User reviews

While the symbolism here is about as heavy as a sledgehammer, it's offered in such artfully poetic style that only writers of the caliber of Tennessee Williams and Gore Vidal could give us. What they have done is provide KATHARINE HEPBURN with a role that fits her like a glove and where her mannered acting sits comfortably on a role she was born to play. She is totally mesmerizing as Mrs. Venable, a woman who has lavished all her hopes and dreams on her only son only to have them all swept away on a brutal summer day, "suddenly, last summer", under the hot Mediteranean sun. She gets to spout the most poetic dialog in the film, with ELIZABETH TAYLOR not far behind, especially during their frequent monologues.

This leaves MONTGOMERY CLIFT, as a surgeon who is asked to perform a lobotomy on Miss Taylor, hovering in the background and looking like a frightened sparrow most of the time, although it is he who uncovers the truth about last summer. Mr. Clift must have been at a difficult phase of his own personal life because he performs in a stiff, robot-like manner that makes him seem dubious as a skilled surgeon with steady hands.

All of this is highly melodramatic as only Tennessee Williams can muster, while at the same time affording us the luxury of watching two commanding performances from Hepburn and Taylor that were justifiably nominated for Oscars.

The tale seems burdened by too much heavy-handed poetry but somehow it holds the attention because of the forceful acting by a fine cast. Mercedes McCambridge is a standout as Taylor's mother in the sort of fluttery, birdbrain role one might suspect would be offered to Billie Burke if this had been filmed in the 1940s.

By the end of the film, Miss Hepburn is so far removed from reality that she thinks Dr. Sugar (Montgomery Clift) is her son Sebastian and seems more like a candidate for lobotomy than the plucky Miss Taylor. Taylor never quite has the air of vulnerability that the role demands, but she gives a colorful, if strident, performance as the poor victimized girl who was used as bait by her playboy cousin.

Long-fabled as one of the most bizarre films to come out Hollywood during the years of the Production Code's strict enforcement, SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER is a riveting psychological drama that remains absolutely gut-wrenching even after nearly fifty years since it's original release. Screenwriter Gore Vidal takes Tennessee Williams' one-act play and runs with it, fleshing out the central characters and expanding the story's central arc. Vidal had the seemingly impossibly task of taking a tale involving homosexuality, incest, pedophilia, and even cannibalism and presenting it all in a manner that would be acceptable to the rigid Production Code, yet still coherent to the average film audience. Not only did Vidal succeed victoriously, but the slightly ambiguous nature of the film's climax and denouncement actually makes the twice as unsettling and disturbing.

With relatively few characters to populate the story the performances are absolutely crucial, and the tight-knit cast delivers the goods in spades. Long after many of her acting contemporaries of the thirties and forties had been forgotten, Katharine Hepburn continued to reign supreme on the silver screen and her sublime performance as the manipulative and cunning Mrs. Venable ranks among Hepburn's best work of the decade. The wounded vulnerability of a post-car accident Montgomery Clift serves him well in a difficult role as the middle man between the film's leading ladies, and the still-handsome actor provides a humane, completely genuine performance that supplies viewers with level-headed window into the off-kilter story. Albert Dekker, Mercedes McCambridge and Gary Raymond also excel in minor roles.

The film's biggest surprise, however, is the exceptional portrayal of Elizabeth Taylor in the film's central performance. Although usually somewhat of an uneven actress, Taylor completely nails a dauntingly difficult role in a complex, multilayered performance that deservedly won her a Golden Globe Award as well as her third consecutive Oscar nomination. During the film's climatic revelation, Taylor lets out a series of bone-chilling screams that I could never imagine coming out of any other actress. Not only does it remain Taylor's finest performance (which is a considerable achievement when one considers that WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF is also on her resume), but it is also a performance that simply could not be bettered.

Although perhaps he could never surpass 1949's A LETTER TO THREE WIVES or 1950's ALL ABOUT EVE in the eyes of most viewers, SUMMER contains some of the finest work of director Joseph L. Mankiewicz' legendary career. Brilliantly combining southern Gothicism with straight-faced psychodrama and even grandiose horror, Mankiewicz stitches the various seemingly disparate threads together in a harrowing, yet perversely satisfying whole. Even the lengthy, sometimes criticized flashback sequence is an absolute tour de force of film-making that leaves viewers emotionally exhausted as one experiences the on screen turmoil more than simply watching it. An often unheralded classic, the film remains of the most sorely underrated films of its era.

