One has to wonder if Tennesse Williams had plum run out of ideas when he resorted to writing this ridiculous piece of Southern Gothic claptrap. I don't know if any actors could put this material over, but the ones gathered for this filmed version certainly can't. No doubt audiences at the time were fainting all over themselves at the subject matter -- homosexuality, cannibalism, lobotomies. Choose your psychological depravity, it's here. But now it all just seems so SILLY.
All of the actors take the affair dreadfully seriously, and I don't know whether that makes the movie better or worse. Katharine Hepburn is the only one who you might suspect is in on the joke. She does an impersonation of Katharine Hepburn doing an impersonation of a loony Southern matriarch who likes to fondle venus fly traps while talking about turtles having their bellies plucked out by seagulls. Her nose pointed at the ceiling while delivering all of her lines in that haughty Eastern aristocratic accent makes you wonder if she showed up on the set, realized what she was in for, and decided to have some fun with it. Montgomery Clift delivers a zoned-out performance and wanders through the film like a zombie -- with all the talk about lobotomies, you wonder if his character has already had one. And it's a wonder there was any scenery left after Elizabeth Taylor was done chomping up her role as the young lass who saw her gay boyfriend eaten by a bunch of Italian hunks. Can't imagine why she would have any neuroses after that.
Ah, well. For all of its ridiculousness, "Suddenly, Last Summer" does have a certain fascinating quality about it, mostly due to its lurid subject matter. You keep watching to see how much farther over the edge the film can possibly go. This doesn't make it a good movie, but it does make it watchable.
Grade: B-
All of the actors take the affair dreadfully seriously, and I don't know whether that makes the movie better or worse. Katharine Hepburn is the only one who you might suspect is in on the joke. She does an impersonation of Katharine Hepburn doing an impersonation of a loony Southern matriarch who likes to fondle venus fly traps while talking about turtles having their bellies plucked out by seagulls. Her nose pointed at the ceiling while delivering all of her lines in that haughty Eastern aristocratic accent makes you wonder if she showed up on the set, realized what she was in for, and decided to have some fun with it. Montgomery Clift delivers a zoned-out performance and wanders through the film like a zombie -- with all the talk about lobotomies, you wonder if his character has already had one. And it's a wonder there was any scenery left after Elizabeth Taylor was done chomping up her role as the young lass who saw her gay boyfriend eaten by a bunch of Italian hunks. Can't imagine why she would have any neuroses after that.
Ah, well. For all of its ridiculousness, "Suddenly, Last Summer" does have a certain fascinating quality about it, mostly due to its lurid subject matter. You keep watching to see how much farther over the edge the film can possibly go. This doesn't make it a good movie, but it does make it watchable.
Grade: B-