Summertime Movietime pick: Suddenly, Last Summer

My Summertime Movietime pick this week is a movie entitled Suddenly, Last Summer. This movie stars Katharine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift. This film is based upon the Tennessee Williams play and if you have seen or read many of Williams’ plays, you know they can tend to get a little crazy. This movie is a lot of crazy. Katharine Hepburn is a mother whose son dies when he is traveling in Europe with his cousin played by Elizabeth Taylor. Taylor’s character goes crazy after the death of her cousin and Hepburn is trying to get her lobotomized to cover up the truth.

This movie is so crazy. Not just because of the story, but because there is very little action in this picture. Most of the action is listening to the conversations that are explaining things that you never see. The cousin, who died, Sebastian, is never actually on screen, but you feel like he is a real character, as real as those who are talking about him. You can piece things together as the film goes along, but you never realize what exactly has been going on until the end and then you wish you had never found out.

Hepburn and Taylor are both amazing and deservedly received Oscar nominations for their performances. This film is very disturbing and a little scary. Anyone who likes the edge of your seat films will like this one.