Great Performances (TV Series) Suddenly, Last Summer (1993) User Reviews

A good southern dramatic performance by Rob Lowe

[bsamdahl · 6/10 · 13 May 2002]

I saw this movie on PBS several years ago by accident because I saw that Rob Lowe was in it. A good theatrical southern drama that takes place in the 30's I think. I would like to see it again as I think I might appreciate it more. Rob Lowe enters a family's lion's den as Dr. Sugar hoping to obtain funding for his project. He plays a southern doctor during the 30's very well, accent and all..Dr. Sugar does this delicate balancing act while the rest of the family members are being melodramatic in the old southern aristocracy way. He ends up hypnotizing Miss Foxhill and starts falling in love with her.

I'm surprised this movie has not been on television more. It does bring out a different acting style to what we are used to seeing Rob Lowe do. If you get a chance to rent it, it is worth seeing just for the classical southern dramatics.

A summer worth experiencing

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 14 November 2019]

'Suddenly Last Summer' may not be one of the great Tennessee Willams' best plays, but the intensity, emotional power and boldness that pulsates throughout all of Williams' work are more than evident. The most famous adaptation of it perhaps is the 1959 film with Katharine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor, on its own terms it's very good, despite an uncomfortable-looking Montgomery Clift, and Hepburn and Taylor are powerhouses.

This production is just as good, and one can expect a lot from talent like Maggie Smith (one of my favourites, always has been) and Natasha Richardson (taken from us far too soon). None of the performances are quite as powerhouse as the performances of Hepburn and Taylor, but the spirit of the play is intact, with the boldness of the themes being stronger, and the fidelity in writing is evident too. Thought it smouldered just as much as the film on the whole.

On the whole, the supporting cast are not as good or as well rehearsed as in the film and seem to be strangely underwritten. Richard E. Grant overdoes it a bit here and in hectic mode too often.

At times the early portions of the production could have done with a tightening up, though the omission of the flashbacks do give the production a tauter pace.

However, this production of 'Suddenly Last Summer' does look attractive and evocative, capturing the claustrophobia well. Williams' compellingly real and powerful dialogue (talk heavy but not too rambling) still resonates and the stage direction avoids being static or overly stagy with an emotional climax.

Both Smith and Richardson give scorching though more reserved at the same time (which weren't too inappropriate for the roles) performances, especially Smith who can do little wrong. Rob Lowe is a big improvement over Clift, more sympathetic and much more relaxed.

In summation, very good and well worth tracking down. 8/10

The girl's story could be true.

[ulicknormanowen · 8/10 · 13 December 2020]

As everybody knows , Williams hated Mankiewicz's version (1959),particularly Katherine Hepburn's performance ;although Gore Vidal's adaptation somewhat cut the corners , it has remained memorable today, one of the director's triumphs. It was one of those movies (along with "advise and consent" and "the children's hour" ) which helped to overcome the dreadful Hayes code.

But it was then and it is now ; a drama which dealt with homosexuality ,lobotomy -it happened to Williams's sister Rose and the playwright never got over it-and cannibalism was hard to swallow in 1959 ;nowadays the first subject has become common,and fortunately people have become more tolerant ,that's why the costumes are fifties fashion. This MTV version is much more faithful to Williams and there're no adding scenes:gone is the heroine lost in the loony bin, gone is the final terrifying flashback .

But the stiffling atmosphere remains :the tropical garden where Violet Vanable grows carnivorous plants is a good idea to introduce the play : those flowers echo to the flesh-eating birds of the islands and to the ravenous natives .

Dame Maggie Smith is true to form ,that is to say one of the best actresses in the world ;looking like one of her insectivorous plants ,she seems to devour Catherine ; in the famous monologue of "the terrible encantadas,those heaps of extinct volcanoes" ,she equals Hepburn ;in the others scenes she surpasses her. Matching her every step of the way is Natasha Richardson's Katherine ,who runs the whole gammit ,from a whisper to a scream ; the scenes with her aunt and her greedy mother and brother are more violent than in the 1959 version; the fours actors overplay ,which makes sense , for Williams' best plays are over the top, hence their strength and the fascination they exert on today's audiences .However ,in her final monologue, in which Elizabeth Taylor screamed "nobody could believe it" ,Richardson uses an exhausted voice as though she hardly found the strength to utter these appalling words .

As for Rob Lowe, he's OK ,but outshone by his co-stars ; anyway it's not easy to take on a Montgomery Clift's role.

I wish Mr Williams (died 1983) had seen it!

Why Can't I find this on DVD???

[sammikat · 10/10 · 23 July 2002]

"Suddenly, Last Summer" (1993 TV Version) I taped this version way back in 1993 & it is supremely faithful to the text (unlike the original version with Elizabeth Taylor). Maggie Smith is reserved where Katherine Hepburn is effusive. Similarly, Rob Lowe smoulders where Montgomery Clift languished. Natsha Richardson is not Elizabeth Taylor, but the Catherine of the original text is not the Catherine in the original film. The character is not seen until almost halfway through the play; the impact of her story is heightened that much more by her late appearance. Gone are the flashback location shots (mercifully), Natasha Richardson's delivery of her final monologue doesn't need flashbacks, one is able to visualize what she describes perfectly. This is truly superior to the original version.

