I was immediately captivated by Katharine Hepburn's early monologue and the astonishingly well written play (Tennessee Williams) and screenplay (Gore Vidal) held me agog until Elizabeth Taylor's towards the end. It is an amazing start and a triumphant end whilst almost everything in-between is as good. The dialogue simply tingles the spine with its humour, doom laden gothic horror and barely believable implied depravity. I once thought fans that spoke of 'loving' a certain actress and being able to watch/listen to them all the time were having me on, if not themselves, but I have it for Elizabeth Taylor. I watch in awe as she spills out her character and imbues already dramatic scripts with even more involving and inspiring emotions. And, she looks fantastic. I thought she looked amazing in the early institution scenes and then she is glammed up! A great play given the very best treatment here and if Montgomery Clift was suffering during his performance he is still very effective in what he is asked to do, which as it involves mediating between the two ladies is no mean feat. Excellent.

I love this movie. la Liz was at the height of her beauty. Katherine Hepburn is wonderful as Sebastian's mother and Mercedes mcambridge is excellent as holly's mother along with gary Raymond who is great as holly's cousin, I really thought he was a natural southerner and not from the uk! I agree with the other critic about Montgomery clift's acting being wooden. he's not really believable as the great surgeon. aw well, you can't have it all! all in all, a very good movie.

SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER is a mysterious drama with elements of Sauthern Gothic. It is based on the play of the same title by Tennessee Williams.A young woman has been institutionalized because of severe emotional disorders. In fact, her cousin was died under suspicious circumstances, while they were on vacation in Europe. His rich mother makes every effort to deny and suppress the truth about her son and his demise. She tries to bribe the administrator of a state mental hospital and persuade a young and capable surgeon to perform a lobotomy on her niece...This is a puzzling game of truth, through hypocritical relationships in a wealthy and dysfunctional family. Provocative dialogues are the backbone of the shocking finale. A motif, which has caused the greatest tension is unfortunately quite clear. Homosexuality and sadism are obvious topics. The story has become quite confusing in the last third of the film. Facing the truth, through vague retrospective, was not convincing. The epilogue was, for some reason, unnecessarily omitted. Romance is, in this case, an escape from the madness. Characterization is not good.Elizabeth Taylor as Catherine Holly has tried to do a good job. Ms. Taylor, definitely, was not the right choice for this role. Her character has confronted with its own agony. Simply, there is too much sex appeal and a lack of good acting. Katharine Hepburn as Violet Venable has offered a good performance. She was, in certain scenes, too aggressive. Such performance has alleviated irony and madness in her voice. However, her performance has, somehow, saved this movie. Montgomery Clift as Dr. John Cukrowicz was lost between the two dominant female figures. Indifference in his voice is stunning.Perhaps the censors did the most damage to this film. Mr. Mankiewicz was supposed to make a difference between dark secrets and dirty laundry.

The trivia sections list one of 4 films to receive two Academy Awards nominations. Actually, it is one of only five films to receive two Academy Award nominations for Best Actress. In this instance, Katharine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor were so nominated. The other four films were All About Eve (1950) for which Anne Baxter and Bette Davis were nominated, Terms of Endearment (1983) for which Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger were nominated, Thelma & Louise (1991) for which Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon were nominated and The Turning Point (1977) for which Anne Bancroft and again Shirley MacLaine were nominated. Of the actresses in question, Anne Bancroft had already won an Academy Award for The Miracle Worker (1962) and Shirley MacLaine won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Terms of Endearment.