they for yourself? Are you crying cause you're childless? You know why she's got no kids? Ask her big, beautiful husband!

  Gooper Pollitt : Mae!

• Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt : When marriage goes on the rocks, the rocks are there.

  [pats the bed] 

  Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt : Right there.

  [pats the bed again for emphasis] 

• Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt : What's all this about?

  Gooper Pollitt : Doc, Big Mama wants the whole truth about the report we got from the clinic today.

  Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt : The truth, the truth! Everybody keeps hollering about the truth. Well, the truth is as dirty as lies!

  Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt : Is there something I don't know, Doc?

  Dr. Baugh : Well, Ida...

  Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt : I want to know! Somebody must be lying! I want to know about my husand!

  Dr. Baugh : He had the most thorough examination ever given at the Oppenheim clinic.

  Gooper Pollitt : It's one of the best in the country.

  Mae Pollitt : It's the best in the country, bar none.

  Gooper Pollitt : They were ninety-nine percent sure before they even started.

  Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt : Sure of what?

  Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt : Not now!

  Mae Pollitt : The test was positive!

  Gooper Pollitt : Mae, shut up.

  Dr. Baugh : It's helpless, Ida. He knows it, too.

• Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt : I don't like locked doors in my house.