One of Maggie Smith's finest small screen performances

[cope2 · 8 November 1999]

Mrs. Venable has to be one of Maggie Smith's most powerful small screen performances, her rendition of the crippled yet revenge ridden widow is a gothic portrayal which is matched with an equally memorable Natasha Richardson as Catherine. Every facet of this Richard Eyre production reeks of class, the supporting cast are divine with Rob Lowe turning in an understated Dr. Sugar who is pressured to perform a dangerous lobotomy on Catherine in return for substantial research funding by Venable. As the film progresses the viewer is drawn into the tense narrative and the final scene where Catherine is summoned to the house to relive the death of Venable's son before the unbelieving harridan is just phenomenal. Only seen once on BBC2 back in November 1993, this film surely deserves a video release or even a repeat showing. Why it has only had one British outing is beyond me.

After all, it IS about cannibalism.....

[museumofdave · 7/10 · 3 November 2023]

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.

This should be available on video!

[rod_oneal · 10/10 · 7 February 2005]

I have a copy of this version of "Suddenly Last Summer" that I taped (luckily) during the broadcast on "Great Performances" in 1993. The picture quality is very fuzzy, which seems to have been a part of the original broadcast. This is even more obvious in these days of DVD, where we are all so used to excellent visuals. I have tried to collect ALL filmed presentations and soundtracks of Tennessee Williams plays, and I don't like to compare the various versions due to the fact that the original film versions faced great restrictions because of censorship, given the stricter morals of those days. The older versions do the best that they were allowed to do, in the context of the prevailing morality under which they were produced. This PBS "Great Performances" version is wonderful- from the opening credits shots of Venus Fly Traps capturing insects in Sebastian's garden to the closing credits depicting the garden again. After the screening, there is a brief clip from a 1976 interview with Tennessee explaining how an incident between his sister and mother inspired the dialogue written for the play. There is no mention of an available video for the presentation, as is so common these days for most PBS productions, so I am assuming that this version has never been released on any home video format. The closing credits state that this is "A BBC co-production with Thirteen/WNET" and gives the date 1992. There is a chance that this was released on video in the UK, but I have not found any mention of such. There is no credit given for soundtrack music or any release as well.

Secrets of the South.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 14 January 2013]

Those who have seen Tennessee Williams' play "Garden District" on stage will appreciate this probably more than the 1959 Katharine Hepburn/Elizabeth Taylor movie because this is obvious closer to the play than the more famous screen adaption. With just one setting (the grounds of Mrs. Violet Venable's eccentric southern plantation), everything that was fleshed out for the big screen is condensed into two seamless acts where every secret comes out over a short period of time rather than the extended time obviously played out in the movie. Catharine Holly (Natasha Richardson) is the institutionalized niece of Mrs. Venable (Maggie Smith), having suffered a breakdown after Mrs. Venable's son Sebastian was mysteriously killed while they were on vacation together. Obviously obsessively jealous over Catherine's replacement of her on the regular summer holiday she usually took with her son, Violet utilizes psychiatrist Rob Lowe to try and get the memory of what Catherine saw out of her mind so Sebastian's secrets will not be revealed. She utilizes her son's estate to manipulate Catherine's family into going along with the lobotomy, but Catherine is anything but willing to allow herself to become a guinea pig for her wealthy aunt's sake. This sets the drama up for some revealing secrets, already familiar to those who saw the original movie or a stage production, but possibly shocking to others. The usual usage of metaphors and symbolic images from the mind of Tennessee Williams may be convoluted for some, but still makes for powerful theater whether on stage or on screen.

To see the legendary Maggie Smith with the wonderful Natasha Richardson (a member of one of England's royal theatrical families) is a treat in itself, and reminds us of the loss of this gem of a young actress way too soon. Richardson is far from Elizabeth Taylor's sex kitten performance from the movie, while Smith is more volatile than Katharine Hepburn's somewhat subdued but sometimes campy version. Like Montgomery Clift in the movie, Rob Lowe is caught between two tigresses, like a puppy among wildcats. The psychiatrist role is not as memorable as the women. The fact that the film does not utilize flashbacks (only a few still shots of what Sebastian looked like years before his death) makes it even more theatrical and increases the power of the drama. The usage of color makes Mrs. Venable's garden much scarier than the original.

The Genius of Tennesee Williams Experienced a New Way

[prager-robert · 9/10 · 2 December 2011]

Several of Tennessee Williams's friends have told me they thought Suddenly Last Summer was his last great play. I never understood what they meant until I saw the production with Rob Lowe, Natasha Richardson & the others. This production seemed unfamiliar, almost like a totally different play. The language is more elevated and poetic. I'd recommend it to anybody who wants to experience Williams as a serious artist and playwright.

For instance, when Violet Venable accuses Catharine Holly of simply "using Sebastian," Natasha Richardson replies (paraphrased)that of course she was using him. "We all use each other all the time. That's what is commonly called love in our society." That is such pure Tennessee Williams but it is also something cut from the script when it was adapted for the big block-buster Hollywood movie with its star-studded cast. It represents the kind of truth that Williams intended to speak that Americans weren't yet ready to hear during the 1950s.

