The Long, Hot Summer is an adaptation of two short stories and a novel by William Faulkner, all merged into a seamless single screenplay. It certainly feels like a Faulkner story, retaining the atmosphere, irony, and sense of looming calamity that characterize his work. Paul Newman is impeccably cast and sells the film by knows exactly how much to reveal and how much to conceal of the main character. But it is Orson Welles, playing the big man in town, that makes the film truly come alive.