Let it be painful.
I can crawl on one foot and hop if I have to.
Careful, or you'll crawl out of this family, and be drinking on skid row.
Yeah, that will come too.
No. Now that I'm straightened out, I'm gonna straighten you out.
Sit down!
It's no use. We talk in circles. We have nothing to say to each other!
- Where are you going? - To get me another bottle.
No, you're not, you drunken whelp!
- Why the shouting? I just can't stand it! - Get out of here!
Leave us alone! Now, why do you drink? Go on!
You better know why or give it up!
- Give me my crutch. - Why do you drink?
I stepped on that foot, and I'm in pain.
Good!
At least you're not too numb with liquor to feel pain.
- Now, why do you drink? - Give me my crutch.
- Tell me first. - No, give me a drink first and I'll tell...
Tell me first!
- First you gotta tell me! - All right! Disgust!
- Disgust with what? - You strike a hard bargain.
- Boy, do you want liquor that bad? - Yes, sir, I want liquor that bad.
Now, tell me, what are you disgusted with?
Mendacity. You know what that is? It's lies and liars!
Who's been lying to you? Maggie?
No, not one lie, not one person. The whole thing.
- You got a headache? - No, I'm trying...
Trying to concentrate but you can't because your brain is soaked with liquor.
Wet brain!
Mendacity.
What do you know about mendacity? I could write a book on it.
- It's your sister calling from Memphis. - To hell with her!
Gooper, get out of there.
Go on. Close the door after you.
Mendacity.
Look at all the lies that I gotta put up with. Pretenses, hypocrisy.
Pretending I care for Big Mama. I haven't been able to stand her in forty years.
Church! It bores me. But I go.
All the swindling lodges, social clubs, and money-grabbing auxiliaries...
...that's got me on their number one sucker list.
Boy, I've lived with mendacity. Why can't you live with it?
You've got to. There's nothing to live with but mendacity. Is there?
Yes, sir, you can live with this.
That's not living.
- That's dodging away from life. - I wanna dodge away from it.
- Then why don't you kill yourself? - Because I like to drink.
I can't talk to you!
I'm sorry.
You expect me to turn over 28,000 acres of the richest land...
...this side of the Nile to a drunk fool? - No, sir.
I like you, son, but why should I subsidize worthless behavior?
Give it to Gooper and Mae.
I can't stand Gooper and Mae and those five screaming monkeys.
I don't have to turn it over to any of you.
I ain't made no will. Now I don't have to, the pressure's off.
I can wait and see if you pull yourself together or if you don't.
That's right.
- I'm not kidding. - No, sir, I know you're not kidding.
You mean you don't care?
No, sir, I don't care.
Tell Lacey to drive me to the station.
- Now wait a minute! - Or I'll drive myself.
I'm going home tonight. Now!
- This is your home. - Is it? Since when?
Let's don't leave it like this.
Like all them other talks we've had.
We always seem to talk around things.
Seem to leave things unsaid and unspoken.
- But now we gotta talk straight. - No, sir. It's too late for talk.
Why?
What are you disgusted about?
Because you can't play football anymore, is that it?
Because you lost your job sports announcing? I'll get it back for you.
What? Sit in a glass box watching games that I can't play?
Describing what I can't do while other players do it?
Filling my Coke with bourbon so I can stand it? You'll get that back for me?
I think you're passing the buck.
You know many drinking men?
I've known a good number.
Could they tell you why they drank?
You're passing the buck...
...to things like disgust and mendacity.
If you've got to use that kind of language...
...it's ninety proof bull and I ain't buying any!
You started drinking with your friend Skipper's death. Ain't that the truth?
What are you suggesting?
Nothing. But...
But what? Come on, say what's on your mind.
Say it!
- Why are you so excited? - Go ahead, say it!
- What are you shouting for? - Skipper and I were friends, understand?
Gooper says Skipper was...
Skipper is the only thing that I got left to believe in!
You are dragging it through the gutter!
- Just a minute! - You are making it shameful and filthy!
Give me your hand.
I don't want your hand. The hell with all lies and liars!
Didn't you ever look up to anybody?
Anybody at all in your whole life?
Didn't you ever believe in anything, anybody?
