The Long, Hot Summer

The Long, Hot Summer (1958) is a Southern drama adapted from William Faulkner's fiction — watch it online on iFILM. Director Martin Ritt cast a 33-year-old Paul Newman as Ben Quick, a drifter who rolls into a Mississippi town trailing a reputation for arson and knowing exactly how to charm his way into someone else's life.

The town's iron-fisted patriarch Will Varner — played by Orson Welles with maximum relish — sizes Ben up and decides he'd make a fine son-in-law. His daughter Clara disagrees. That clash of wills, set against sweltering heat and old family money, is what keeps the film taut for all 115 minutes.

Newman earned his star here. The chemistry with Joanne Woodward, his co-star and soon his wife of over fifty years, is unmistakably real — you can see two people falling for each other through the lens. Watch The Long, Hot Summer (1958) online on iFILM.