Suddenly, Last Summer (film)
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| Suddenly, Last Summer | |
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 Film poster |
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| Directed by | Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| Produced by | Sam Spiegel |
| Written by | Gore Vidal Tennessee Williams (play) |
| Starring | Elizabeth Taylor Katharine Hepburn Montgomery Clift |
| Music by | Malcolm Arnold Buxton Orr |
| Cinematography | Jack Hildyard |
| Editing by | William Hornbeck Thomas Stanford |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) |  22 December 1959 |
| Running time | 114 min |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US $3,000,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
Suddenly, Last Summer is a 1959 drama film made by Columbia Pictures, based on the play of the same title by Tennessee Williams. The film was directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and produced by Sam Spiegel from a screenplay by Gore Vidal and Williams, based on Williams' play. The music score was by Malcolm Arnold and Buxton Orr and the cinematography by Jack Hildyard. The production was designed by Oliver Messel.
The film stars Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn and Montgomery Clift with Albert Dekker, Mercedes McCambridge, and Gary Raymond. Eddie Fisher, Gore Vidal, and Williams' lover Frank Merlo (1915-1963) make uncredited cameo appearances. Vidal and Merlo's cameos are as surgeons who are watching an operation being performed. Fisher appears as one of the street thugs pursuing Taylor in the flashback.
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[edit] Plot
The film features Catherine Holly (Taylor), a young woman who seems to go insane after her cousin Sebastian dies on a trip to Europe under mysterious circumstances. Sebastian's mother, Violet Venable (Hepburn), tries to cloud the truth about her son's homosexuality and his death, as she wants him to be remembered as a great artist. She threatens to lobotomize Catherine for her incoherent utterances relating to Sebastian's demise. Finally, under the influence of a truth serum, Catherine tells the gruesome story of Sebastian's death by cannibalism at the hand of local boys whose sexual favors he sought. Both his mother and later Catherine were only devices for him to attract the young men.
[edit] Homosexual characterisation
As with some of Tennessee Williams' other plays, the plot involves a homosexual man portrayed in a negative light. Williams may have originally used this motif to express his own unresolved shame, while Vidal may have seen it as an opportunity to exaggerate and mock the homophobia of 1950s society. In Suddenly Last Summer, the gay man is cast as a faceless paedophile, who comes to a horrific end as a karmic consequence of his own unshown monstrous actions.
This 1950s stereotypical portrayal of a gay man as a monster with a domineering, self-deceiving mother, combined with the film's dark, gothic tone, the subjects of lobotomy and truth serum, and the sustained dramatic intensity of the two leading women's competitively passionate performances, makes this movie a masterpiece of camp and a subtle black comedy.
[edit] Background and production
The original play on which the film is based is a one-act play, part of the double-bill called Garden District, paired with Something Unspoken, performed Off-Broadway in 1958.
The production was fraught with difficulties. Hepburn was apparently resentful of the attention Taylor was receiving. In addition, Mankiewicz and Spiegel reportedly disliked Clift. Reasons given include that he was gay and that he was unable to film for more than a few hours a day.
As a result of the May 1956 car crash near the home of Taylor and her then-husband Michael Wilding, Clift was relying heavily on drugs and/or alcohol. Hepburn was deeply resentful of the treatment Clift was receiving, and despite the moral support both she and Taylor (who had been instrumental in getting him the role) provided to Clift, Clift's behavior on the set caused much negativity among the crew. At the end of filming, after confirming her part of the filming was completely done, Hepburn reportedly spat in the face of Spiegel, Mankiewicz or both.[citation needed]
Problems also beset the production of the film's musical score. Malcolm Arnold was originally contracted to provide it, but apparently found some of the story's aspects disturbing and withdrew from the project after writing only a small amount of music. The score was completed by Buxton Orr.
The film was shot entirely in England, at Shepperton Studios and in London, between May and August 1959, and released in the U.S. on December 22 of that year. Despite opening up the play to include some exteriors and additional scenes, the film cannot hide its stage origins and was felt by some critics to be dialogue-bound.[1].
[edit] Cast
- Elizabeth Taylor - Catherine Holly
- Katharine Hepburn - Mrs. Violet Venable
- Montgomery Clift - Dr. John Cukrowicz
- Albert Dekker - Dr. Hockstader
- Mercedes McCambridge - Mrs. Holly
- Gary Raymond - George Holly
- Mavis Villiers - Miss Foxhill
- Patricia Marmont - Nurse Benson
- Joan Young - Sister Felicity
- Maria Britneva - Lucy
- Sheila Robbins - Dr. Hockstader's Secretary
- David Cameron - Young Blonde Intern
- Roberta Woolley - Patient
[edit] Awards and nominations
[edit] Academy Awards
Both Katharine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor were nominated for the Best Actress award. The surprise winner that year was Simone Signoret for Room at the Top. The film was also nominated for Best Art Direction for Oliver Messel, William Kellner and Scott Slimon.
[edit] Golden Globe Awards
Taylor and Hepburn were also nominated for the Best Actress award and Taylor won the award.
[edit] Other awards
Elizabeth Taylor won the Laurel Award for Top Female Dramatic Performance.
[edit] External links
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