The only son of wealthy widow Violet Venable dies while on vacation with his cousin Catherine. What the girl saw was so horrible that she went insane; now Mrs. Venable wants Catherine lobotomized to cover up the truth.
Elizabeth Taylor
Catherine Holly
Katharine Hepburn
Violet Venable
Montgomery Clift
Dr. Cukrowicz
Albert Dekker
Lawrence Hockstader
Mercedes McCambridge
Grace Holly
Gary Raymond
George Holly
Mavis Villiers
Miss Foxhill
Patricia Marmont
Nurse Benson
Joan Young
Sister Felicity
Maria Britneva
Lucy
Sheila Robbins
Dr. Hockstader's Secretary
David Cameron
Young Blonde Intern
Grace Denbigh Russell
Asylum Patient (uncredited)
Brenda Dunrich
Nurse (uncredited)
Eddie Fisher
Street Urchin (uncredited)
Frank Merlo
Audience Member at Operation (uncredited)
Sheila Raynor
Mother of Young Patient (uncredited)
Beatrice Shaw
Elderly Lady (uncredited)
Florence Stark
Patient (uncredited)
Julián Ugarte
Sebastian Venable (uncredited)
Gore Vidal
Audience Member at Operation (uncredited)
Rita Webb
Asylum Patient (uncredited)
Sandra White
Young Patient (uncredited)
Ian Wilson
Patient (uncredited)
Roberta Woolley
Nurse (uncredited)
Director
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Screenplay
Gore Vidal
Screenplay, Theatre Play
Tennessee Williams
September 25, 2014
7
Talk is never cheap when sourced from Tennessee Williams.
Millionairess, Violet Venable is obsessed with her now dead son, Sebastian. Sebastian met his untimely end whilst on vacation with his cousin Catharine, an end that has sent Catharine almost to the edge of insanity. Violet, very concerned about Catharine and her hurtful ramblings, enlists brain surgeon Dr. Cukrowicz to see if he will perform a lobotomy on the poor girl, but as Cukrowicz digs deeper, motives and facts come crashing together to reveal something far more worrying.
As one expects from a Tennessee Williams adaptation, this picture is very talky, perhaps borderline annoyingly so? Yet it has to be said that for those willing to invest the time with it, the pay off is well worth the wait. Suddenly Last Summer is an odd mix of campy melodrama and Gothic horror leanings, a mix that personally doesn't quite hit all the intended spots. It could have been so different, though, for if Gore Vidal and Joseph Mankiewicz had been given free rein back in this day of code restrictions, well the picture would surely have been close to masterpiece status. This adaptation only gives us little snippets on which to feed, we are aware of the homosexuality of the departed Sebastian, and other hints that come our way include incest, sadism and dubious class issues, but ultimately such strong material is never fully formed.
Elizabeth Taylor owns the picture as Catharine, sultry with heaving bosom, she does an excellent line in borderline nut case, all woe is me martyrdom and her final scenes are what pays the viewer off for their patience. Katharine Hepburn plays Violet and manages to chew the scenery and spit it out, it's an elegant performance but you really want more than we actually get! Montgomery Clift is the good doctor, not one of his better performances because he isn't asked to expand the character, just say his lines right, look baleful from time to time and play off Taylor's lead, job done really.
It's a recommended film to a degree, certainly one that simmers with an almost oppressive feel, but if the film is one to revisit often? Well that's up for debate and dependent on the viewer's inclination towards dialogue driven films. 7/10