Rating: 
Summary: Best Tennessee Williams and Montgomery Clift ever
Review: I am a big fan of bothWilliams and Clift, and watch this movie monthly. The acting is fantastic and the story is the most complex I have seen out of Williams. You can't go wrong with a Hepburn, and Liz is always powerful. The mood is dark, and pessimistic (theologically, the plot moves to show nature, God, etc., as uncaring to the petty lives of its creations), and heavily laden with religious images and themes, especcially buddhist and Christian.
Rating: 
Summary: Will Elizabeth Taylor have the labotomy ?
Review: I came across this movie quite by accident. I was requesting another Katharine Hepburn film I thought would be Summertime (1955), but this film came up instead. Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) begins with Montgomery Clift as a doctor who performs labotomies on people under primitive hospital conditions. He believes in giving people the mental peace they need. He makes a requested house call to an eccentric woman of means (Katharine Hepburn). She has plenty of money and is in care of her deceased son's estate. His home has a backyard full of unique trees and plants, including carnivorous. The land looks like a tropical forest. Her niece (Elizabeth Taylor) is at St. Mary's, a custodial home for the insane. She has fits of violence and babbling. Sebastian, the deceased son, his death has been a mystery or rather the whole story has not been told. Elizabeth Taylor knows but can't remember...yet. She must now be sent elsewhere, the home can no longer take care of her. So this aunt would like her niece to have a labotomy that the doctor performs. I will not reveal anymore of the plot, but this film is a must-see. I'm not much of a Katharine Hepburn fan, but boy I sure was hooked on every word she said and her performance in this film is outstanding and superb. Hepburn was 51 years of age. Elizabeth Taylor was 26 years of age. Mercedes McCambridge plays Mrs. Holly. Gary Raymond plays "George Holly". "Miss Foxhil" is played by Mavis Villiers. Elizabeth Taylor was nominated for Outstanding Actress for an Academy Award. This film was nominated in Art Direction--Set Decoration for a black & white film. DVD offers Widescreen or Full-Screen.
Rating:
Summary: THUMBS UP
Review: I FIRST SAW THIS MOVIE WHEN IT PLAYED IN THE MOVIES. THE STORY STAYED WITH ME EVER SINCE. THERE WAS ALWAYS A WONDERFUL CONNECTION BETWEEN LIZ TAYLOR AND MONTGOMERY CLIFT. THIS MOVIE REFLECTED THAT CONNECTION IN ALL IT'S GLORY. THE STORY LINE WAS STRANGE BUT STILL EMBODIED THE CONFLICT OF GOOD AND EVIL. I DO THINK THIS IS A SAMPLING FROM FILM NOIR THAT DESERVES TO BE SEEN.
Rating:
Summary: Not Your Run-Of-The-Mill
Review: I found this film more valuable as an exploration of 1930s science and social mores than as entertainment. Cathy Holly (Elizabeth Taylor) is a traumatized girl whom everyone has a stake in shutting up--everyone, that is, except the doctor slated to perform an obviously inappropriate lobotomy upon her (Monty Clift). Elizabeth Taylor delivers a strong if sometimes overwrought performance as Cathy. Katherine Hepburn gives a textured performance as the eponymously named Mrs. Venable, Cathy's venerable, manipulative, and delusional aunt. Mercedes McCambridge is appropriately annoying as Cathy's ignoramus of a mother. Clift can't quite overcome the inherent limitations of his character, whose main purpose seems to be to serve as a foil for the others.
The poetic style of Williams' original play is preserved in the lines of Mrs. Venable, which makes Hepburn's scenes especially fun: Mrs. Venable could almost be an aging Blanche Dubois. This alone makes the film worth checking out.
Rating:
Summary: The Most Powerful Film Ever Made
Review: I just finished watching this movie. My heart is racing like I just escaped a madhouse.Hepburn is so understated and Taylor so passionate that Clift just has to stand there and try to sort things out. The intense search for truth and how it can set people free to live thier lives is what this picture is about. You can't seem to get a good grip on the story, but the characters are palpable and real. You can't find any acting in this picture, no directing or lighting because you are swept into an intense desire to know the truth.The only time I was distracted was when you first see Taylor. The wardrobe dept. hade made her uniform fit like a glove, which was very Hollywood.You have to see this movie, you may not understand it or comprehend what the storyline is saying but you will be moved by this masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Masterpiece!