No, sir. I guess you didn't.
Nothing and nobody except Big Daddy himself.
You and Skipper played football together.
Made a few touchdowns. Does that make him God?
I could depend on him.
- On the football field! - Anytime, anywhere, any place!
- You sure of that? - Yes, sir. Sure.
Bull!
Why did your big strong man fall apart?
Why did Skipper crack up?
All right.
You're asking for it, we're gonna have that talk.
That straight, true talk.
- It's too late to stop now. - Can't you say it without a drink?
I haven't heard that mechanical click yet.
You need a lot of crutches, don't you? Clicks, whiskey.
What else you need? Skipper?
- A crutch for you too, wasn't he? - Yes, sir.
I could lean on him, in school and out of it.
How did Maggie take this great and true friendship?
- Ask her. - I'm asking you!
You wanna know why Skipper cracked up? Ask Maggie the cat.
What did she do?
Chase him out of the window of that Chicago Hotel?
Did that little girl shove your big hero out all by herself?
Why?
What went on between Skipper and Maggie?
Ask her.
Maggie, come here.
Can I be of assistance, Big Daddy?
Trixie's ready to play the piano for you, Big Daddy.
Go ahead, Trixie, play.
What was going on between you and Skipper?
Well, you see, Big Daddy...
Well?
Come on, Maggie!
You wanted to talk truth upstairs.
Well, go ahead!
Big Daddy wants to know. Go ahead, tell him!
Skipper didn't like me.
Why didn't Skipper like you?
- You know he was against our marriage. - Why?
- Because it meant less freedom for you. - Freedom to do what?
Freedom to run from town to town.
Planes, trains, always running.
- Football practice, dirty stories. - Nobody forced you to come along!
I didn't expect to spend my honeymoon in the locker room with the boys.
Since when did a man's smell ever injure your sensitive feelings?
Football, baby!
The idea of football smelled.
Especially the notions of a professional team.
Why, he didn't need any team of his own.
He could've gotten a spot on any pro team in the country.
You organized your own team on account of Skipper.
- You're a liar! - He wasn't good enough on his own.
Professional football is a business...
...not a social club!
Oh, you mean the business of making money?
Yeah, money! The stuff that your dreams are made of!
Why, the Dixie Stars never made a nickel!
Not from the first day to the last.
It wasn't the money, it was the cheers.
He lapped them up.
The cheers didn't mean anything to me. But they meant something to you, didn't they?
Because they shut you out and you hated that.
Not by the crowds, baby, by you.
By the man I worshiped.
That's why I hated Skipper.
You hated him so much that you got him drunk and went to bed with him.
Well, is that true?
Oh, Big Daddy.
You don't think I ravished a football hero?
Skipper was drunk.
So are you most of the time.
I don't seem to make out so well with you.
Are you?
Are you trying to say nothing happened between you and Skipper?
- You know what happened. - I don't know, Maggie.
I wasn't there.
I couldn't play that Sunday. I wasn't in Chicago.
- I was in the hospital. - But Skipper played. He played, all right.
Played his first pro football game without Brick.
Tell Big Daddy what happened.
Go on, tell him.
You're a sports announcer.
Give us a running account of the all-American bust.
Tell Big Daddy how many times Skipper fumbled...
...and stumbled and fell apart.
On offensive he was useless. On defensive he was a coward.
And it was all over...
...Chicago forty-seven, Dixie Stars zero.
Bad breaks. An off day.
No, baby.
Without you, Skipper was nothing.
Outside: Big, tough, confident.
Inside, pure jelly!
You saw the game on TV. You saw what happened.
I didn't see what happened in Skipper's hotel room.
That little episode was not on TV.
Go ahead, tell Big Daddy why you were in Skipper's room.
He was sick.
Sick with drink.
He wouldn't come out.
He'd busted furniture...
...and the hotel manager said to stop him before he called the police.
So I went to his room.
I scratched on his door and begged him to let me in.
He was half crazy.
Violent and screaming one minute...
...weak and crying the next.
And all the time scared stiff about you.
So I said to him maybe it was time we forgot about football.
Maybe he ought to get a job and let me and Brick alone.
I thought he'd hit me.
