Suddenly Last Summer

(1959)

114 minutes

Drama / Mystery

Directed by Joseph Mankiewicz

Cast:

Elizabeth Taylor as Catherine Holly
Katharine Hepburn as Violet Venable
Montgomery Clift as Dr. John Cukrowicz
Albert Dekker as Dr. Hockstader
Mercedes McCambridge as Mrs. Holly
Gary Raymond as George Holly
Mavis Villiers as Miss Foxhill
Patricia Marmont as Nurse Benson
Joan Young as Sister Felicity
Maria Britneva as Lucy
Sheila Robbins as Dr. Hockstader's secretary
David Cameron as Young blonde intern

The film is about Catherine Holly, a young woman who is faced with the death of her cousin during a trip to Europe under shameful precedence. She does not deal with the death well, resulting in her being taking to a mental institution.  Her cousin's rich mother, Violet Venable, does everything she can to hide the real truth behind her son’s death. She goes to extreme measures when she tries to persuade the State hospital's chief surgeon by contributing to invest in a new department for the hospital, if he will force his intelligent young surgeon, Dr. John Cukrowicz, to erase the memory of her niece, so that she can never remember the death of her cousin.

Catherine's mother and brother stop by the hospital to see how she is doing. They inform her that her cousin left them with a large sum of money. The trick is Mrs. Venable will not provide them with the money unless they sign papers permitting for a lobotomy on Catherine. Catherine is terrified of having the procedure done on her and attempts to the leave the hospital.


Suddenly Last Summer trailer