Katharine Hepburn is a wealthy woman who uses her checkbook in the hopes of having her niece lobotomized in "Suddenly, Last Summer," a 1959 film directed by Joseph Mankiewicz and starring Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Montgomery Clift, and Mercedes McCambridge. Hepburn plays Mrs. Venable, whose son, Sebastian, died the previous summer of a heart attack. However, her niece Cathy, who accompanied Sebastian, has had a sort of breakdown and is institutionalized. Mrs. Venable wants Cathy lobotomized. Before doing so, however, the gifted surgeon (Clift), sent there by his boss as Mrs. Venable dangles money for the hospital in front of him, becomes determined instead to find out what happened and how Sebastian really died.

This is a film that would never be made today - it's character-driven and has too much dialogue. It's a shame because the dialogue is excellent. A previous Mankiewicz film, "All About Eve," is word-rich as well, and there the dialogue sparkles. Here it is more poetic. And, like "Eve," the great roles are the womens.

Though references to homosexuality are only inferred, this film and the much more poorly adapted "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" hold up very well today. With homosexuality much more discussed, the role this plays in both plots is very obvious, at least to this viewer. In "Suddenly, Last Summer," Sebastian's proclivities are evident from the beginning as Mrs. Venable describes an almost husband-wife relationship with her son, claiming to the surgeon that Sebastian was "chaste" and that her relationship with him was enough for her son.

One of the comments here mentioned that "Cathy is crazy, like all Williams heroines." But in truth, Cathy like Blanche is disturbed (though Blanche may be a little closer to being nuts) and both are "put away" to shut them up - Blanche for her accusations against Stanley and Cathy because she knows how Sebastian really died.

Katharine Hepburn gives a brilliant performance as Mrs. Venable - charming but made of steel, her anger and jealousy toward her niece just barely beneath the surface. Elizabeth Taylor gives one of her best performances under the strong direction of Mankiewicz. Taylor was blessed with great beauty but alas, not a great speaking voice. However, she is nevertheless very effective, particularly in her long, harrowing monologue near the end of the film.

Clift's passive portrayal of the surgeon is problematic, and one wonders why he was cast. The opening scene in which he performs an operation had to be redone many times because of his drunkenness and codeine addiction - he was washing down the pills with brandy; his voice quavers, he is unsteady on his feet, and his eyes are glassy. He comes off a little better in the previous year's "Lonelyhearts," though in that film, he actually winces in pain when he has to sit. While Clift had the support of his fellow actors, he had none from Mankiewicz and producer Sam Spiegel. Had it not been for Elizabeth Taylor's insistence, he would have been replaced. It seems cruel (as it did to Hepburn at the time) but Mankiewicz was trying to make a movie and Spiegel wanted it to be on budget - Clift's addictions and physical problems weren't helping. He couldn't remember lines; when he finally said them, he was often inaudible; and he was always late arriving on the set. Fortunately for audiences, this wasn't his last big-budget role. Under the direction of Elia Kazan, he would do the magnificent "Wild River" and seemingly be more in control.

Despite this, "Suddenly, Last Summer" is an excellent, disturbing film, and is highly recommended. It's not Williams' best play, but it is served well in its film adaptation.

Superb acting by Katharine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, and Montgomery Clift spark this nifty adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play. This Southern Gothic tale is worthy of Flannery O'Connor as it pits innocent Catherine against her aunt Violet as they battle over the memory and reality of Sebastian Venable.

With hints of incest and homosexuality along with family jealousies and squabbling, the women go at each other as they each go after the new doctor from Chicago (Clift). Violet wants the girl committed to an asylum where she will be given a lobotomy. The girl battles back as she recalls the real truth about Sebastian. Her greedy family (Mercedes McCambridge, Gary Raymond) are perfectly willing to sacrifice Catherine for a chunk of money. Everyone is a vulture in this story. The asylum is run by another greedy man (Albert Dekker) who only wants Venable money for a new hospital wing.

After Sebastian casts aside mother (Hepburn) for his summer trip and takes Catherine (Taylor), the older woman starts working to get her revenge. But when Sebastian dies, she goes into mourning as well. Complicated story of innuendo and symbol, one is never quite sure what happens to Sebastian who is symbolically eaten by the boys he has sexually preyed on (heavens to Michael Jackson!). But the sight of his death drives Catherine nuts. The mother of course is in denial of every unsavory trait Sebastian possessed.

