Suddenly Last Summer

http://www.amazon.com/dp/4871876209
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?ISBN=4871876209

Suddenly Last Summer

by

Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams

Introduction by Sam Sloan

Tennessee Williams was the most successful playwright of the modern
era and Suddenly Last Summer is the most successful of his plays. It
has gone through many performances and revivals, two movies and a made
for TV movie. A new revival is reportedly underway.
Tennessee Williams left his plays upon his death to the University of
the South in Swanee, Tennessee, which claims a royalty upon any
performance of his plays.
Tennessee Williams was homosexual and left no wife nor children. Many
of his plays involve themes of homosexuality, including three of his
plays that were made into movies: A Streetcar Named Desire (1948), Cat
on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) and Suddenly Last Summer (1958). However, the
production codes of that time would not allow explicit references to
homosexuality, so the viewer is left to guess that this is what is
going on.
After Suddenly Last Summer was made into a movie starring Elizabeth
Taylor, Tennessee Williams complained that the movie producers and
directors had butchered it. He was unhappy. One of his main complaints
was that Elizabeth Taylor was too beautiful for the part, an odd
complaint. The basis for this complaint involves the lead character,
Sebastian Venable, who is already dead when the play starts. The play
is about the circumstances of his death in 1935. What the audience
eventually realizes, although it is never specifically stated, is that
Sebastian was homosexual.
Early in the play, his mother, Mrs. Violet Venable, says that
Sebastian was “Chaste” when he died at age 40. Not many men are able
to make it to 40 without having sex, so we are already able to guess
that he might have been homosexual.
Sebastian had been making trips to Europe every summer with his
extremely wealthy mother, played in the movie by Katharine Hepburn.
However, on his last trip, he had decided not to take his mother but
instead to take his cousin, Catharine Holly, played in the movie by
Elizabeth Taylor. Then, during the trip to Europe in Cabeza De Lobo, a
resort area in San Sebastian, Spain, “Suddenly Last Summer”, Sebastian
had died and Catharine Holly had simultaneously gone insane. Catharine
Holly had been shipped back to America and locked up in a mental
hospital.
Catherine was making delusional ravings about the death of Sebastian.
Mrs. Venable wanted to stop these mad ravings about the death of her
son. She had read about the procedure of Lobotomy, which involves
cutting some connections inside the brain, and how much good it had
done for people who were otherwise hopelessly insane. Therefore, she
wanted this procedure performed on Catherine. However, the mental
hospital where Catherine was currently hospitalized was either
unwilling or unable to perform this procedure, so Mrs. Venable wanted
Catherine to be transferred to a smaller, local mental hospital that
would be able to do it.
This small mental hospital was in financial difficulty and in danger
of being forced to close. As a very wealthy woman, Mrs. Venable was
willing to make a very large financial contribution to the hospital,
subject to the condition that the hospital perform this lobotomy on
Catherine. Dr. Cuckrowicz, played in the movie by Montgomery Clift,
regularly performed these operations, but was reluctant to do it as a
pre-condition to a substantial financial contribution.
Sebastian had left in his will $50,000 to each of Catherine Holly, her
brother George and their mother Mrs. Holly. However, Mrs. Venable, the
sister of Mrs. Holly, was contesting the will. She was agreeing to
drop the contest of the will and thus to allow George, Catherine and
their mother to get the $50,000 each, only provided they sign the
papers agreeing to the lobotomy of Catherine.
The mystery is: Why is Catherine Holly said to be delusional? What is
she saying about the death of Sebastian and why is Mrs. Venable trying
to have her lobotomized to stop her from saying it?
Whet we finally learn at the end of the movie is that Sebastian
Venable had been taking his mother to Europe every year to use her as
a lure to attract boys, whom he wanted to use for homosexual purposes.
However, his mother had had a stroke and was now in a wheelchair. In
the movie version, she was simply getting older and was no longer able
to attract boys. Therefore, on this final trip, Sebastian had brought
Catherine Holly with him instead. He had gotten Catherine to wear a
revealing one-piece bathing suit to the beach. It was a thin white
swimming suit that made her appear completely naked when she went into
the water. She did not want to wear it but Sebastian made her do it.
This scene produced the picture of Elizabeth Taylor in a swimming suit
shown on the cover. This is one of the most famous photos of Elizabeth
Taylor ever taken.
After using Catherine and her see-through swimming suit to attract
