directed by: Martin Ritt, year: 1958
actors: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Orson Welles

Paul Newman stars as Ben Quick, a calculating outsider who arrives in a Mississippi river town to stake a claim on the Varner family's fortune. Orson Welles embodies the formidable patriarch Will Varner, whose iron grip and aging pride fuel a brutal power struggle. Joanne Woodward plays Eula, a woman torn between loyalty and longing as the feud erupts into violence and desire. Martin Ritt’s Southern Gothic drama blends ambition, sex, and moral ambiguity. Its sunlit heat and simmering tension underscore a story about power, betrayal, and the price of pride.

Heatwave, Drama, Southern Gothic, Romantic Drama, Adaptation