He walked toward me...
...with a funny sort of smile on his face.
Then he did the strangest thing.
He kissed me.
That was the first time he'd ever touched me.
And then I knew what I was gonna do.
I'd get rid of Skipper.
I'd show Brick that their deep, true friendship was a big lie.
I'd prove it by showing...
...that Skipper would make love to his best friend's wife.
He didn't need any coaxing.
He was more than willing.
He even seemed to have the same idea.
- You're just trying to whitewash it. - I'm not!
I was trying to win back my husband.
It didn't matter how. I would've done anything.
Even that.
But at the last second...
...I got panicky.
Supposing I lost you instead?
Supposing you'd hate me instead of Skipper?
So I ran.
Nothing happened!
I've tried to tell him a hundred times but he won't let me.
Nothing happened!
Hallelujah, Saint Maggie.
I wanted to get rid of Skipper.
But not if it meant losing you.
He blames me for Skipper's death.
Maybe I got rid of Skipper.
Skipper won out anyway.
I didn't get rid of him at all.
Isn't it an awful joke, honey?
I lost you anyway.
- You didn't talk to him again before he? - No.
- But Brick did. - How do you know they talked?
- Skipper told me. - When?
When they put his poor broken body in the ambulance.
I rode with him to the hospital.
All the time he kept saying, "Why did Brick hang up on me?"
Why, Brick?
- Brick, where are you going? - Home.
- You can't drive. You're drunk. - Not yet, Big Daddy. Not yet.
Now, give me that bottle.
What are you running away from?
Why did you hang up on Skipper when he called you?
Answer me!
What did he say? Was it about him and Maggie?
- He said they'd made love. - And you believed him?
Yes.
Then why haven't you thrown her out?
Something's missing here. Why did Skipper kill himself?
Because somebody let him down.
I let him down.
When he called that night...
...I couldn't make sense out of...
But there was one thing that was sure.
Skipper was scared.
Scared.
Of what happened that day on the football field, that I'd blame him.
Scared... that I'd walk out on him.
Skipper afraid, I couldn't believe that.
I mean inside he was real, deep-down scared.
And he broke like a rotten stick.
He started crying:
"I need you."
He kept babbling, "Help me, help me."
Me help him.
How does one drowning man...
...help another?
So you hung up on him.
And then that phone...
...started to ring again.
And it rang and it rang and it wouldn't stop ringing.
And I lay in the hospital bed, unable to move or run from that sound.
And still, it kept ringing louder and louder.
The sound of that was like Skipper screaming for help.
And I couldn't pick it up.
So that's when he killed himself?
Yeah.
Because I let him down.
So that disgust with mendacity is really disgust with myself.
When I hear that click I don't hear the sound of that phone anymore.
And I can stop thinking.
I'm ashamed, Big Daddy.
That's why I'm a drunk. When I'm drunk, I can stand myself.
But it's always there in the morning, ain't it? The truth?
And it's here right now.
You're just feeling sorry for yourself. That's all it is, self-pity!
You didn't kill Skipper. He killed himself.
You, Skipper and lots like you, living in a kid's world...
...playing games, touchdowns, no worries, no responsibilities.
Life ain't no damn football game.
Life ain't just a bunch of high spots.
You're a thirty-year-old kid.
Soon you'll be a fifty-year-old kid...
...pretending you're hearing cheers when there ain't any.
Dreaming and drinking your life away.
Heroes in the real world...
...live 24 hours a day, not just two hours in a game.
Mendacity! You won't...
You won't live with mendacity, but you're an expert at it.
The truth is pain and sweat...
...paying bills and making love to a woman that you don't love anymore.
The truth is dreams that don't come true...
...and nobody prints your name in the paper till you die.
Now, here.
The truth is you never growed up.
- Grown-ups don't hang up on friends. - Get away.
They don't hang up on their wives. They don't hang up on life.
Now that's the truth and that's what you can't face.
- Can you face the truth? - Try me.
Sure, somebody else's truth!
- Bull! You're running again. - Yeah, I am.
Running from lies like birthday congratulations...
...and many happy returns of the day when there won't be any and...
Please, let me go home.
- What did you say? - I don't remember.
