Suddenly, Last Summer

1959 PG-13 1h 54m

7.3 /10

308

Genre

Thriller Drama Mystery

Plot

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

Writers

Tennessee Williams Tennessee Williams Gore Vidal

Stars

Elizabeth Taylor Katharine Hepburn Montgomery Clift

Cast & Crew

Dr. Hockstader's Secretary

Grace Denbigh Russell

Asylum Patient (uncredited)

Street Urchin (uncredited)

👤

Frank Merlo

Audience Member at Operation (uncredited)

Sheila Raynor

Mother of Young Patient (uncredited)

👤

Beatrice Shaw

Elderly Lady (uncredited)

Sebastian Venable (uncredited)

Gore Vidal

Audience Member at Operation (uncredited)

Rita Webb

Asylum Patient (uncredited)

👤

Sandra White

Young Patient (uncredited)

15 Nov 2025

Simone Signoret pipped both of these women to the Oscar but Liz Taylor did take a Donatello for her powerful performance in this controversial psychol...

tmdb28039023

28 Aug 2022

Howard Hawks defined a good film as “three good scenes and no bad ones.” Suddenly, Last Summer has four very good scenes dominated by one of the two g...

John Chard

26 Sep 2014

Talk is never cheap when sourced from Tennessee Williams. Millionairess, Violet Venable is obsessed with her now dead son, Sebastian. Sebastian met...