Joseph Mankiewicz’s “Suddenly, Last Summer” is a fine film adaptation of a Tennessee Williams play. The film features a stellar class including Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, and Katherine Hepburn. The provocative screenplay was written by Gore Vidal and Tennesee Williams himself.

“Suddenly, Last Summer “is about a lobotomist named Dr. Cukowicz (Montgomery Clift) who has an unusual problem. His hospital is extremely underfunded and an eccentric heiress (Katherine Hepburn) offers to give his hospital a million dollars if he will perform a lobotomy on her niece, Catherine. Dr. Cukowicz is strongly attracted to Catherine and begins to fall in love with her.

Dr. Cukowicz gradually discovers that Catherine (Elizabeth Taylor) is not insane. She harbors a terrible secret concerning her cousin Sebastian’s death and Mrs. Venable wants to silence her. It also turns out that the poet (Sebastian), Mrs. Venable, and Catherine were involved in a bizarre Oedipal triangle.

Some elements of the plot are clearly autobiographical. Tennessee Williams’ sister was diagnosed as having dementia praecox: the same disease that Catherine is diagnosed as having. She later had a lobotomy which left her institutionalized for life. The self destructive poet in the movie was modeled after Hart Crane: a writer who influenced Williams’ work.

The dialogue in the film is powerful and suggestive. It is filled with predatory images that evoke a bleak Darwinian universe. In the film’s most powerful monologue, Katherine Hepburn describes how a group of vultures devour a helpless group of pregnant turtles. This serves to mirror the characters’ predatory behavior against each other. Mrs. Venable (her name means huntress) has a pet Venus flytrap which parallels her own appetite for using people.

The film expands on the play and makes several important changes. Perhaps the least effective one is the addition of a hokey romantic relationship between the doctor and his patient. This serves to diminish his objectivity and his credibility as a doctor. The addition of the doctor’s boss gives him motivation for wanting to give her a lobotomy.

The wonderful music score serves to accentuate the mood of the film. Overall the movie is involving and highly successful.