Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

Violet Venable (Katherine Hepburn) has a problem. Several problems really. But the biggest one is her niece, Catherine Holly (Elizabeth Taylor). Catherine has gone mad. It happened during the previous summer. She was in Spain with Violet's son, Sebastian. Something happened. Sebastian died. Catherine began raving madly. The things she said were disturbing to say the least. The fact that she said them about Sebastian was unforgivable. Sebastian was Violet's darling. From the moment he was born, she doted on him. Nothing was too good for him. No one was good enough for him. Except Violet, that is. Mother and son were inseparable. They traveled the world over, always together, more like husband and wife than mother and son. Until, that is, last summer. Violet was sick and couldn't travel. So, Sebastian took Catherine with him. And that's when everything started to go south for her. Having been raped at her first Mardi Gras ball just a month or so prior to their trip, she was already in an unstable condition. Then came the trip last summer, when Sebastian suddenly died. Of a heart attack, they say. But, why then does Catherine rave? And why does Violet want her out of the way? For good? Enter Dr. Cukrowicz (Montgomery Clift). He's a Psychiatrist and brain surgeon at the state mental hospital, which is badly in need of cash. Violet promises to give them one million dollars, if the good doctor will perform a little surgery on Catherine, one that's guaranteed to cure her lunacy, to shut her up for good. Dr. Cukrowicz isn't so sure that Catherine really is insane. He gains Catherine's trust. Then he gets her to tell her secret. They went to sunny Spain. The beautiful and fine Sebastian was using Catherine as bait. She attracted lots of fine and beautiful young men. Well, just boys really. But Sebastian would find the ones whose proclivities swung in his direction, or the ones who were just so hungry that they'd do anything for a little money. But the boys got angry with Sebastian. Who knows why. Maybe they just got fed up with being used. At any rate, they took revenge on him. Let's just say, they satisfied their hunger. And poor Catherine saw it all. No wonder she broke down. No wonder Violet wouldn't listen.

Joseph L. Mankewicz's Suddenly, Last Summer is a film about insanity, about sexual deviancy, about twisted familial relationships and the lengths that some people will go to keep them a secret. It's a film about a woman who twists her son into a monster, and the monster who uses his mother - and later his cousin - to procure his victims. And it's a film about the way that people choose not to talk about things that are too unpleasant, about the way that people cover up the unpleasant things and let them fester into madness. And it's a story about appetites, and the ways - not always healthy - that we go about satisfying those appetites. Suddenly, Last Summer is a masterpiece, with one of the best casts assembled. Katherine Hepburn is wonderful as the wealthy, aloof and slightly disturbing Violet Venable. Elizabeth Taylor turns in a fine performance as the tragically disturbed and misunderstood Catherine Holly. And Montgomery Clift, with those intense eyes and that too-too fragile demeanor, is brilliant as young Dr. Cukrowicz, who's frustrated at the primitive conditions in the hospital he has to work in and the primitive mindset of the people who he works with, a mindset that says it's all right to lobotomize someone just because you don't like what she's saying. We see the treatment of the mentally ill only a few steps away from old Bedlam. Of course, even that may be better than the way we don't treat the mentally ill today. Makes you wonder how much things really have changed.

Suddenly, Last Summer is UNRATED and is filmed in glorious black and white. Running time is 114 minutes.