The Long Hot Summer

Directed by Martin Ritt, The Long, Hot Summer is based on three William Faulkner stories, and marks the first on-screen teaming of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Featuring an all-star cast including Newman, Woodward, Orson Welles and Lee Remick, this smoldering story from the Deep South is filled with sexual tension, bawdy humor and powerfully clashing personalities. When suspected barn burner Ben Quick (Newman) drifts into a town dominated by Will Varner (Welles), he is recruited to husband Varner’s spinster daughter (Woodward) so that Varner can keep an eye on him. But the two men soon lock horns, and a chain of events leaves them all changed forever.