boys, Sebastian would disappear into the bath houses with the boys.
This was obviously for homosexual purposes. However, Sebastian's plan
to use Catherine Holly to attract boys for sexual purposes proved to
be too successful. When Sebastian wanted to leave, the boys had chased
Sebastian up the hill onto a cliff. With no way to escape, the
homeless boys had surrounded Sebastian, killed him and had literally
eaten his body parts (including probably his dick).
The boys themselves were heterosexual and thus were attracted to
Catherine. However, they were poor, homeless boys who needed money and
thus would prostitute themselves into homosexual acts with Sebastian.
Catherine reports that Sebastian said “that gang of kids shouted vile
things at me”, which means that they probably called him “queer”. This
helps explain why they killed and ate him.
Catherine Holly had been running up the hill to try to catch and help
rescue Sebastian and had arrived in time to see Sebastian being
gobbled down by the boys. (It must have been a good meal!) Catherine
had gone crazy. Ever since, every time Catherine had tried to explain
what had really happened, the doctors had said that her delusions were
the result of her being crazy. However, this time, the doctor has
given her injections of sodium thiopenthal, —a "truth serum"—, so we
know she is telling the truth. Finally, at the end of the movie, we
realize that actually Mrs. Venable is crazy. Catherine Holly is normal
and what she is saying is what really happened.
Tennessee Williams went on to denounce the film and denied having any
involvement with the script despite being credited on-screen for it.
He felt that Taylor was miscast as Catherine, telling Life magazine in
1961, "It stretched my credulity to believe such a 'hip' doll as our
Liz wouldn't know at once in the film that she was 'being used for
something evil'.” Williams told The Village Voice that the film "made
[him] throw up" and that the script moved too far away from his
original play.
However, these complaints must be discounted because Williams made
similar complaints about all of the movies that were based on his
plays. He had retained artistic control over the productions and could
have stopped the films from being made. The copyright notice to the
play insists that there be no changes in the script. He made millions
from these movies and did not offer to return the money. A chess-
playing friend of mine went to see one of these movies and saw
Tennessee Williams himself sitting in the audience watching it.
One difference between the script and the movie is that in the movie
is appears at times that Catherine really is crazy. In the cigarette
scene near the beginning, when the nun orders Catherine to put the
cigarette out, Catherine burns the cigarette into the palm of her own
hand, thus burning herself. This is something only a crazy person
would do. However, in the play, Catherine sticks the cigarette into
the hand of the nun, burning the nun. This was certainly not a good
thing to do, but not proof that she was crazy. She was just angry at
the nun for not allowing her to smoke.
The performance of Elizabeth Taylor in the movie version proves that
she was one of the greatest actresses of our times. In the movie, she
must go from being a mad lunatic in a mental institution to being a
perfectly normal but hysterical woman horrified by the sight of her
cousin being killed and eaten. Her acting must range to every place in
between.
However, the movie also proves, in my view, that Elizabeth Taylor was
not really as beautiful a woman as she was said to be. She merely had
the most talented and expensive make-up artists and fashion designers,
and wore the most beautiful wardrobe. In the early scenes in the
movie, when Elizabeth Taylor is locked up in the psychiatric ward, she
is wearing no makeup and her hair is not done. She looks like, at
best, a woman of average appearance, and certainly is not especially
beautiful. Indeed, she is hardly recognizable.
She complains about this, saying “you can't have a compact or
lipstick” inside the psychiatric ward.
However, in a later scene, after they have allowed her to get her hair
done, she re-appears as the fabulously beautiful Elizabeth Taylor we
all know.
In my view, if you want to see a woman just as beautiful if not more
beautiful than Elizabeth Taylor, all you have to do it walk down and
street or take a public bus or train. There you will see lots of women
just as beautiful as Elizabeth Taylor. Today, with all kinds of hair
and skin products readily available (but at high prices) almost any
girl can be just as beautiful as Elizabeth Taylor. (I know, because my
five daughters are always trying to get me to buy this expensive stuff
for them.)
Although you can easily find a girl just as beautiful as Elizabeth
Taylor, see if you can find one who can act as well as she can? I do
not believe that you can find one.
Sam Sloan
Ishi Press International
461 Peachstone Terrace
San Rafael California 94903
August 1, 2011

