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    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1950s
    Movies - 1950s Movies - S 2 Mins Read

    Suddenly Last Summer (1959)

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    This wonderfully overheated drama by Tennessee Williams, who wrote the screenplay with Gore Vidal, is animated by ultra-powerful performances from Elizabeth Taylor and Katharine Hepburn.

    Taylor plays Catherine Holly, the niece about to be committed to a mental institution by southern matriarch Mrs Violet Venable (Hepburn) after witnessing the violent death of her cousin, Sebastian (Violet’s much-loved son).

    Montgomery Clift is Dr John Cukrowicz, the neurosurgeon called in to assess the girl’s sanity rating before a possible lobotomy.

    Elizabeth Taylor portrays Catherine’s brittleness ideally as she nervously puffs on a cigarette as she cottons on to her family’s plans for her so they can secure Sebastian’s fortune left to her in his will.

    All the way through there are references to how Sebastian met his demise – as when Catherine accidentally ends up in the male half of the asylum and is crowded, or when Mrs Venable feeds her carnivorous plants and speaks of baby turtles being eaten by birds.

    Director Joseph L Mankiewicz makes it a class act all round.

    Catherine Holly
    Elizabeth Taylor
    Dr John Cukrowicz
    Montgomery Clift
    Mrs Violet Venable
    Katharine Hepburn
    Dr Hockstader
    Albert Dekker
    Mrs Holly
    Mercedes McCambridge
    George Holly
    Gary Raymond
    Miss Foxhill
    Mavis Villiers
    Sister Felicity
    Joan Young
    Nurse Benson
    Patricia Marmont
    Lucy
    Maria Britneva

    Director
    Joseph L. Mankiewicz

    Video

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