Review: I watched this movie again for the first time last night since it first appeared back in the sixties. It was a real shocker back then for no movie had ever featured a real live homosexual character before. Even then, emergent gay groups were enraged by the "animal" like character of Sebastian Veneble. And he does come across as a grotesque monster. But I seriously doubt anybody but the homophobes would think all men like him were human vultures. Even "straight" men have been known to like only "blondes", "red heads", etc. Still, the acting, the direction, photography, etc. of Suddenly, Last Summer is phenomenal. As Mercedes McCambridge recalled in her memoirs (she played Liz's dithering mother), everyone on the set were undergoing their own private hells during the filming: Liz had realized her marriage to Eddie Fisher was a joke, Montgomery Clift was battling all kinds of demons, etc. The movie made an profound impression on me (compared to today when about the only movies you have to choose from is junk like Wild Wild West, American Pie, etc.). This was the era when they made great movies that looked wonderful and told unforgettable stories. Liz was never greater and is photographed at the peak of surreal beauty. Hepburn is great, too. And dig that screen writing credit: Tennessee Williams and Gore Vidal! What a pair! And what geniuses! One of Hollywood's proudest achivements and a big box office smash at the time, too. When Europeans saw it, they couldn't believe this dark, shimmering masterpiece had actually come out of a Hollywood studio (although it was filmed in London).
Rating:
Summary: Kind of creepy, definitely over-the-top and freaky!
Review: If you like eerie, gothic psycho-dramas and way over-the-top acting, you will love this movie. The performances ARE pretty campy, but overall, the actingfits the story of a young girl who is haunted by a terrifying incident, which she has blocked from her memory. If you have read Tennesee Williams' play, the movie is pretty true to the text. The manner in which it was filmed really adds a dark- ness and mystery to the story. The symbolism is often pretty heavy-handed, but it is also quite imaginative and, most importantly, it works.
Rating:
Summary: Liz & Kate are great in this Tennessee Williams Classic
Review: Liz Taylor (Catherine), beautiful as ever, plays opposite Katherine Hepburn (Aunt Violet) and Montgomery Clift (Dr. Cukrowicz) in this typical Tennessee Williams "play" (which does appear rather stagy).Catherine appears to be hopelessly tortured by painful memories of the horrifying way in which Aunt Violet's son was killed during a European vacation the two took "last summer". These memories, blocked out by some sort of amnesia, seem to be a great cause for worry to Aunt Violet. The grotesquely wealthy widow offers Dr. Cukovicz a large donation to build a medical facility for his pioneer work in "lebodomy" procedures in exchange for "destroying those tormenting memories" in her niece's head. The doctor wants to "study" Catherine prior to agreeing to "operate", since the procedure was still experimental (in the 1938 setting) and involved considerable risk. Spending only about 2 days with the young beauty, the doctor discovers many "family secrets", including the obsessive relationship Violet has had with her son, as well as the young man's troubled psyche. The ending will shock the viewer, yet add many (but not all) pieces to the puzzle. The actual "conclusion" of the matter will be up to each viewer's own interpretation. Katherine Hepburn's exit reminds of the great final scene in "Sunset Boulevard", where Gloria Swanson is "ready for her close-up". The story is definitely a classic, rivaling the work of American Greats like Hemmingway and Steinbeck. A must-see film for fans of the 3 stars!****
Rating:
Summary: Great film, good DVD extras
Review: Lots of stills in the DVD extras and vintage advertising dress up this DVD issue of "Suddenly Last Summer". It belongs in any comprehensive collection of gay-themed films, as it is among the first to deal with gay subject matter. Tenessee Williams thought Liz was wildly miscast as Cousin Sebastian's wishy-washy travel companion, but history has been kind to her sensitive portrayal of the disturbed young woman. Katherine Hepburn camps it up as Aunt Vie and Mercedes McCambridge chews up scenery as Liz's money grubbing Mom, who's willing to mandate a labotomy for Liz in order to silence her memories of what Sebastian did, for a nice payoff from Katherine, who is in complete denial! Monty Clift underplays as the surgeon who must try and decide what Liz really needs. A truly unique movie with an unforgettable ending that still shocks. Buy it up!
Rating:
Summary: Vultures
Review: My summer has been a quiet one so far, and it certainly can't compare to the summer Elizabeth Taylor has in this film, a summer in which she witnesses the traumatic death of her cousin, leaving her in shock and setting the stage for a lobotomy to help "relieve" her distress! Sound a little over the top? Well, it is, but this is a Tennessee Williams story and over the top is what makes it fun. Katherine Hepburn plays the dead man's very wealthy mother who decides that her niece must have a lobotomy in order to prevent her telling the truth about what happened last summer. She approaches neurosurgeon Montgomery Clift with a big cheque to help convince him of its necessity. Before he operates, he wants to delve into Taylor's case and the unravelling of the mystery of what happened that summer drives the film. The first time I saw the film I remember being unimpressed by Taylor. Not so the second time, however, as she delivers an emotionally charged performance with much skill. She gets some big moments in the story, and she takes full advantage. Hebpurn gets to play one of the strangest characters of her career, and does so with obvious relish and style. Clift is very subdued in a thinly written role, letting the two star actresses take control of the scenes and reveal their characters, which is really what a psychiatrist does. There is obviously more going on then the script of a 1950's film could get into, so the film deals with its larger issues as well as could be expected. The last twenty minutes are especially impressive. It's certainly not a feel good movie, dealing with some pretty dark aspects of human behaviour and reasoning. But the film is nonetheless fascinating to watch, and certainly worth seeing for the performances of its leading actresses.
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