- There won't be any happy returns? - Forget it.
Let me go home. Leave the place to Gooper and Mae.
Leave the place? Who said I was gonna leave the place or anything?
I'll outlive you.
I'll bury you.
- I'll buy your coffin. - That's right, Big Daddy.
Many happy returns.
They were lying...
...weren't they, son?
About that report from the clinic?
This pain...
...keeps grabbing at me.
It's death.
Ain't it?
Answer me!
The truth!
You said it yourself, Big Daddy. Mendacity is a system we live in.
Brick!
Brick, wait!
Look at us, Maggie. Look at us.
The great Pollitt Enterprises...
...stuck in the...
I hurt him, Maggie.
I hurt him really bad.
What's the matter? What's happened?
- Why is Big Daddy? - We gotta talk to you, Big Mama. Mae!
- Get Doctor Baugh! - Where is he?
- I don't know, just find him. - Brick!
Doc.
Doc!
I wouldn't go down to him right now, Ida.
Sweetheart!
Sweetheart! Big Daddy, can you hear me?
Sweetheart, what are you doing?
I'm coming down.
No need to, Ida. We'll be coming up in a minute.
Now, if that pain gets too bad...
...this is morphine...
...and a syringe.
The instructions are written out.
It's no use pretending anymore.
When that pain hits, it'll hit hard.
Make it easy on yourself.
Here.
You'd better take off those wet clothes.
Why? Afraid I might catch cold and die?
Why can't I go down to him?
Well, he's...
Well, his stomach's upset, Ida.
Why, all he needs is a peppermint.
It's time we had that talk, doc.
- It'll be painful. - Painful things can't always be avoided.
So I've noticed. But there are times...
I think it's time we all had our talk.
What talk y'all talking about?
- Doc, what were they fighting about? - We didn't discuss it.
What's he doing in the cellar all alone?
- Why can't Big Mama go and see him? - You heard why.
He's got the stomach upset. And it's made him irritable.
When old couples been together as long as me and Big Daddy...
...they get irritable with each other from too much... devotion.
Isn't that so?
Of course that's so.
He loves his family.
He loves them around, but it strains his nerves.
He wasn't himself. I could tell he was worked up.
It's the party and the excitement.
He's probably just a little wore out, that's all.
Did you notice how he ate?
Why, he ate like a P-I-G hog.
I hope he don't regret it.
Who?
Big Daddy?
He helped himself twice to hopping John.
He just loves hopping John. We had a real country dinner.
And candied yams.
That man put away enough to stuff a field hand.
I just hope he don't pay for it later on.
- What? What's that? - Gooper say he hopes...
Shoot! Gooper says, Gooper says.
Ain't nothing wrong with Big Daddy but nerves.
Ain't that so, Maggie?
He's as sound as a dollar. And now he knows it.
That's why he ate so much.
He had a load off his mind, knowing he...
...he wasn't doomed to...
...what he thought he was doomed to.
Now, nothing's gonna hurt Big Daddy.
We just won't allow anything to happen to him.
Doc. Come here, doc!
- I don't need any doctor. - He's got something to tell you.
I want Brick. I want Brick.
He'll be down directly.
Sticky rain always makes me sick.
Give me something to wash this tablet down with.
What's wrong here? Y'all got such long faces.
Brick, Big Mama needs you.
They'll tell her without me.
Please, Brick.
I just can't stand the way that Mae and Gooper are...
Are what? Trying to grab this place for themselves?
Well, let them. Let them have it all.
If you wanna fight for a piece of his carcass...
...why, you go ahead, but you'll do it without me.
All right, I deserved that. But not this time. This time you're wrong.
What I can't stand is...
It's not losing this place, it's Big Mama.
I know what it's like to lose somebody you love.
Careful, Maggie, your claws are showing.
Mae, close that door.
Don't close that door.
Let a little air circulate.
I just don't think we ought to run the risk of Big Daddy hearing this discussion.
What discussion of what?
- Maggie! Brick! - Now, now, Big Mama.
There ain't gonna be a word said in Big Daddy's house...
...that he can't hear if he wants. Brick, where are you?
Where do you think he is? Gone to pieces, that's where!
