Suddenly, Last Summer

Joseph L. Mankiewicz directed Elizabeth Taylor and Katharine Hepburn to Oscar® nominations for Best Actress in this gripping adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play. Montgomery Clift turns in a eerily sympathetic performance as Taylor's doctor. Beautiful Catherine Holly (Taylor) is committed to a mental institution after witnessing the horrible death of her cousin at the hands of cannibals. Catherine's aunt, Violet Venable (Hepburn), tries to influence Dr. Cukrowicz (Montgomery Clift), a young neurosurgeon, to surgically end Catherine's haunting hallucinations. By utilizing injections of sodium pentothal, Dr. Cukrowicz discovers that Catherine's delusions are in fact true. He then must confront Violet about her own involvement in her son's lurid death. Shot at Shepperton Studios in London, the film was another success for the studio and its producer, Sam Spiegel, who had previously teamed up for ON THE WATERFRONT and THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI. (The next film together would produce LAWRENCE OF ARABIA.)