Suddenly, Last Summer

Name: Suddenly, Last Summer
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Released: January 1, 1960
Duration: 114 min
Rating: 54
Cast: Albert Dekker, Elizabeth Taylor, Gary Raymond, Joan Young, Katharine Hepburn

1960

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 9 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 7 Ratings

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7.1	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 7 Ratings

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Suddenly Last Summer

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Movie Details & Credits

Columbia Pictures | Release Date: January 1, 1960 | Approved

Starring: Albert Dekker, Elizabeth Taylor, Gary Raymond, Joan Young, Katharine Hepburn, Maria Britneva, Mavis Villiers, Mercedes McCambridge, Montgomery Clift, Patricia Marmont

Summary: The only son of wealthy widow Violet Venable dies while on vacation with his cousin Catherine. What the girl saw was so horrible that she went insane; now Mrs. Venable wants Catherine lobotomized to cover up the truth.

Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Genre(s): Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Rating: Approved

Runtime: 114 min

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Critic Reviews

Empire Kim Newman

Superbly adapted with blistering performances from Taylor and Hepburn. Read full review

Marjorie Baumgarten

The battles between the imperious Hepburn and the presumed-mad Taylor are pure theatricality, while sensitive shrink Clift observes it all and emotes. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

An outrageous, melodramatic shocker touching on madness, homosexual prostitution, incest, disease and cannibalism, replete with enough imagery to sustain an American Lit seminar for months. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

It has some very effective moments, but on the whole it fails to move. Read full review

Dave Kehr

The cast packs enough sexual ambiguity to satisfy the most rabid Williams fan (not to mention a screenplay by Gore Vidal), but Mankiewicz leaves much of the innuendo unexplored—thankfully, perhaps. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

It was the first time that homosexuality and cannibalism had ever been handled by a mainstream studio as a commercial venture. Let's hope that it remains the last time those two practices will be presented in tandem. Read full review

Pauline Kael

They should never have allowed the audience so much time to think about what's going on: the short play turns into a ludicrous, lumbering horror movie.

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User Reviews

codyz

Jul 24, 2023

Wow, this movie is surprisingly embarrassing, given the stellar talent involved.

Movie is, at times, laughably acted, Tennessee Williams' usually razor sharp dialogue, rings false, and the story is stupid, instead of being tragic. Obviously, Montgomery Clift's real life problems affectedWow, this movie is surprisingly embarrassing, given the stellar talent involved.

Movie is, at times, laughably acted, Tennessee Williams' usually razor sharp dialogue, rings false, and the story is stupid, instead of being tragic.

Obviously, Montgomery Clift's real life problems affected his wooden performance, and Katherine Hepburn's bizarre hysterics were annoying.

From a visual standpoint, the only positives are Elizabeth Taylor's beach scenes. She is absolutely stunningly beautiful and sexy in these moments.… Expand

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