Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

I was immediately captivated by Katharine Hepburn's early monologue and the astonishingly well written play (Tennessee Williams) and screenplay (Gore Vidal) held me agog until Elizabeth Taylor's towards the end. It is an amazing start and a triumphant end whilst almost everything in-between is as good. The dialogue simply tingles the spine with its humour, doom laden gothic horror and barely believable implied depravity. I once thought fans that spoke of 'loving' a certain actress and being able to watch/listen to them all the time were having me on, if not themselves, but I have it for Elizabeth Taylor. I watch in awe as she spills out her character and imbues already dramatic scripts with even more involving and inspiring emotions. And, she looks fantastic. I thought she looked amazing in the early institution scenes and then she is glammed up! A great play given the very best treatment here and if Montgomery Clift was suffering during his performance he is still very effective in what he is asked to do, which as it involves mediating between the two ladies is no mean feat. Excellent.

I love this movie. la Liz was at the height of her beauty. Katherine Hepburn is wonderful as Sebastian's mother and Mercedes mcambridge is excellent as holly's mother along with gary Raymond who is great as holly's cousin, I really thought he was a natural southerner and not from the uk! I agree with the other critic about Montgomery clift's acting being wooden. he's not really believable as the great surgeon. aw well, you can't have it all! all in all, a very good movie.

SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER is a mysterious drama with elements of Sauthern Gothic. It is based on the play of the same title by Tennessee Williams.A young woman has been institutionalized because of severe emotional disorders. In fact, her cousin was died under suspicious circumstances, while they were on vacation in Europe. His rich mother makes every effort to deny and suppress the truth about her son and his demise. She tries to bribe the administrator of a state mental hospital and persuade a young and capable surgeon to perform a lobotomy on her niece...This is a puzzling game of truth, through hypocritical relationships in a wealthy and dysfunctional family. Provocative dialogues are the backbone of the shocking finale. A motif, which has caused the greatest tension is unfortunately quite clear. Homosexuality and sadism are obvious topics. The story has become quite confusing in the last third of the film. Facing the truth, through vague retrospective, was not convincing. The epilogue was, for some reason, unnecessarily omitted. Romance is, in this case, an escape from the madness. Characterization is not good.Elizabeth Taylor as Catherine Holly has tried to do a good job. Ms. Taylor, definitely, was not the right choice for this role. Her character has confronted with its own agony. Simply, there is too much sex appeal and a lack of good acting. Katharine Hepburn as Violet Venable has offered a good performance. She was, in certain scenes, too aggressive. Such performance has alleviated irony and madness in her voice. However, her performance has, somehow, saved this movie. Montgomery Clift as Dr. John Cukrowicz was lost between the two dominant female figures. Indifference in his voice is stunning.Perhaps the censors did the most damage to this film. Mr. Mankiewicz was supposed to make a difference between dark secrets and dirty laundry.

It's 1937. Dr. Cukrowicz (Montgomery Clift) is frustrated by primitive facilities at Lions View State Asylum. Wealthy widow Mrs. Violet Venable (Katharine Hepburn) wants Cukrowicz to do a lobotomy on her niece Catherine Holly (Elizabeth Taylor). Violet lost her beloved son Sebastian during an European vacation in which Catherine is supposedly driven mad. Cukrowicz goes to interview Catherine who is confined with the nuns. She can't remember the incident which killed Sebastian. Violet is dangling a $1 million for the hospital to get Cukrowicz to do the operation. Catherine's mother and brother reveals that Sebastian left them $100k but Violet won't release it until her mother commits her to the asylum.Elizabeth Taylor is overacting a bit in the melodramatic way that people back then expected from the mentally disturbed. It's too much big acting. It's more compelling for her to be calm and sane as Violet maneuvers against her. Even in the flashbacks, she is overacting way too much. It's also probably more compelling for Catherine to be played by a weaker personality. She needs to be the underdog and overwhelmed by Violet's scheming. Also Cukrowicz needs to be the doctor who wants to lobotomize anybody and everybody. Montgomery Clift is also playing dumb badly. I guess back in the day, people would be that clueless about that subject matter but it's very annoying to have him be THIS clueless. While I understand why the homosexuality is written out, I don't understand why the gay bashing turns into cannibalism. Why are they eating him? Is this some kind of metaphor? The overacting and the changes hit me all wrong. It's really annoying to have the characters dance so much around the subject without actually saying it.