I remember seeing the original Suddenly, Last Summer when it was playing in movie theatres (remember those?) in 1959; at the time, people barely mentioned "homosexuals" in polite society, and thus a good part of the audience hadn't a clue why young Sebastian was setting out luxuriously beautiful Elizabeth Taylor in skimpy bathing togs on a sunny beach to attract young boys. And Kathryn Hepburn's perfectly neurotic domineering mother seemed to be a little excessive when attempting to relate her version of what happened on the beach. The film was as hysterical and over-the-top as Tennessee Williams and Gore Vidal could get away with, and despite some shockingly strong performances, it died at the box office; it looks much better, if dated, today.
Which is to say the Maggie Smith version takes an entirely different tack, not adding any location shots, but setting the entire drama, as the playwright did, in a lush greenhouse jungle crawling with carnivorous plants, and limiting the action to the time it takes for the revelations to unspool. This version, while complete, lacks the edge of not always muted hysteria that the original exudes, never makes us feel quite how around the bend Violet Venable is when it comes to defending her son's reputation from the truth--i.e., he's gay. And that's perhaps this play has become a wee bit dated, and unlike Streetcar or Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, it's a curio of a time of social repression rather than a living document which can be restaged, remade with new power as seen by a different cast and director.
Which is to say the Maggie Smith version takes an entirely different tack, not adding any location shots, but setting the entire drama, as the playwright did, in a lush greenhouse jungle crawling with carnivorous plants, and limiting the action to the time it takes for the revelations to unspool. This version, while complete, lacks the edge of not always muted hysteria that the original exudes, never makes us feel quite how around the bend Violet Venable is when it comes to defending her son's reputation from the truth--i.e., he's gay. And that's perhaps this play has become a wee bit dated, and unlike Streetcar or Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, it's a curio of a time of social repression rather than a living document which can be restaged, remade with new power as seen by a different cast and director.