SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER

US, 1960, 116 minutes, Black and white.
Katherine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, Albert Dekker, Mercedes Mc Cambridge, Gary Raymond. Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

Suddenly, Last Summer is a Tennessee Williams play and he and novelist Gore Vidal were responsible for the screenplay of this film version. It was made when there was considerable interest in Williams' work in the U.S. From 1956 to 1962 film versions were made of The Rose Tattoo, Baby Doll, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Fugitive Kind, Summer and Smoke, Period of Adjustment, The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone and Sweet Bird of Youth, as well as the present film.

Once again the setting is New Orleans and the strange world of this southern part of the United States with its wealth, decadence and insanity. The drama here is more talkative than in other screen versions of Williams' plays. It is only towards the end that there are any flashbacks to last summer and then these are viewed superimposed with Elizabeth Taylor who is telling the story. It is to the credit of the actors and their skill that the incidents become so vivid even though we see them only at the end. The structure of the film seems very stage-bound, but what the film loses in screen action it gains in long literate scenes of Williams' dialogue. This is where Katharine Hepburn comes to the fore. As a domineering Southern lady she gives a crackling performance as she did in her award-winning Lion in Winter role. Elizabeth Taylor in younger days also acts well, especially as she has to carry the whole of the resolution of the film. She proves that she is a most capable actress. Montgomery Clift who had played opposite Elizabeth Taylor in A Place 1n the Sun in 1951 and Raintree County in 1956, is very subdued here leaving the dramatics to the ladies. Mercedes Mc Cambridge turns in a very good, irritating performance as a Southern mother.
Joseph Mankiewicz directed the film. He made such films as All About Eve and Julius Caesar. His project to follow this one was Cleopatra!

For Williams' fans and those who like unusual literate drama.

1. The structure of the film seemed to remain close to stage structure and could cause the film to be, called very 'talkative'. Did this spoil the effect of the film as a film?

2. What was the effect of screening the credits against the wall of an asylum? How was the film permeated by the theme of madness and the audience reaction to insanity right from the start?

3. The film was set in 1937. Lobotomy was presented as a breakthrough in surgery. How was the scientific atmosphere of the time conveyed, the medical optimism as well as the public fear and the difficult conditions?

4. Did the film make much of Dr Cukrowiaz's dilemma: the pressurising to do the operation on Catherine and the desperate need for money if the asylum was to be able to go ahead with lobotomy operations?

5. What kind of woman was Mrs Venable? What were your first impressions as she descended in the lift? How did Katharine He bum’s delivery of her lines strengthen the impact of Mrs Venable's presence? How was Mrs Venables meant to represent the wealthy New Orleans' way of life?

6. What was the relationship between Mrs Venable and Sebastian? First impressions of Sebastian as a person? His attitudes towards his mother (the incestuous overtones), his pampering by his mother, his poetry, creativity, his stunted development, the symbolism of his garden, the house, the picture of St Sebastian (a martyr killed by arrows), his complete freedom to experiment with life?

7. What was the significance and the symbolism of the long story of the voyage to the Galapagos Islands, the turtles laying their eggs and the sky blackened by birds killing and devouring the turtles, the survival of the fittest? How did Sebastian see the face of God end see life and the world as vengeful? The superfluous turtles were parasites devoured by hungry birds. How is this an image of the death of Sebastian? What God did he see in his death?

8. Why did Sebastian go for the summer trip without his mother? Was he making a break? Was he merely using Catherine because his mother was unavailable? It is said in the film that love means using people and hatred means not being able to use them. What is the meaning of this in the film? Is it true?

9. Had you judged Cathy mad before you saw her? What comment did the film make on society's treatment of the insane; the asylums, the nun, the accusations of the gardener, the scenes of the inmates of the asylum, their faces?

10. What affect had the seduction at the party in the spring had on Cathy? Why was she glad to go with Sebastian? Did she like him? Was her description of him more accurate titan that of his mother? More favourable? Truer?

11. What was the impact of showing Mrs Holly and George? How did they contrast with Violet Venable and with Catherine?

12. Did you believe Catherine was trustworthy? What was the effect of her transfer to Icon's View? Why was she so frightened at the operation? Did her behaviour give adequate cause for the asylum staff to think her insane? What was the effect of her rush into the men's ward? Why did she try to kill herself? What impact did this sequence make?

13. What was the impact of the confrontation between Catherine and Mrs Venable? How ruthless was Mrs Venable in trying to silence Catherine by the operation? Why would she not face the truth? Why could Catherine not face and remember the same truth? What of Mrs. Venable's bribing George and his mother and their reactions?

14. How strong was the force of the decision that Dr Cukrowioz had to make?

15. How was the final confrontation dramatically set up? Mrs Venable' descent and her being put off, Catherine's dependence on Dr. Cukrowioz, the truth drug?

16. Were the flashbacks appropriate or should they have been left to the audience's imagination? Were they effective as they were shown along with Catherine speaking? Why was this a release for Catherine from her potential madness and a facing of the truth? -

17. What was the truth about Sebastian? Why did he use his mother and Catherine for procuring? Did this mean that he really did not love them but himself - narcissism and homosexuality? Why did he not write a poem that summer? What was the significance of his persecution and chase and death? Was this too sensational or did it have meaning?

18. How did Mrs. Venable react to the truth, the symbolism of her shutting his book of empty pages, his death being the poem of 1937? She retreated into madness and unwillingness to face the truth?

19. Was the end of the film satisfying? What did you feel after Cathy's recounting her story? What had you learned about human beings and life?