Suddenly, Last Summer

Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Writers: Gore Vidal, Tennesse Williams

Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Montgomery Clift, Mercedes McCambridge

Runtime: 114 minutes

Certification: 15

Rating: 4⁄5

Tennessee Williams has written some dark and bold plays during his lengthy career. There have been many film adaptations of his plays and although some of the contents were toned down significantly for the sake of having a more friendly audience and not offending them as much, their tone and subjects were shocking enough to always cause a stir. He was a brave playwright who addressed the hushed up issues head-on. It’s a breath of fresh air - a non-restrained, brutally honest portrayal of contemporary society. The subjects of mental illnesses, homosexuality, rape, prostitution are explored, giving us an original insight into human nature.

Suddenly, Last Summer must be the most shocking one of all. Not only does this deal with a closeted homosexual man who has died under mysterious circumstances, throughout the film it involves the themes of paedophilia, cannibalism and the controversial medical procedure lobotomy. Even today these subjects are frowned upon; just imagine what kind of an impact this would have had in the 50s.

Dr Cukrowicz (Montgomery Clift) is a talented young doctor, and one of the few who has performed the lobotomy procedure. A harsh procedure that severs the bridge that connects the two hemispheres of the brain. It makes the patients more docile and easier to handle, effectively turning them into vegetables. It’s reserved for the most violent mental patients who are considered to be beyond any psychiatric help. Cukrowicz himself is not a fan of the surgery, and he makes this clear. He’s “not a witch doctor” he says. However, the medical centre he works at is not a wealthy one and the infrastructure is struggling to keep up. But an opportunity presents itself. An incredibly wealthy widow Violet Venable (Katharine Hepburn) is willing to donate a fortune to the hospital if Dr Cukrowicz would perform the questionable surgery on her niece Catherine Holly (Elizabeth Taylor), who has become unstable after an incident that occurred in the previous summer where Violet’s son Sebastian, died suddenly of a heart attack. Or so that’s what Violet says.

But we know from Hepburn’s perfect performance that Violet is not telling us everything. She makes a grand entrance on her fancy chairlift that is installed in her mansion, as a somewhat heavenly but also gothic figure. She’s hiding something, something so big and scandalous that if exposed, the secret could ruin her family name. She cannot stop talking about her recently deceased son. She loves him more than anything and the two were very close. But slowly it is revealed that what they had was a little further than just love: it seems to have developed into an obsession for Violet. An obsession that got considerably worse after the “accident” that caused his death. This becomes apparent in the lengthy sequence that shows Hepburn and Clift discussing Catherine and Sebastian. She wants to avoid talking about that specific summer and only wants to focus on the fact that he was an incredibly talented, sensitive poet. A free spirit who loved to travel with her and was unbelievably kind towards her. But occasionally she does let some disturbing facts slip, after which she herself is deeply troubled. Not a lot is revealed during his talk with Violet so the doctor wants to examine Catherine himself. She tells a different story but when she wants to get into details as to what happened that summer, she screams in horror and breaks down in front of him, claiming she cannot remember. Is she crazy? If so, then what was it that was so horrible that it left this poor young woman beyond traumatised? If not, then what is she hiding? Dr. Cukrowicz is facing pressure from his boss to perform the surgery, since a large donation is all the hospital wants. So he has very little time to put the pieces together and figure out what actually happened. Making matters more complicated, Catherine’s mother (Mercedes McCambridge) and brother enter the picture, with a hidden agenda of their own.

Early scenes set up a dark, haunting mystery and the conclusion certainly doesn’t fail to live up to the sinister build-up. It’s a long, wordy process that tries to confuse us along the way, but Catherine’s final testimony, integrated with scenes of flashbacks, answers all the questions. It’s not pretty, instead a rather grotesque imagery. It explains everything: the reason why Violet so desperately wanted to tie up all the loose ends, why she was willing to go so far to preserve the dignity of her dead son, and why Violet wasn’t here with him on his holiday in the first place. Initially Violet takes great pride in the fact that she used to travel the world with her son. But something must have changed last summer for Sebastian to ask Catherine to join him on the trip instead.

Why is the mystery so effectively intriguing? Because as more and more is revealed, you realise just how vile and twisted everything is. The film doesn’t give you the full picture until the very end but the script is very good at dropping hints to keep us hooked and guessing. The gothic set-up is wonderfully over the top sometimes, and no matter how unrealistic the ending may be, it is a truly disturbing one, full of concepts that cannot be taken lightly even to this day. A room full of mental patients has never been scarier and neither has a large crowd of hungry, tin-instrument playing local boys chasing after a rich man.

Part of the reason why Suddenly, Last Summer is such an unforgettably chilling experience is due to the fantastic performances. Hepburn is as sinister as she is loving of her son, and her goal is clear. She becomes so unpredictable and manipulative due to her endless determination to do what is best for her son’s memory. It’s her love that eats away at her every day and slowly drives her mad. She’s the main antagonist who tries to orchestrate a seemingly unnecessary brain procedure and Hepburn plays this role remarkably well, giving us chills even with the most silent but deadly look. She shakes with fear whenever she thinks of the painful past. It’s as if she’s too scared to admit what happened. Taylor, the woman at the centre of this mystery is a fine young dame who holds all the answers, the deep, dark secrets that Ms. Venable is trying to bury forever. Taylor, with her beauty and talent is the vulnerable victim, about to be forced into a serious brain operation. She is sane enough for us to believe some of the events she describes but sometimes the stories she remembers are so absurd and unthinkable that we do question her sanity. She is an ambiguous character and Taylor shows the two very challenging sides skillfully. She never overplays the crazy part, but just enough for us to doubt her as the only witness. Clift on the other hand has a much more subdued, less showy role but interacts with the two women convincingly.

It’s packed full of words, as most films based on plays should be, and sometimes because the atmosphere is so tense, when the script starts to have more and more of them, it can be a tad frustrating. We want answers to these dark and twisted questions raised in the first half. The extraordinary sequence in which Catherine explains everything doesn’t let us down, but by then some of the viewers might be too exhausted to fully care. It’s a lengthy, intense experience and so you should give this a go only after you have seen and are fine with the less dense, lighter black-and-white films.