Wrong, wrong, wrong...

[austinmanix · 5/10 · 4 October 2009]

I'm a fan of the original movie with Liz Taylor, Katharine Hepburn and Montgomery Clift and I knew that the 1959 film was very different from the stage version. This version with Natasha Richardson, Maggie Smith and Rob Lowe seems to stick closer to the original text. The three leads are amazing but the supporting cast seemed to lack direction, grasp the severity of the situation at hand or even know how to really REact to situations. The man playing George (Richard E. Grant) had two modes, loud and frantic and quiet and frantic. When mad he would make the same arm gestures over and over again and showed absolutely no character development. Several times during temper tantrums, he paid no attention to where he was going and almost fell over parts of the set. His mother Ms. Holly (played by Moira Redmond) came off as being not only a ditz, but a drunk one at that and stumbled over many lines. Ms. Foxhill played to absurdity by Gillian Raine was painful to watch. Richardson and Smith were fantastic playing off one another and Lowe was greatly underused. Tennessee Williams wrote many tragic figures into his plays and stories and Catherine, the one in Suddenly, Last Summer was based in part on events that led to his (Tennessee's) sisters lobotomy. It takes a special type of talent and adaptation to pull off Tennessee Williams and the supporting cast missed the mark by such a wide margin that it was difficult to focus on the fantastic performances of the three leads.

Great Maggie Smith performance

[HotToastyRag · 3/10 · 13 March 2021]

As much as I hated the original 1959 version of Suddenly, Last Summer, I didn't really like the 1993 tv movie much better. Maggie Smith was very good, putting far more into her performance and her character than Katharine Hepburn did (Don't throw anything at me; Kate wasn't always perfect), but Natasha Richardson didn't seem to understand the play. Perhaps she was trying to put the wrong emotions into her scenes to show that electro-shock therapy has damaged her brain, but perhaps she just gave a sub-par performance. She shouted when there was nothing to shout about, and she talked in monotone when she was describing something truly horrifying.

But if you're a Maggie Smith fan and you're tired of seeing her in "stiff upper lip" roles, you can check her out in this live performance. She truly makes the most of the script and reminds everyone that before she was famous for playing crotchety old ladies, she was a great professional thespian. Make sure you can stomach this very disturbing Tennessee Williams story, though. I may love The Glass Menagerie, but this story and the characters leave me cold. If you like it, you'll see Rob Lowe in the Dr. Sugar role, and Richard E. Grant and Moira Redmond as Natasha's family.

precise

[Kirpianuscus · 5 December 2023]

A precise adaptation. Escaping to each comparation ( especialy for not ignoring memory of 1959 version ), its beauty is proposed by admirable acting- not surprising, Maggie Smith is just perfect as lady Venable - and for discover of Rob Lowe in the traits, inspired crafted, of doctor .

The austerity, imposed by duration, seems the main trait of this version, seductive, cold but rich in the tools for reveal the heart of tragedy so radical hidden by Mrs. Venable.

Natasha Richardson is the fair Catherine and the austere details defining the ghotic frame of story , like the wise intro, maybe the memorable detail, like the end, the exotic garden, the carnivor flowers being the best portrait of absent but so present Sebastian , representing the great good point.

I couldn't help thinking of Pasolini

[lor_ · 19 December 2023]

This BBC adaptation of the famous Tennessee Williams play "Suddenly Last Summer" (NOTE: no comma in the on-screen title credit) captures the morbid nature of the artist's conception -painting intricate word pictures of awful, horror movie images. It's Maggie versus the late Natasha, whose morbid death made it even harder to watch than I expected.

It has many themes, mainly about repression, adding to the horror genre aspects. But as the tale unfolded, with Williams' uncensored inclusion of racist and anti-Semitic tropes left intact (that is, the Jewish tailor who altered dead Sebastian's clothing to fit lanky in-law Richard E. Grant, and the black native boys who assaulted and ate poor Sebastian) this play is quite dated and lacks its original shock value.

Instead, my mind wandered to the too-obvious similarities to Pasolini's life and demise -he's the poet Maggie talks of in rapturous memories of her late son, and his fate as the iconic "cruising" homosexual, murdered and run over with his own car by a different class (caste) young man he picked up are too close for comfort.

Also dated is the theatrical ploy of arificial confrontation and revelation. I always wonder at the ongoing peculiar popularity of Aaron Sorkin's "A Few Good Men", with Rob Reiner's film version playing endlessly on TV, probaly seen more times by fans than Cruise's action hits thanks to that single courtroom scene of him inciting Nicholson's famous outburst. So too, the Natasha revelation of what really happened to Sebastian and Maggie's violent reaction (you can almost hear stage manager whisper: "Curtain!") ends the drama. It reminds me of the thrill of the Jeanne Eagels version of "The Letter", that early silent film essentially crossed out by the Bette Davis classic remake. It ends with Eagels' famous line, delivered so emphatically and dramatically, and suddenly, the movie is over -at a peak note.

That's the way, uh huh uh huh, I like it.