Brilliant, florid dialog and two wonderful, long soliloquies by Hepburn and Taylor are highlights. The symbolism is fairly obvious but works well within the context of Southern Gothic. All the supporting cast is fine. Taylor and Hepburn earned best actress Oscar nominations. Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams, and his partner, Frank Merlo, are in the opening surgery scene. A fascinating story and some great performances.

Special mention must be made of Gore Vidal's brilliant screenplay, expanding the one-act play by Tennessee Williams (who had nothing to do with the screenplay, despite his billing). Vidal perfectly captures the cadence of Williams' speeches and maintains the Gothic mystery Williams was trying for. Vidal lost his chance for an Oscar nomination after the film Catholic Church attacked the film his its implied (gasp!) tale of homosexuality.

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, tho, 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 dependant on the viewer's inclination towards dialogue driven film's. 7/10

Film versions of Tennessee Williams great plays can be a little frustrating, especially for those of us lucky enough to have seen a fine production of the play on stage. I saw a fine production of this piece in London in 1999, with Sheila Gish as Mrs Venable, Rachel Weisz as Catherine and Gerard Butler as Doctor Cukrowicz.

But this film version is actually extremely good. The cast more or less speaks for itself. Katherine Hepburn is not quite as repulsive as I imagine Mrs Venable to have become, but this is a movie version after all and somehow Katherine Hepburn seemed to become increasingly ghastly as the movie goes on - strong work on her part and the Director's part I shouldn't wonder. Taylor and Clift are predictably good.

Most Tennessee William's plays had their endings tampered with for Hollywood and this piece is no exception. However, there is only a subtle difference between the ending of the film and the ending of the play, unlike the cringe-inducing changes to some ("Streetcar" and "Cat" being the main offenders).

This is not William's best-known piece, but it is one of my favourites and this film version also slots in right up there with the very, very best.

Well worth seeing, is this.

New Orleans, 1937. Catherine Holly (Elizabeth Taylor) is a young woman institutionalized at a State Asylum for a severe emotional disturbance that came about when her cousin , Sebastian Venable (Julián Ugarte) , died under questionable circumstances while they were on holiday in Spain a few months earlier . The late Sebastian's wealthy mother, Violet Venable (Katharine Hepburn), makes every effort to deny and suppress a potentially sordid truth about her son and his demise. As a result Catharine is a neurotic girl , supposedly suffering from a mental breakdown , being prodded into craziness by the record of her cousin's rare death , a memory that her disturbing aunt Violet wants to remain vague if not submerged . As Violet prevails upon a doctor (Montgomery Clift) to make sure it does . As Violet wants a bizarre operation performed in order to prevent Catherine from defiling the memory of her adoring son, the poet Sebastian . They're All Talking Aobut! . Suddenly, last summer, Cathy knew she was being used for something evil! .These are powers and passions without precedent in motion picture. TENNESSEE WILLIAMS shocks you again as he transports you to a STRANGE, NEW BOLD WORLD!

Another one of those unpleasant but interesting and thrilling forays based on the notorious novels and plays by the great writer Tennesse Williams and writings by Gore Vidal . Softened for the censors , though the themes of insanity , cannibalism , homosexuality , lobotomy and killing , characterizations of evil , and unusual settings presage many films of the next two decades . Lots of talk in this one leading up to lots more .The storyline relies heavily on the continued relationship among three main characters : Montgomery Clift , Katharine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor . The cast is frankly fabulous, giving all of them awesome interpretations , such as : Montgomery Clift as a brain surgeon is assigned the case of a young woman , as he's summoned to the mansion of of a rich New Orleans lady . Clift never totally recovered from his automobile accident two years earlier and he does not come across the strength of purpose really necessary in this role ; still, he's pretty good and fine viewing him. While Elizabeth Taylor is really sensational as the strange girl whose aunt wants her to lobotomize. Katharine Hepburn is top-drawer as the unsettling , rich New Orleans matron who wishes to perform a lobotomy on her niece , that's why she wants to cover up a family secret. The secondary cast is equally magnificent , such as : Albert Dekker , Mercedes McCambridge, Mavis Villiers and Gary Raymond .