Doc, ain't there a cure for drinkers?
- Brick don't need no cures. - Course he don't.
He'll lap up all the whiskey in the state. That'll cure him.
Stop that kind of talk!
Big Daddy takes a drink now and then. I don't trust a man who don't drink.
- Good for you! - Mae...
...sit down, hold Big Mama's hand while we talk.
- Darling. - What are y'all surrounding me for?
I don't need anyone to hold my hand. You all crazy?
- You calm yourself, sweetheart. - "You calm yourself" yourself!
How can I calm myself...
...with everyone staring at me as if blood is on my face?
- What's all this about, huh? What? - Doc.
Sit down, Mae.
Big Mama wants the complete truth about the clinic report.
Truth! Truth!
Everybody keeps hollering about the truth.
Well, the truth is as dirty...
...as lies!
- Is there something I don't know, doc? - Well, Ida...
I wanna know!
- Somebody must be lying. - Come and sit down, Mama, please.
I wanna know about my husband.
He had the most thorough examination at the ophenheim Clinic, Ida.
One of the best clinics in the country.
It's the best in the country, bar none.
They were 99.9 percent sure before they even started.
Right, doc?
Sure of what?
- The test was positive! - Not now!
Mae, shut up.
It's hopeless, Ida. He knows it too.
Hopeless?
- Now, now, darling. - You had to know.
Why didn't they cut it out of him, huh?
- It's gone past the knife, Ida. - He's dying, Big Mama.
You get away from me, Mae! Get away from me. I want Brick.
Where's my Brick? Where's my only son?
Brick!
- Mama, please. - No. No.
- I'm your son too. - Gooper's your firstborn.
- Now, listen to me! - No!
- Ida, he'll be in pain. - Gooper and I think...
Mae, shut up!
- Do you wanna see him suffer? - No.
- Then he's got to be started on morphine. - No.
Nobody's gonna give my husband morphine.
No. No.
No.
Why don't you give her a while to adjust?
- It's Maggie who's upsetting her. - Hey, doc.
Instead of a needle, haven't you got a pill to make the pain disappear?
Sometimes I wish I had a pill to make people disappear.
Thanks, doc, we sure do appreciate...
Does Brick know?
You know, honey...
...we was never a very happy family.
I mean, there wasn't much joy in this house.
It wasn't Big Daddy's fault. I mean, it was just...
Well, you know how some homes are happy homes.
I thought, coming home from the clinic this morning, now we'll be happy here.
You and Brick will come live with us and have your children in this house...
...and we'll help each other be happy.
Nothing's ever the way you plan, is it?
Margaret, honey...
...you gotta help Brick.
Make him pull himself together.
- If he's gonna take hold of things... - What things?
The place.
- Big Mama, you've had a shock. - Yes, we've all had a shock.
- Let's be realistic. - Big Daddy would never...
He'd never put this place in irresponsible hands!
He ain't putting this place in anybody's hands.
My husband is not gonna die!
I want you to get that in your heads, both of you.
- We're hoping too. - We intend to pray for him.
I won't let you get Big Daddy to leave this...
Gooper is your firstborn!
He always carried a bigger load of the responsibilities than Brick.
Brick never carried a thing in his life but a football or a highball.
- Mae, will you let me talk, please? - Yes, of course.
A 28,000 acre plantation is a mighty big thing to run.
Almost single-handed.
You had your law practice in Memphis. When did you ever run this place?
Mama, let's be fair.
Why, ever since Big Daddy's health started failing...
...Gooper has worked like a fool to keep this place up.
- Mae. - Gooper won't admit it.
He never thought of it as a duty.
- Mae! - But Big Daddy don't know what he owns.
The point is I won't see this place ruined by a drunken ex-football hero.
- You shut up about my husband! - You shut up!
He has no right to slander...
I can discuss my brother with members of my family...
...which don't include you!
Why don't you go up and drink with Brick.
If the conquering hero hasn't passed out already.
Yeah, he may have to pass up the Sugar Bowl this year.
Or was it the Rose Bowl he was in?
It was the punch bowl, honey.
The cut glass punch bowl.
I always get that boy's bowls mixed up.
I have never seen such malice toward a brother.
