Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
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Horror Movies & Sci-Fi Movies Database
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12.18.09
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In 1937 New Orleans, Dr. John Cukrowicz, working at the state run Lion's View Mental Institution, is experimenting with a radical new treatment for hopeless cases of lunacy: lobotomy. Lion's View is woefully underfunded, but a supposed savior comes forth in the form of the wealthy and aging widowed Mrs. Violet Venable, the Venable name an institution in and of itself in New Orleans. Mrs. Venable had an extremely close bond with her poet son Sebastian, who she vacationed with every year, but who died the previous summer while on a European vacation with Mrs. Venable's pretty niece by marriage, Catherine Holly. Mrs. Venable's $1 million donation to Lion's View is seemingly predicated on Dr. Cukrowicz institutionalizing and lobotomizing Catherine, who Mrs. Venable states is mentally deranged. Catherine, in meeting with Dr. Cukrowicz, states that she is not deranged but that something is disturbing her from her vacation last summer with Sebastian. Catherine does not remember the specific incident which is causing her this grief. With pressure from Mrs. Venable (which is equally directed at Catherine's mother in the form of $100,000 to sign Catherine's commitment papers), Dr. Cukrowicz has to decide to go forward with the operation against the vehement denials of lunacy by Catherine, or wait to try and find out exactly what happened last summer between Catherine and Sebastian.
Movie Tagline:
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS shocks you again as he transports you to a STRANGE, NEW BOLD WORLD!
Title: Suddenly, Last Summer
Release Date: December 22, 1959
Runtime: 114 mins
Genre: Drama
All Genres: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Languages: English
Country: USA
Colors: Black and White
Sound: Mono
IMDB Rating: 7.6
Brimstone Pit Rating: 8.6 - (Rate This Horror Movie)
Category: Horror Movies Starting With S
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Director(s):
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast:
Elizabeth Taylor ...Catherine Holly
Katharine Hepburn ...Mrs. Violet Venable
Montgomery Clift ...Dr. Cukrowicz
Albert Dekker ...Dr. Lawrence J. Hockstader
Mercedes McCambridge ...Mrs. Grace 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 Interne
Eddie Fisher ...Street Urchin
Frank Merlo ...Audience member at operation
Beatrice Shaw ...Elderly lady
Gore Vidal ...Audience member at operation
Rita Webb ...Asylum inmate
Ian Wilson ...
Roberta Woolley ...A Patient
Remaining Cast:
Producer(s):
Sam Spiegel
Writer(s):
Tennessee Williams
Gore Vidal
Tennessee Williams
Composer(s):
Malcolm Arnold
Buxton Orr
Trailer(s):
Suddenly, Last Summer Horror Film Trailer 1
More Movie Taglines:
- TENNESSEE WILLIAMS shocks you again as he transports you to a STRANGE, NEW BOLD WORLD!
- Suddenly, last summer, Cathy knew she was being used for something evil!
- These are powers and passions without precedent in motion pictures!
Movie Quote(s):
- Catherine Holly: Is that what love is? Using people? And maybe that's what hate is - not being able to use people.
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Mrs. Venable: Oh, Sebastian, what a lovely summer it's been. Just the two of us. Sebastian and Violet. Violet and Sebastian. Just the way it's always going to be. Oh, we are lucky, my darling, to have one another and need no one else ever.
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Mrs. Venable: Strictly speaking, his life was his occupation. Yes, yes, Sebastian was a poet. That's what I meant when I said his life was his work because the work of a poet is th elife of a poet, and vice versa, the life of a poet is the work of a poet. I mean, you can't separate them. I mean, a poet's life is his work, and his work is his life in a special sense.
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Mrs. Venable: Sebastian said, 'Truth is the bottom of a bottomless well.'
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Mrs. Venable: My son, Sebastian and I constructed our days. Each day we would carve each day like a piece of sculpture, leaving behind us a trail of days like a gallery of sculpture until suddenly, last summer.
Movie Trivia:
- Screenplay writer Gore Vidal and Tennessee Williams' partner Frank Merlo may briefly be glimpsed among those observing Montgomery Clift operate in the opening sequence.
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According to Mercedes McCambridge, she would ride to the London set of this film in the same car as Montgomery Clift. Clift always insisted that the driver stop by Wormwood Scrubs prison, so that Clift could scream out the car window at the convicts behind bars.
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According to author Garson Kanin in his memoir "Tracy and Hepburn", Katharine Hepburn was reportedly so furious at the way Montgomery Clift was treated by Sam Spiegel and Joseph L. Mankiewicz during the filming that, after making sure that she would not be needed for retakes, she told both men off and actually spat at them (although it remains unclear just which one of the two she spat at, or if she spat at both.)
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The filmmakers were given special dispensation by the Breen office so that the homosexuality of Sebastian Venable could be "inferred, but not shown."
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Eddie Fisher, who was married to Elizabeth Taylor at the time, appears uncredited as one of street urchins who beg Taylor for a morsel of bread.
IMDB Links:
» User Comments at imdb.com
» More information at imdb.com
Keywords:
Operation, Poet, Hospital, Spain, Widow ...[more]
Keywords All:
Memory, Lobotomy, Mental Institution, Melodrama, Bird, New Orleans Louisiana, Truth Serum, Prostitution, Sanitarium, Garden, Homosexual, Nun, 1930s, Greed, Southern Gothic, Mental Illness, Mother Son Relationship, Gay Interest, Haunted By Past, Brain Surgery, Attempted Suicide, Daughter In Law, Cousin Cousin Relationship, Homosexual Son, Jealousy, Mental Breakdown, Incestuous Relationship, Cannibalism, Hunger, Flesh Eating Plant, Dysfunctional Family, Money, Inheritance, Secret, Aunt Niece Relationship, Homosexuality, Trauma, Amnesia, Catholic Hospital, Lie, Wealth, Turtle, Obsession, Beautiful Woman, Psychiatrist, Doctor Patient Relationship, Asylum, Based On Play, Title Spoken By Character
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Rating: 8.6 out of 10.0 - 62 votes cast total
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