"Suddenly, Last Summer" was perhaps Tennessee Williams most autobiographical play. Mr. Williams never forgave his mother for letting his sister Rose undergo a lobotomy to "cure" her anxiety problems, something that he dealt with in this work, as well. As a play, this was done Off-Broadway, something unheard in those days about the work of one of last century's best regarded playwright. It proved to be a great artistic success for the author, even with a cast of non stars in it. In fact, "Suddenly, Last Summer" was paired with a shorter play, "Something Unspoken", under the title "Garden District".
Joseph L. Mankiewicz, one of the best directors and writers that ever worked in Hollywood, undertook the direction of Gore Vidal's screen adaptation. In a way, it must have been a daring decision to bring it to the movies, since the play speaks about things that in the theater it could get away with, but in the movies, a different medium, and with the censure of those years, not even a distinguished team as the one assembled here, could get away with a movie that seemed to be years ahead of its time. The film is set in 1937.
If you haven't seen the film, please stop reading here.
We meet young doctor Cukrowicz at the start of the film as he is about to perform a lobotomy on one of the patients in the public hospital, where the lights go out during the operation. The ambitious director, Dr. Hockstader, wants to send the young doctor to talk to Mrs. Violet Venable, one of the richest ladies in New Orleans, because she is interested in donating money toward a hospital's improvements, with the caveat that her young niece, Catherine, undergoes the operation. Evidently, she has been "babbling" all kinds of nonsense and has been diagnosed suffering from schizophrenia.
What Mrs. Venable doesn't tell the young doctor is the reason why her niece is acting in such a strange manner. During the visit, she speaks of her dead young son, Sebastian, who died tragically, suddenly, last summer of a heart attack. Violet doesn't go into details, but it seems there is much more to the story than she tells Dr. Cuckrowicz. Mrs. Venable talks about her summer trips with Sebastian and the horrible experience she had in the Galapagos watching the young turtles rushing to the sea falling prey to the predatory black birds that seem to cloud the sky.
That there's something more, is clearly noticed by the young doctor when he meets Catherine, the lovely young woman being kept in another hospital's mental ward. Catherine comes across as quite sane, which poses a moral dilemma for the Cukrowicz, who is under pressure to rush Catherine's lobotomy. Since he has so many doubts and in trying to see what's wrong with the girl, he hears about how Catherine and Violet have served as procurers to the late Sebastian.
The climax comes as a family reunion in which Dr. Cukrowicz gathers in the Venable mansion's patio all the people involved in the case. It is in this setting that he is able to extract from Catherine's memory what she has kept bottled up there. In a sequence that plays as a film within Catherine's mind, we watch the horrors this young woman went through when the situation gets out of hand between Sebastian and the young men of Cabeza de Lobo, where they had spent part of their vacation.
Tennessee Williams, the playwright, and Gore Vidal, the adapter, both spent time in Italy. It's somehow disorienting that Catherine is talking about Amalfi and changes to another location, the scene of what appears to be the martyrdom of Sebastian, paralleling the life of the saint of the same name, to Cabeza de Lobo, which sounds more as being set in Spain than in Italy. Nevertheless, these starving children Sebastian lures to him by using his gorgeous cousin in revealing swimsuit, are key to what happens to him in that shocking day.
Katherine Hepburn is about the best thing in the film. She plays a refined and dignified wealthy New Orleans matron with great assurance. Ms. Hepburn gave an understated performance showing a restraint that with some other actress might have develop into caricature. Her Mrs. Venable is a woman whose sorrow for the lost of the son knows no bounds and is trying to shut up the only person that knows the truth about what really happened to him.
Elizabeth Taylor makes an invaluable contribution to the film with her luminous portrayal of Catherine. She was seen in the film at the height of her beauty and youth. Ms. Taylor, in one of her best appearances in any film, is convincing as the young woman who has been traumatized by what she had witnessed that fateful summer.