What about his malice toward Gooper?
He can't even stand being in the same room with me.
Can I help you, Mr. Brick?
No, thank you, Lacey. Where's my father?
He's in the cellar.
And he's alone.
And he's...
Thank you, Lacey.
- It's a campaign to ruin Brick. - He don't need help.
For the most disgusting, sordid reasons on earth.
Avarice. Avarice and greed!
No, Margaret, darling.
Don't cry. Don't cry.
- Well, that takes the cake! - Mae.
Who are the tears for?
Brick? Big Daddy? Or are they for yourself?
- Mae. - Are you crying because you're childless?
You know why she's got no kids?
- Ask her big, beautiful husband. - Mae!
You just won't let me do this the nice way, will you? All right.
You always said I never loved Big Daddy.
How would you know?
How would he know?
Did he ever let anyone love him?
He was always partial to Brick...
...since the day he was born. Why?
Big Daddy wanted me to become a lawyer. I did.
He said get married. I did.
He said have kids. I did.
He said live in Memphis. I did.
Whatever he said do, I did. All right. Now...
...I don't give a damn whether Big Daddy likes me...
...or did or never did...
...or will or will never.
I've appealed for common decency and fair play.
Now I'm telling you!
I intend to protect my interests.
I'm not a corporation lawyer for nothing. Mae.
- Go get my briefcase out of our bedroom. - Yes, hon.
It was...
It was the Cotton Bowl, Sister Woman.
Pa?
Give me your hand.
I don't want your hand.
No.
It's my pain. That makes it my business.
I thought you went and hid yourself. What do you want?
- I came to apologize. - Yeah.
What for, telling me the truth?
- There must be a dozen reasons. - Save them.
I hate apologies. Especially for the truth.
Whatever you did, don't apologize for it. Just don't do it again.
If you didn't do it, start doing it.
Start by getting me a cigar out of that coat.
- Who do you think you are? - Get me the cigar, boy!
It's all wet from rain.
You're all wet yourself. It's a lousy joke, but it's true.
Modern science.
Get me that...
...that robe.
- There's a bottle in that desk. - I don't want a drink.
But I do.
I want a drink.
I've got a million "clicks" in my guts.
Knives sharpening themselves.
You know about "clicks," don't you, boy?
So you bought me a birthday present?
No, sir. Maggie bought it.
- Got good taste, that girl. - In some things, yes, sir.
But not in men.
Nice soft material.
This is my soft birthday.
Not my gold or silver. This is my soft birthday.
Here's to my...
...my last birthday.
Aren't you drinking to that?
Clickety-click.
You know what I'm gonna do before I die?
I'm gonna open up all these boxes.
Will you look at this stuff?
Bought most of it...
...when I took your mother to Europe.
Never had such a lousy time in my life.
That Europe is nothing but a great big auction.
Bunch of old worn-out places. It's just a big fire sale, the whole rotten thing.
Big Mama went wild in it.
She just bought and bought.
Sure is lucky I'm a rich man. Yes, it sure is lucky.
Got any idea what I'm worth, son? Ask Gooper. He knows.
He knows to the penny unless I miss my guess.
Close to $10 million in cash and blue chip stocks...
...besides 28,000 acres of the richest land...
...this side of the Valley Nile.
Well, that is pretty rich to be.
There's one thing you can't buy in a Europe fire sale...
...or any other market on earth.
That's your life.
Can't buy back your life when it's finished.
No, sir. Nobody can do that.
Feeling sorry for me or for you?
For you, Papa.
That's good. Because you're gonna miss me, boy.
Why'd you let Ma buy all this stuff?
The human animal is a beast that eventually has to die.
And if he's got money, he buys and he buys.
The reason is because of a crazy hope...
...that one of those things will be life everlasting...
...which it never can be.
I suddenly noticed you don't call me Big Daddy anymore.
If you needed a Big Daddy, why didn't you come to me?
If you wanted somebody to lean on, why Skipper? Why not me? I'm your father.
Why not come to your kinfolk? The people that love you?
You don't know what love means, it's a four-letter word.
You got a mighty short memory.
- What did I not buy for you? - You can't buy love!
