Dans une immense villa du Sud des Etats Unis, une famille se réunit pour fêter l’anniversaire du patriarche malade, ‘Big Daddy’ (Burl Ives). Maggie (Elisabeth Taylor) et Brick (Paul Newman), un couple en pleine crise : Brick est déprimé par le suicide de son meilleur ami Skipper (avec qui il avait probablement une relation sexuelle) et se réfugie dans l’alcool. Maggie, quant à elle, est frustrée car son époux ne veut plus accomplir son devoir conjugal soit disant parce qu’il la considère comme responsable de la mort de son ami.
Lorsqu’elle se compare à ‘une chatte sur un toit brûlant’, Brick lui conseille de sauter et de prendre un amant. Cooper, le frère de Brick (Jack Carson), son épouse hystérique et leurs cinq ‘monstres sans tête’, sont en fait venus pour tenter de s’approprier la majeure partie de l’héritage du père dont ils pressentent la fin prochaine. Cooper va avoir fort à faire pour se mettre dans les ‘petits papiers’ de son père puisque Brick reste le fils préféré de ‘Big Daddy’.
Alors que la famille s’entredéchire, Brick va effectuer un voyage au bout de lui-même, se remettre en question et annoncer à son père ce qu’il ne sait pas encore, sa mort prochaine. Une catharsis collective a lieu avant le retour au calme et, pour sauver les apparences, à la ‘normalité’.
Maggie: Why can't you lose your good looks, Brick? Most drinkin' men lose theirs. Why can't you? I think you've even gotten better-lookin' since you went on the bottle. (As she caresses the brass bedframe) You were such a wonderful lover...You were so excitin' to be in love with. Mostly, I guess, 'cause you were (pause)...If I thought you'd never never make love to me again (pause)...why I'd find me the longest, sharpest knife I could and I'd stick it straight into my heart. I'd do that. Oh Brick, how long does this have to go on? This punishment? Haven't I served my term? Can't I apply for a pardon?
Brick: Lately, that finishin' school voice of yours sounds like you was runnin' upstairs to tell somebody the house is on fire.
Maggie: Is it any wonder? You know what I feel like? I feel all the time like a cat on a hot tin roof.
Brick (offering a solution): Then jump off the roof, Maggie, jump off it. Now cats jump off roofs and they land uninjured. Do it. Jump.
Maggie: Jump where? Into what?
Brick: Take a lover.
Maggie (angrily): I don't deserve that! I can't see any man but you. With my eyes closed, I just see you. Why can't you get ugly Brick? Why can't you please get fat or ugly or somethin' so I can stand it?
Brick: You'll make out fine. Your kind always does.
Maggie: Oh, I'm more determined than you think. I'll win all right.
Brick: Win what? What is, uh, the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof?
Maggie: Just stayin' on it, I guess. As long as she can.
Brick: Lately, that finishin' school voice of yours sounds like you was runnin' upstairs to tell somebody the house is on fire.
Maggie: Is it any wonder? You know what I feel like? I feel all the time like a cat on a hot tin roof.
Brick (offering a solution): Then jump off the roof, Maggie, jump off it. Now cats jump off roofs and they land uninjured. Do it. Jump.
Maggie: Jump where? Into what?
Brick: Take a lover.
Maggie (angrily): I don't deserve that! I can't see any man but you. With my eyes closed, I just see you. Why can't you get ugly Brick? Why can't you please get fat or ugly or somethin' so I can stand it?
Brick: You'll make out fine. Your kind always does.
Maggie: Oh, I'm more determined than you think. I'll win all right.
Brick: Win what? What is, uh, the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof?
Maggie: Just stayin' on it, I guess. As long as she can.