Montgomery Clift, who has the lesser part of Dr. Cukrowicz, does what he can with his role. Mercedes McCambridge, on the other hand is perfect as the ambitious poor relative without scruples, who will do anything to receive the crumbs of her richer relative and couldn't care what happens to her daughter.
This film was ahead of its times and still packs a lot of power because of the direction of Mr. Mankiewicz and his stellar cast.
Joseph L. Mankiewicz, one of the best directors and writers that ever worked in Hollywood, undertook the direction of Gore Vidal's screen adaptation. In a way, it must have been a daring decision to bring it to the movies, since the play speaks about things that in the theater it could get away with, but in the movies, a different medium, and with the censure of those years, not even a distinguished team as the one assembled here, could get away with a movie that seemed to be years ahead of its time. The film is set in 1937.
If you haven't seen the film, please stop reading here.
We meet young doctor Cukrowicz at the start of the film as he is about to perform a lobotomy on one of the patients in the public hospital, where the lights go out during the operation. The ambitious director, Dr. Hockstader, wants to send the young doctor to talk to Mrs. Violet Venable, one of the richest ladies in New Orleans, because she is interested in donating money toward a hospital's improvements, with the caveat that her young niece, Catherine, undergoes the operation. Evidently, she has been "babbling" all kinds of nonsense and has been diagnosed suffering from schizophrenia.
What Mrs. Venable doesn't tell the young doctor is the reason why her niece is acting in such a strange manner. During the visit, she speaks of her dead young son, Sebastian, who died tragically, suddenly, last summer of a heart attack. Violet doesn't go into details, but it seems there is much more to the story than she tells Dr. Cuckrowicz. Mrs. Venable talks about her summer trips with Sebastian and the horrible experience she had in the Galapagos watching the young turtles rushing to the sea falling prey to the predatory black birds that seem to cloud the sky.
That there's something more, is clearly noticed by the young doctor when he meets Catherine, the lovely young woman being kept in another hospital's mental ward. Catherine comes across as quite sane, which poses a moral dilemma for the Cukrowicz, who is under pressure to rush Catherine's lobotomy. Since he has so many doubts and in trying to see what's wrong with the girl, he hears about how Catherine and Violet have served as procurers to the late Sebastian.
The climax comes as a family reunion in which Dr. Cukrowicz gathers in the Venable mansion's patio all the people involved in the case. It is in this setting that he is able to extract from Catherine's memory what she has kept bottled up there. In a sequence that plays as a film within Catherine's mind, we watch the horrors this young woman went through when the situation gets out of hand between Sebastian and the young men of Cabeza de Lobo, where they had spent part of their vacation.
Tennessee Williams, the playwright, and Gore Vidal, the adapter, both spent time in Italy. It's somehow disorienting that Catherine is talking about Amalfi and changes to another location, the scene of what appears to be the martyrdom of Sebastian, paralleling the life of the saint of the same name, to Cabeza de Lobo, which sounds more as being set in Spain than in Italy. Nevertheless, these starving children Sebastian lures to him by using his gorgeous cousin in revealing swimsuit, are key to what happens to him in that shocking day.
Katherine Hepburn is about the best thing in the film. She plays a refined and dignified wealthy New Orleans matron with great assurance. Ms. Hepburn gave an understated performance showing a restraint that with some other actress might have develop into caricature. Her Mrs. Venable is a woman whose sorrow for the lost of the son knows no bounds and is trying to shut up the only person that knows the truth about what really happened to him.
Elizabeth Taylor makes an invaluable contribution to the film with her luminous portrayal of Catherine. She was seen in the film at the height of her beauty and youth. Ms. Taylor, in one of her best appearances in any film, is convincing as the young woman who has been traumatized by what she had witnessed that fateful summer.
Montgomery Clift, who has the lesser part of Dr. Cukrowicz, does what he can with his role. Mercedes McCambridge, on the other hand is perfect as the ambitious poor relative without scruples, who will do anything to receive the crumbs of her richer relative and couldn't care what happens to her daughter.
This film was ahead of its times and still packs a lot of power because of the direction of Mr. Mankiewicz and his stellar cast.