You bought a million dollars worth of junk! Does it love you?
Who'd you think I bought it for? It's yours, the place, the money!
I don't want things!
But we drew this up.
- We drew this up with the advice... - Get out of the way, Gooper.
- Get out of my way. - We're settling this first.
Waste!
Worthless!
Worthless! Worthless!
Worthless!
Don't, son.
Please don't cry, boy.
That's funny.
I never saw you cry before. How's that? Did you ever cry as a kid?
Can't you understand? I never wanted your place or your money.
I don't wanna own anything!
All I wanted was a father, not a boss!
I wanted you to love me.
- I did and I do. - No.
Not me, and not Gooper, not even Mama.
That's a lie.
- I loved her. I gave her everything... - Things! Papa, you gave her things.
A house, a trip to Europe, all this junk.
Some jewelry. You gave her things, not love.
I gave her an empire, boy.
Well, now, I've seen you out there on your empire...
...with the men who run it for you. You don't know their names...
...or if they got kids or if they're happy. You've never looked into their faces.
Faces? You don't build an empire by remembering faces.
Next week, I'll start building that textile plant.
I'll not only grow cotton, I'll weave it and market it.
I tell you, in a year or two from now...
Yeah.
The men who build empires die, and empires die too.
No. No, it won't.
That's why I've got you and Gooper.
Look at Gooper.
Look at what he's become. Is that what you wanted him to be?
And look at me.
You put it very well. I'm a thirty-year-old kid. Pretty soon I'll be a fifty-year-old kid.
I don't know what to believe in. What's the good of living if you got nothing?
There's gotta be some purpose in life, some meaning.
Look at me, for the sake of God, before it's too late!
For once in your life, look at me as I really am.
Look at me!
I'm a failure. I'm a drunk.
In the open market, I'm not worth the price of a decent burial.
- All of you blame me for everything? - No, Papa.
Nobody... Just that...
We've known each other all my life and we're strangers.
You own 28,000 acres of the richest... You own $10 million.
You own a wife and two children.
You own us, but you don't love us.
- In my own way... - No, sir.
You don't even like people.
You wanted Gooper and me to have kids. Why?
I want a part of me to keep living. I won't have it end with the grave.
Look!
This is what my father left me.
This lousy old suitcase!
And inside was nothing...
...nothing but his uniform from the Spanish-American War.
This was his legacy to me.
Nothing at all!
And I built this place from nothing.
And that's all he left you?
Yeah, he was a hobo.
Best known tramp on the boxcar circuit.
He worked once in a while as a field hand. I'd tag along.
Sat on my bare bottom in the dirt waiting for him.
Outside of hunger...
...first thing I could remember is shame.
I was ashamed of that miserable old tramp.
I was riding boxcars when I was nine, something you never had to do.
And you'll never have to bury me like I did him.
I buried him in a meadow alongside a railroad track.
We was running to catch a freight and his heart gave out.
You know something?
That lousy old tramp died laughing.
Laughing at what?
Himself, I guess.
A hobo tramp...
...not a nickel in his jeans. No future, no past.
Or maybe he was laughing because he was happy.
Happy at having you with him.
He took you everywhere and he kept you with him.
I don't wanna talk about that.
Yeah, I loved him.
I reckon I never loved anything as much as that...
...lousy old tramp.
And you say...
...he left you nothing but a suitcase?
With a uniform in it from the Spanish-American War?
And some memories.
And love.
Did I tell you all them stories about my old man?
Yeah, about fifty times.
It's a plan to protect the Delta's biggest estate from irresponsibility.
- Maggie. Maggie, where is it? - What, Mama?
What the doctor left to make his pain easier.
Brick's down there with him. Brick'll help Big Daddy.
Help him? How?
- By running a hundred-yard dash? - Shut up, Mae.
Maybe he'll cheer Big Daddy up by kicking some field goals.
One more crack, Queenie...
...and I will not only spit in your eye but I will punch it black and blue.
- I'm not listening to any more slander. - Mae was only saying...
I know what she said and I know exactly what she meant.
The only world that Brick knows...
It's not a world he made.
Ladies!
No.
- Why won't you take it? - No.
- It'll kill the pain, that's all. - It'll kill the senses too.
