Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

Who payed the critics

What a waste of my time!!!

It is a performances centric movie

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

In spite of its several flaws, this film succeeds overall, thanks to the performances of Elizabeth Taylor and Katherine Hepburn and the extravagant yet robust script of Gore Vidal. Credit also goes to Tennessee Williams for his formidable, original play, the black and white set direction that justifiably won an Oscar, and the haunting, impressive score by Malcolm Arnold, who withdrew from the project before its finalization.Only a few days prior to this writing, I read excerpts from a very nasty interview by Kathleen Turner that trashed almost everyone with whom she ever worked and some people with whom she never did, including Elizabeth Taylor. It just so happens that Turner ripped Taylor for at least two of her very best performances, including her Oscar winning "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" and her high-powered portrayal of "Maggie the Cat" in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", which like this production was based on a Tennessee Williams play. All I can say in response is, "Ms. Turner, I know Elizabeth Taylor, and you are no Elizabeth Taylor!" As much as I enjoyed several of Ms. Turner's films, after reading this disturbing, even mean, interview I'm not sure if I ever care to see any of them again. If Turner didn't approve of Taylor's voice, did she ever actually listen to her own?While there are many Elizabeth Taylor films that I didn't like, when she was given the chance to act with decent material, Taylor could truly deliver. For me, she began to peak at "A Place in the Sun", another very memorable pairing with her good friend, Montgomery Clift, and then reached her pinnacle with the two Williams sourced films and as Martha, the vulgar, loud-mouthed daughter of a college president in "Virginia Woolf". Beyond her outstanding performances, she was physically radiant in the first three. Aside from her established acting ability and her splendid looks, I always admired her for being devoted to her Hollywood friends, many of them troubled like Clift, and for her unselfish dedication in healing the pain of the afflicted, including AIDS victims. Beginning with her years as a child star, perhaps she endured much of her own suffering, both emotionally and physically, in order to empathize so deeply with the intense pain of others, both on and off the screen.I won't dwell on the flaws, but I often felt as though I were thrust into the world of 1959 rather than 1937, especially regarding Taylor's wardrobe and general appearance. Apparently, the execs decided that dressing Taylor for 1959 rather than 1937, especially those swimsuits, had more sex appeal. I am even old enough to remember those floral swimcaps of the late 50's, which served as an amusing, momentary time lapse. I also had to laugh when Dr. Cukrowicz (Clift) is caught passionately kissing his patient (Taylor) by his boss (Albert Dekker), who doesn't even miss a step or bat an eyelash as he is totally preoccupied with the promise of a fat contribution from Violet Venable (Katherine Hepburn) to his rotten, failing hospital. Most of the time, I felt that it was the neurosurgeon who belonged on the operating table even more than his patients. I suppose that was playright Williams' intent. Even with its dark themes of family dysfunction, sexual obsession, incest, serious mental illness, institutionalized corruption, and , lo and behold, cannibalism the lead performances and the lush, effusive, and powerful script must be seen to be appreciated.

a film of actors. that defines this adaptation of Suddenly, last summer by Gore Vidal. perfect performances of Hepburn and Taylor, who seems crash Montgomery Clift, the inspired manner to build the tension, the images - skin for monologue, and, sure, the ambiguous manner to define homosexuality. a film who provokes at each new view. because it is precise, cold and fascinating. because the story has Tennessee Williams ' dramatic, but it breaks the circle of a simple adaptation. because it is a duel between two great actresses who, each, impose , in deep manner, her mark on the role. it is a great film for the opportunity of public to make a trip in himself's world. and that could not be a surprise . not only for the force of Elizabeth Taylor to translate the universe of play but for the art of Mankiewicz.

