The Long, Hot Summer

Newman's performance as Ben Quick, before the script blunts it, is as mean and keen as a cackle-edge scythe.

This picture is strikingly directed by Martin Ritt.

The ending is an unconvincing cop out, but it can't spoil the film's compulsive dramatic tension (or a marvellous comic cameo from Angela Lansbury as Welles' long-suffering mistress).

The Long, Hot Summer starts superbly and ends in a senseless, flabby heap.

[An] uneasy blend of three Faulkner short stories.

An excellent cast gives an exceptional performance under Martin Ritt's skilled direction.

To be nice, let's just say simply that Ritt is perhaps not a common hack but an honest gaffer (even then, there are better).

Martin Ritt directs a first-rate cast in this adaptation of several stories by William Faulkner.

Based on three stories by William Faulkner, this is a robust and enjoyable comedy-drama about life in a Deep South town dominated by a rascally old millionaire (Orson Welles).