When you've got pain, at least you know you're alive.
It's easing somewhat now.
When you got pain...
...it's better to judge yourself, a lot of things.
I'm not gonna stupefy myself with that stuff.
I wanna think clear.
I wanna see everything and I wanna feel everything.
Then I won't mind going.
I've got the guts to die.
What I wanna know is, have you got the guts to live?
I don't know.
We can try.
Could start by helping each other up these stairs.
Yes, sir.
At least read them.
Put those papers away before I tear them up!
I don't wanna know what's in them.
I'm talking in Big Daddy's language now. I'm his wife, not his widow. His wife!
- What I got here... - He said it's just a plan.
What I say to your plan is...
Maggie, what is it Big Daddy says when he's disgusted?
He says "bull" when he's disgusted.
Yeah, that's right.
I say "bull" too, like Big Daddy.
- Coarse language don't seem called for. - Bull!
I am deeply outraged by this kind of talk.
Then stop talking like your father and me are dead.
What about her? She wants her share too.
As far as Brick is concerned...
...nobody's gonna take nothing.
Not till Big Daddy lets go...
...and maybe, just possibly, not even then.
No, Mama, not even then.
Hello, Bucky!
Looks like the wind took some liberties with this place.
- Evening, Cap'n! - Evening, Cap'n!
- Storm cross over the river? - Gone to Arkansas.
Rain do some good, Cap'n?
Some good, I reckon.
Some good.
You can at least read them.
Put them away before I tear them up. I don't know what's in them.
I don't wanna know what's in them.
Well, can I come in?
The storm done any damage, Big Daddy?
Which storm you talking about? The one outside...
...or that hullabaloo I heard going on in here?
Excuse me, sir.
Heard some mighty loud talking. What's the pow-wow about?
Nothing, Big Daddy. Nothing at all.
What's in them important-looking documents you got there, Gooper?
Nothing. Nothing much of anything at all.
Then why are you and Sister Woman scurrying around?
Looks like a whole lot of nothing to me.
What's that smell in this room?
Didn't you notice it, Brick?
Didn't you notice the powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity?
Yes, sir, I think I did.
Ain't nothing more powerful than the odor of mendacity.
- Did you notice it, Gooper? - What sir?
What about you, Sister Woman?
Didn't you notice an unpleasant smell of mendacity?
Big Daddy, I don't even know what that is.
You can smell it. It smells like death.
What's the matter with that woman? What's-your-name, what's the matter?
She just had a slight dizzy spell.
Better watch that, Big Mama. Stroke's a bad way to go.
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.
What kind of an announcement?
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.
Did you ever in your days hear such a bald-faced lie?
Shut up.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Yes, indeed, this girl has life in her body.
And that's no lie.
Gooper. I want my lawyer in the morning. My lawyer.
Brick.
Yes, Big Daddy?
I'm going out to look this place over before I give it up...
...the place and the people on it.
Ida.
You wanna come along?
Brick.
What?
What were you and Big Daddy talking about?
Us.
Me too?
- Yeah, you too. - You ripped him apart, your own brother.
Do you believe that, Gooper?
- No. - Well, I do!
Keep still.
A family crisis brings out the best and the worst in every member.
That's the truth.
Amen.
You wanna talk about the truth? You're not pregnant.
- Be still, Mae. - She made it up.
- Shut up. - Don't you try to kid us, Maggie.
Mae.
She's not kidding you.
How can she have a child by you, when you won't even?
Mae, keep quiet!
We occupy the next room. The walls aren't soundproof.
We hear the nightly pleading and nightly refusals!
Not everybody makes as much noise about love as you do.
Brick, I never thought that you would stoop to her level!
You heard Big Daddy, "That girl's got life in her body."
- That's a lie! - No.
No, truth is something desperate. And Maggie's got it.
Believe me, it is desperate. And she has got it.
Why don't you say something, honey?
All right, honey.
Shut up!
Maggie?
- Yes? - Come on up here.
Yes, sir!
Yeah.
That girl's got life in her, all right.
Thank you for keeping still.
For backing me up in my lie.
Maggie.
Now, we are through with lies and liars in this house.
Lock the door.