The motion picture was compellingly directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. This great filmmaker Mankiewicz was a prestigious writer, producer and director who made notorious movies, such as : "Dragonwyck" , "Somewhere in the night" , "The ghost and Mrs Muir" , "A letter to 3 wives" , "House of strangers" , "All about Eva" , "No way out", "People will talk" , "5 fingers, Julius Caesar, Guys and dolls, The quiet American", "Suddenly last summer", "Cleopatra", "The honey pot", "There was a crooked man", and "Sleuth". His more highly esteemed films were "All about Eva" and "A letter for three wives" that won some Oscars, while the lavishly made "Cleopatra" was a real flop. Rating : 7/10 . The yarn will appeal to Elizabeth Taylor , Montgomery Cklif and Katharine Hepburn fans .

Wicked Katharine Hepburn tries preventing her hysterical niece (Elizabeth Taylor) from telling the grisly details about her son's bizarre demise; she hopes to have the girl lobotomized, but a sympathetic doctor would rather hear the truth. Tennessee Williams' play was watered down by Hollywood, but even still it isn't one of the great playwright's better works. Taylor is gorgeously photographed and works hard at her "revelation" sequence, but screenwriter Gore Vidal has her covering the same territory again and again, constantly repeating the film's ungainly title. It's a kick to see La Liz matching tics with Katharine Hepburn, regal and eccentric and vulgarly decadent, but poor Montgomery Clift is out of it as the doctor who intercedes. Picture has a very handsome production design, some good and/or interesting bits, and enough curiosity value to keep one watching. But considering these high-powered talents, it should have certainly been stronger. **1/2 from ****

It became the vogue in the 1960s for mature actresses to prolong their shaky careers by a movie or two by appearing in horror films. It is significant that, as the youth culture was taking over the medium and society in general, Hollywood opted to show former icons of the silver screens in roles that often cruelly revealed their ages as terrorized victims of violence or equally terrorizing purveyors of violence. Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead, Olivia de Havilland, Geraldine Page, Ruth Gordon, Shelley Winters and even Debbie Reynolds gave it a shot and, surprisingly, some of their movies were really pretty good: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?; HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE; WHATEVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE? and ROSEMARY'S BABY.

The ever classy Katharine Hepburn is generally thought to have avoided such films, but in reality she was part of the vanguard in 1959 having contributed SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER to the genre. Oh, SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER does pretend to be anything but a horror movie and bears the pedigree of being a high-toned art film. In addition to Hepburn, the cast includes Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift; the script is by Gore Vidal from a play by Tennessee Williams; and it is all delivered under the direction of Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Such talent, plus the droningly pretentious dialogue concerning art and insanity, create the illusion of serious drama, but this is nonetheless a freak show horror movie that simply lacks the good grace to include any genuine suspense.

Traipsing around her Gothic manse with all the coy sinister villainy of a Vincent Price, Hepburn plays Violet Venable in a performance that is so deliciously awful that it flirts with being pure camp. She plans to commemorate her grown son's untimely death by having her niece lobotomized. It seems her niece, Catherine, played with breathless hysteria by Taylor, knows the wicked truth about the life and death of Violet's only child, Sebastian: he was a "poet," a code word for homosexual. Though, depending on how you decipher the film's confusing dialogue, he could also be a bisexual, a pedophile, a rapist and/or a victim of incest. Apparently, Sebastian used his mother as a "procurer" of young boys (how young is left vague) -- though just why a wealthy, handsome, educated, globe-trotting sophisticate like Sebastian would need his mommy to get him playmates is not at all clear -- unless mommy was a playmate too. When Violet got too old to attract worthy young twinks, Sebastian enlisted the aid of Catherine (which makes a tad more sense, given Taylor's well-known gift for cultivating friendships with various gay men, including costar Clift).

Anyway, as pointed out in the book and movie THE CELLULOID CLOSET, Sebastian is portrayed as a monster and in scenes that echo the climax of FRANKENSTEIN, he is either literally or metaphorically "cannibalized" by a band of street urchins he had unwisely attempted to victimize. But if Sebastian is The Creature, then it follows that Violet must be his Dr. Frankenstein, a madwoman with the compulsion to play God. The film's unspoken evil is often thought to be homosexuality, but in reality it is incest. Violet catered to Sebastian's homosexual desires as a way of being part of his sex life and she wants Catherine destroyed because she thinks of her as a rival for Sebastian's affections, even posthumously. It all goes beyond kinky and straight to just plain weird.

SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER could have been an intriguing dark comedy, but as it plays hide and seek around the central issues it raises, it becomes a confusing morass of suggested perversions and sordid behaviors, made all the more obscure by a film production code that refused to admit the existence of the very issues the film tries to exploit. Add this to the fact that both of the women in question could be totally bonkers -- they are, after all, creations of Tennessee Williams -- and what is fact and what is bombastic silliness is further confused.

