(3 of 3)
As the noisy cataract of the birthday party plunges along, the film swirls in tightening circles around each of the characters in turn, eroding the muddy façades they have built up for themselves. Burl Ives, under his robes of benevolent paterfamilias, is superb as a ruthless and contriving tyrant who has lived for 40-odd years with a woman he despises, and raised two sons only to be able to boast of a namesake. Gooper still sweats with jealousy over his brother's schoolboy athletic triumphs, and Maggie yearns pitiably for Brick's love and for the creature comforts she never knew in her youth. Catalyst for them all is Brick, whose homosexual attraction for a teammate (only hinted at in the picture) and subsequent flood of guilt over his buddy's death have led him to give up bed for the bottle. In the end he makes his peace with his father and promises to make true Maggie's lie that she is pregnant. But the outcome is of meager importance. Playwright Williams' stage is filled not with actors in a drama, but with dancers in a psychiatric striptease; when the last veil has been discarded, any further steps are superfluous.