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When Richard Brooks and James Poe turned the stage play Cat on a hot tin roofinto a film script, they focused mainly on the plot and fashioned his adaptation of Tennessee Williams' work after Hollywood romances that were popular in the 1950s. With this goal in mind he adds a detailed exposition of the background story to the beginning of the movie, to let the audience experience what is just told in stories in the original play. With this approach, the movie leaves less to the imagination of its audience, but gives the viewer what he expects - not theater in the movies but a theater based movie. Drama in the stage Cat is created via dialogue. The film version relies on a more outward form of drama, particularly visible in the scene between Big Daddy and Brick in the basement, where he finally destroys a life sized picture of himself. The internal