To a great degree, SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER is a distorted funhouse mirror image of Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO. Hitchcock, however, had the good sense to first craft a nifty little thriller and to save the twisted Oedipus backstory for his shocking ending. SUMMER talks all the psychological matters to death, yet manages the amazing feat of never actually discussing anything with any clarity. With some effort, this sort of peek-a-boo game-playing with the dialogue could have been amusing, but the only humor here is unintentional, provided by the overwrought performances.

It is alleged that Williams wrote the original play on orders from his psychiatrist as a way of dealing with his own conflicted feelings over his homosexuality. Such psycho-sexual therapy is best left to dream diaries rather than stage plays, let alone big budget motion pictures, though amateur Freudians would no doubt have a field day analyzing (or chuckling over) all the film's simplistic symbolism. (Violet's concern over the care and feeding of her carnivorous Venus Flytrap would be touching were it not so, well, creepy.)

SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER is a really bad movie. It is a mystery that leaves most of its questions unanswered and supplies an explanation for its main puzzle that is, to say the least, ridiculous. The production is obviously hamstrung by the censorship of the era, but even if were made today with complete freedom, it would still be more befuddled than bold. Williams clearly had issues in that, assuming Sebastian was his alter ego, he made one of the screen's first clearly homosexual characters to be both a villain and a victim, both omnipresent and totally invisible, both predator and prey. As a pseudo horror film SUMMER has little of relevance to say; but as a look into Williams' psyche it might be quite frightening.

I wonder what Tennessee's psychiatrist had to say about it?

The moral majority's campaign to censor anything on the movie screen considered too taboo had an incredible impact on Hollywood during the 1930's right through to the 1970's. Censors went through Hollywood scripts, tearing out anything considered unspeakable, no matter how important it was to the plot at hand. It became an art form of sorts, for Hollywood film makers to veil their nasty little subjects so that the censors (who weren't that bright anyway) couldn't find it, but so that a smart audience could. Suddenly Last Summer is a classic example of this art in action.

Tennessee Williams was the toast of Broadway in the 1950's, with his melodramatic plays that often tackled heavy subjects such as addiction, adultery and in the case of this story, homosexuality. Katherine Hepburn plays a classic Tennessee Williams vamp, Violet Venable, a lady of means who is mourning the loss of her son. She has sought the help of a psychiatrist, played by Montgomery Clift, as she would like to have a lobotomy performed on her niece, who is apparently off her rocker (as most of Tennessee Williams' ladies are) and is spouting nasty rumors about the dead son.

Like most of Williams' work, Suddenly Last Summer flows along with over the top dialogue, the kind that actors love to sink their teeth into. I have not seen the original stage play but I suspect that this screenplay has been severely hacked to obliterate any talk of homosexuality. Venable's son was murdered while on vacation in Europe. If you take the dialogue literally you might believe that he was murdered for his religious convictions. If you read between the lines you will see that this was clearly a gay bashing.

Hepburn and Taylor both shine in their roles, that seem almost custom made for them. It's rare that Hepburn is cast as a villain, however, her performance leaves me wondering why she hasn't done it more often. Taylor's hyper-active hyper-ventilating, Catherine Holly works well here. Her own brand of melodramatic acting seems to compliment Williams' work.

Clift was a tad cardboard in his role as the psychiatrist, however, it is still interesting to watch this performance that was filmed after his face-altering car accident. One might think that he recently underwent a lobotomy. On the other hand, he is competent, and the performances of the actresses more than compensate.

Suddenly Last Summer works as a film, but I am hesitant to recommend to everyone. This is not an action flick, by any means, but rather a character piece. Scenes are long and they require your concentration, as important statements can be found between the lines. For fans of any of these actors, this is a must see!

As a surgeon of the mind you push at boundaries, attempting to curtail certain brain foundries, to remove personal traits, that have your patients in a state, but also takes away, all of their fizz. You're approached by wealthy lass to help a niece, who she'd like lobotomised to be at peace, after suffering distress, which she's managed to supress, after the birds attacked her son (of wealthy lass), now he's deceased. Pre-operation talks lead you to question, and discover reasoning for said suppression, in a film based on a play, that was progressive for the day, it remains a deep and thoughtful proposition.

Three top drawer performances with great direction.