Ironically, Elizabeth Taylor, who plays a woman who is used as a decoy to attract young men in this film, was also used to attract customers to the film. The film was advertised with a picture of Elizabeth in a bathing suit. She was a wonder of nature, indeed.This was made during the heyday of psychoanalysis. The psychoanalysts felt free to talk about cannibalistic fantasies, relating them to everything from their beloved Oedipus complex to hot dog eating contests.Thus, the cannibal behavior was a familiar trope to that segment of the population who were likely to see this movie. It wouldn't have been strange at all.Family members regularly interfe3rred with the treatment of mental patients in the era which is depicted in the film. This would not have seemed strange to a 1960 audience either.Nevertheless, the whole endeavor still came across as overheated pretentious nonsense. Hepburn was being uberHepburn, Taylor was also over the top at times, and Clift seemed so lost that he looked like he was a patient at the institution.

A Tennessee Williams' play's film adaption, with Gore Vidal as the screenplay writer, stars three Hollywood luminaries, Hepburn, Taylor and Clift, and considering its glaringly contentious but majorly underplayed theme of taboos in the carnal knowledge (owing to the rigid censorship at that time), it is a technically thespians' wheelhouse with a chiefly in-door production scale (nabbed two Oscar nominations for Hepburn and Taylor), last but not the least, it is directed by Joseph. L. Mankiewicz, the consummate actor's director (ALL ABOUT EVE 1950, 9/10; CLEOPATRA 1963, 6/10; SLEUTH 1972, 7/10), so if you are oblivious of the play or the story, wait and see to be shocked and amazed spontaneously. A wealthy widow Ms. Violet Venable (Hepburn), loses her mollycoddling son Sebastian one year earlier during his vocation in Spain with her niece Catherine Holly (Taylor), who after witnessing Sebastian's death, goes mad and acts erratically during her confinement in the convent, so Violet finds Doctor Cukrowicz (Clift), a first-rate dab hand of psychosurgery,with a munificent proposition to finance the state asylum where he works, under one conditional that he should lobotomise Catherine. This is a moral challenge for Cukrowicz firstly, but when he meets Catherine in person and is intrigued by her side of story, his decision tips the scale in her favour. Finally under the influence of hypnotherapy, Catherine is induced to divulge what had happened last summer, the superimposition of her narrative and footages build up to the shocking truth of Sebastian's demise. The story provides a substantial platform for Hepburn and Taylor to duke it out, a ruthless matriarch will go to great lengths to cover up his dead son's nature vs. an innocent lamb with a perturbed soul suffering from beholding a Mondo Cane brutality. Both are at the top of their games, Taylor is shockingly vulnerable in her plain attire and make-up free candidness, all the more voluptuously alluring, her final recount of what she saw "suddenly, last summer" is one of the most emotionally-charging showpiece ever, it is the spectacle you only need to watch once. Hepburn, is not endowed with as much screen time as Taylor, however, exudes her majestic viciousness through the tour-de-force eloquence and cadences of her utterance, from her first scene descending as an imposing empress from a lift, viewers will be ceaselessly enthralled by her domineering splendour, and in the end, one can even partially side with her as a mother entrapped by the over-bonding relationship with her only son, which is ghastly unhealthy, but a mother's love is unreserved, remorse can invoke the cruelest retaliation and her final scenes indicate she is another living victim as well. Clift, is the bridge between the two strong female roles, as we would know, it was the twilight years of his career, a physical jadedness is pervading with his presence, he is a listener, a reluctant mediator, a conscientious doctor, yet never dare to steal the thunder from his two extraordinary co-stars. Mercedes McCambridge and Gary Raymond are Catherine's avaricious mother and brother respectively, ludicrously dampens the madhouse intensity with their simpleton's wickedness. The suspenseful score from Malcolm Arnold sets the primary tone in the very beginning, a recurring skeleton in the luxuriant garden with the Venus' flytrap is a not-too-subtle clue of the theme, "quiet desperation is the word for most lives", words with wisdom are bountiful, the indelible sea turtle fable at the Encantadas echoes Sebastian's singular destiny, the most mystifying character we have learnt from a post-mortem viewpoint, a self-reflective plea from Williams maybe, and indeed should be put on the remake list, Todd Haynes will be a right choice for the director chair, someone who is competent and independent enough to explicate on the taboos and enliven the mise-en-scene, then pass the roles to Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams, and if there is any justice in the Oscar game, their time would finally arrive!