Suddenly, Last Summer

Homosexuality, madness, pedophilia, incest, cannibalism, New Orleans -- must be Tennessee Williams. Freud and Williams are probably more responsible for the 20th century view of sexuality than any others. Williams' work always feels deeply personal and, underneath the surface, utterly disturbing. However, Joseph L. Mankewicz was probably the wrong man to direct this sultry descent into psycho-sexual madness. Katharine Hepburn throws all the punches as an aging Southern woman who seems to have an unnatural obesession (and attraction?) to her poet son that died while overseas last summer. Sebastian, the son (that is never seen, only talked about to mythic proportions) is implied to be, though never explicitly declared and homosexual and perhaps even a pedophile. Elizabeth Taylor is Hepburns neice, put away in an asylum because she witnessed Sebastian's death and "hasn't been the same since." Finally, Montgomery Clift, who seems unfortuately miscast, is the neurosurgeon/psychologist/detective, who must get to the bottom of Taylor's madness. It feels like gothic horror, but it's just Tennessee Williams doing what he knows best, though not as well as in say A Streetcar Named Desire.