This screen version, by Joseph L Mankiewicz, of Tennessee Williams' play isn't as highly thought of as it should be. It's not a classic and on occasions it comes over as crude and stilted, but it also has many fine things going for it. Although he never really opens it out, Mankiewicz gives it a fluency that isn't at all theatrical and although he often films scenes intimately and between only two characters, he ensures it is photographed and cut in a very cinematic fashion.

Unfortunately, one of the two people on screen during these 'cinematic' sequences is Montgomery Clift who is at his worst here. It was after his accident and he looks as if he's in pain. When he walks it's as if there is a board up his back and he talks as if out of the side of his mouth. Luckily, with him in these scenes is either Elizabeth Taylor or Katharine Hepburn or both and when they are on screen you don't pay too much attention to Clift.

Dilys Powell said Elizabeth Taylor was born to play Tennessee Williams and she was right. Indeed this may be her best performance after "Virginia Woolf". Catherine's lines don't have the kind of poetry in them that Violet Venable's does but Taylor finds a poetry of her own in her readings. She builds on her long speech at the end and is very moving, even if Mankiewicz can't resist 'showing' us, in flashbacks, what Taylor is telling us, as if he doesn't trust an audience to sit still and just listen to Taylor. (They would have to in the theatre).

As Violet, Hepburn has the showier part and she milks it for all it's worth. It's a great piece of acting because Violet never seems to be acting, though she tends to think of her life as a kind of performance, something she has passed on to her homosexual son, Sebastian. (If the old adage, 'my mother made me a homosexual', has any validity you don't have to look any further than here). She enters from above, descending in her small baroque lift, and Hepburn can see the comic potential in such an entrance. Moments later, however, she is recounting how the sea-turtles were devoured by flesh-eating birds in the Galapogos, and you can see just how dangerously unstable this woman really is.

Any film that has acting of this calibre automatically qualifies as worth seeking out, (you forgive the lame work of Clift and Gary Raymond and draw a blind over Mercedes McCambridge, though Albert Dekker is very fine), but this qualifies on other grounds; as one of the better Tennessee Williams adaptations, (he co-wrote it with Gore Vidal), as a flawed, dated but strangely fascinating example of how Hollywood viewed homosexuality at the time, (negatively, naturally, but any face, no matter how horribly distorted, so long as it was in the public gaze, was better than no face at all), and as a serious addition to the Joe Mankiewicz canon.

The psychological dramas that Tennessee Williams specialized in were not for everybody, but there was more than enough audience--then and now- to make them timeless. Some film versions of his work hold up better than others; this one maintains its emotional power, in spite of the screenplay being trimmed to adapt the subject matter to 1959 audiences. The performances are superb in spite of it: few but Kate Hepburn could have delivered Violet's flowery (sorry, I couldn't resist) dialogue as believably as she does here. Taylor turned in yet another excellent, Oscar-nommed performance after a string of consecutive hits, and really should have won for this. It's a thinking-man's melodrama, so it won't entertain anyone looking for action, but if you appreciate good acting and writing in older films, give it a watch.

Catherine Holly, played by the indelible Elizabeth Taylor,is a woman whose conscience and memory continue to cast a foreboding shadow. Enshrouded in her memory is the unforgettable realization to which she came, suddenly last summer. Katherine Hepburn plays somewhat of a southern anchoress, Mrs. Violet Venable,whose only repose comes from memorializing her late son Sebastian in the fantastic jungalesque garden he created. On the surface Sebastian seems pensive, sincere, and wise; however, Holly knows a secret, a disturbing secret about the late Sebastian that Mrs. Venable must suppress at all costs. It remains in the hands of Dr. Cukrowicz, Montgomery Clift, to extract this secret from Holly's memory, before the secret is lost forever. I enjoyed this movie, and it kept my attention even though I had read the play I knew the outcome. It is another fine story from the mind of Tennessee Williams. The movie sticks to the play unlike other Williams' movies, like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The only problem is that like so many other Tennesse Williams'stories, depravity and decadence are central themes, which make it difficult at times to really like any characters or develop a fondness for the story itself.

Superbly written, directed and acted. Elizabeth Taylor at her best and at the height of her beauty. Katharine Hepburn playing herself to the hilt. Monty Cliff giving all he had left. An amazing mystery culminating with a shocking end told cleverly within the confines of the Production Code.

Elizabeth Taylor was nominated a third time for this performance and would won the consolation prize next year for the trashy Butterfield 8.