Elizabeth Taylor, Katherine Hepburn and Tennessee Williams

Nov 6, 2011

by littlesam1
posted in Classic Silver Screen Film Reviews!

Exclusive to the Lunch Network

Rating:

Sudden, Last Summer is a goth masterpiece based on Tennessee Williams play of the same title. The play is basically a series of soliliquies by the two main characters Violet and Cathy. Katherine Hepburn opens the film with a long sequence as her elevator descends into her forbidding and frightening house and garden. Elizabeth Taylor ends the film in another long sequence telling the horrors of what happened suddenly last summer. The story is dark with lots of hidden and forbidden topics which were not discussed in the time period this film was made. Gore Vidal wrote the screenplay and had to create language which hides many of the homosexual themes Williams wrote in his original play. But if you listen closely , and follow the story there is no doubt what everyone is talking about. Montgomery Clift and Mercedes McCambridge fill out the impressive cast. This is not a movie to pop into the DVD player for a light evenings entertainment. The movie is challenging in theme and in production, but well worth your time. A glass of wine, a rainy afternoon, and a comfortable arm chair will prepare you for the ride. Its one of my favorite movies of all time.

What did you think of this review?

Helpful

Thought-Provoking

Fun to Read

Well-Organized

Post a Comment

More Suddenly, Last Summer reviews

review by Sheila. May 28, 2009

Have An Unforgettable Summer? It Can't Hardly Compare To Cathy's!

Tennessee Williams SOUTHERN GOTH masterpiece a la dark black and white Hollywood film style with Joseph (All About Eve, Guys & Dolls) Mankiewicz at the director's helm and screenplay adapted by Gore Vidal. Elizabeth Taylor plays beautiful and crazy Cathy and Mercedes McCambridge (the actress who provided the voice of the demon in The Exorcist) plays her protective mother. Katherine Hepburn is Auntie Venable and wants niece Cathy to have a lobotomy to help her forget what … more

Comments (1) Compliments (17)

see all Suddenly, Last Summer reviews (2)

About the reviewer

Larry Sampson (littlesam1)
Ranked #8

I am a retired Federal employee. I worked for 34 years for the Civil Service. When I retired I was working at The Library of Congress in Washington DC. I was able to retire at a somewhat young age of … more