Directed by:
Joseph L. MankiewiczCinematography:
Jack HildyardCast:
Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Montgomery Clift, Albert Dekker, Mercedes McCambridge, Gary Raymond, Eddie Fisher, Rita Webb, Ian Wilson, Gore Vidal (more)VOD (1)
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Gore Vidal's stark, powerful screen adaptation of Tennessee Williams's play explores the trauma of Catherine (Elizabeth Taylor), whose homosexual cousin dies an unspeakable and gradually revealed death while traveling with her in Europe. Katharine Hepburn as the murdered man's mother can't bear to hear the details of her son's death, preferring instead to have a lobotomy performed on her niece, insisting that the girl is mad. But a doctor (Montgomery Clift) is determined to explore the reasons behind the girl's inexplicable actions and words, eventually uncovering the secrets the mother wants to hide. (official distributor synopsis)
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I came across this forgotten film through the documentary The Celluloid Closet. When I found out that the film features stars such as Katharine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor, and that it was somewhat controversial in its day, I just had to see it, and I was very pleasantly surprised. The performances by the aforementioned stars are absolutely amazing and the story is indeed surprising and very shocking at the end. A small criticism on my part would be a sort of slight misunderstanding of the function of the "lure", but I won't elaborate on that here because I don't want to spoil. In short, a film that has something going for it and benefits particularly from the cast and the atmosphere that is well built up in places (the garden, the sanatorium, the holiday).
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