PS The title to the movie is "Suddenly, Last Summer" with a comma
included. However, the title to the play is "Suddenly Last Summer"
with the comma omitted.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/4871876209
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?ISBN=4871876209

 

Elizabeth Taylor was beautiful as a child. As an adultI find her even
more attractive when she appears with less makeup.

Please direct me to these streets and busses and trains you've been
visiting.

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/4871876209
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?ISBN=4871876209

Suddenly Last Summer

by

Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams

Introduction by Sam Sloan

Tennessee Williams was the most successful playwright of the modern
era and Suddenly Last Summer is the most successful of his plays. It
has gone through many performances and revivals, two movies and a made
for TV movie. A new revival is reportedly underway.
In his will, Tennessee Williams left his plays upon his death to the
University of the South in Swanee, Tennessee, which claims a royalty
upon any performance of his plays.
Tennessee Williams was homosexual and left no wife nor children. Many
of his plays involve themes of homosexuality, including three of his
plays that were made into movies: A Streetcar Named Desire (1948), Cat
on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) and Suddenly Last Summer (1958). However, the
production codes of that time would not allow explicit references to
homosexuality, so the viewer is left to guess that this is what is
going on.
After Suddenly Last Summer was made into a movie starring Elizabeth
Taylor, Tennessee Williams complained that the movie producers and
directors had butchered it. He was not happy. One of his main
complaints was that Elizabeth Taylor was too beautiful for the part,
an odd complaint. The basis for this complaint involves the lead
character, Sebastian Venable, who is already dead when the movie
starts. The play is about the circumstances of his death in 1935. What
the audience eventually realizes, although it is never specifically
stated, is that Sebastian was homosexual.
Early in the play, his mother, Mrs. Violet Venable, says that
Sebastian was “Chaste” when he died at age 40. Not many men are able
to make it to 40 without having sex, so we are already able to guess
that he might have been homosexual.
Sebastian had been making trips to Europe every summer with his
extremely wealthy mother, played in the movie by Katharine Hepburn.
However, on his last trip, he had decided not to take his mother but
instead to take his cousin, Catharine Holly, played in the movie by
Elizabeth Taylor. Then, during the trip to Europe in Cabeza De Lobo, a
resort area in San Sebastian, Spain, Suddenly Last Summer Sebastian
had died and Catharine Holly had simultaneously gone insane. Catharine
Holly had been shipped back to America and locked up in a mental
hospital.
Catherine was making delusional ravings about the death of Sebastian.
Mrs. Venable wanted to stop these mad ravings about the death of her
son. She had read about the procedure of Lobotomy, which involves
cutting some connections inside the brain, and how much good it had
done for people who were otherwise hopelessly insane. Therefore, she
wanted this procedure performed on Catharine. However, the mental
hospital where Catharine was currently hospitalized was either
unwilling or unable to perform this procedure, so Mrs. Venable wanted
Catharine to be transferred to a smaller, local state mental hospital
that would be able to do it.
This small mental hospital was in financial difficulty and was even
having trouble paying the electricity bill. As a very wealthy woman,
Mrs. Venable was willing to make a very large financial contribution
to the hospital, subject to the condition that the hospital perform
this lobotomy on Catherine. Dr. Cuckrowicz, played in the movie by
Montgomery Clift, regularly performed these operations, but was
reluctant to do it as a pre-condition to a substantial financial
contribution.
Sebastian had left in his will $50,000 to each of Catherine Holly, her
brother George and their mother Mrs. Holly. However, Mrs. Venable,
whose late husband had been the brother of Mrs. Holly, was contesting
the will. She was agreeing to drop the contest of the will and thus to
allow George, Catherine and their mother to get the $50,000 each, only
provided they sign the papers agreeing to the lobotomy of Catherine.
The mystery is: Why is Catherine Holly said to be delusional and
insane? What is she saying about the death of Sebastian? Why is Mrs.
Venable trying to have her lobotomized to stop her from saying it?
Whet we finally learn at the end of the movie is that Sebastian
Venable had been taking his mother to Europe every year to use her as
a lure to attract boys, whom he wanted to use for homosexual purposes.
However, his mother had had a stroke and was now in a wheelchair. In
the movie version, she was simply getting older and was no longer able
to attract boys. Therefore, on this final trip, Sebastian had brought
Catherine Holly with him instead. He had gotten Catherine to wear a
revealing one-piece bathing suit to the beach. It was a thin white
swimming suit that made her appear completely naked when she went into
the water. She did not want to wear it but Sebastian dragged her into
the water and thus made her do it. Immediately a crowd of boys
gathered to watch. We too have been watching it ever since, because
this scene produced the picture of Elizabeth Taylor in a swimming suit
shown on this cover. This is one of the most famous photos of
Elizabeth Taylor ever taken.
After using Catherine and her see-through swimming suit to attract
boys, Sebastian would disappear into the bath houses with some of the
boys. This was obviously for homosexual purposes. However, Sebastian's
plan to use Catherine Holly to attract boys for sexual purposes proved
to be too successful. When Sebastian wanted to leave, the boys had
chased Sebastian up the hill onto a cliff. With no way to escape, the
homeless boys had surrounded Sebastian, killed him and had literally
eaten his body parts (including probably his dick).
The boys themselves were heterosexual and thus were attracted to
Catherine. However, they were poor, homeless boys who needed money and
thus would prostitute themselves into homosexual acts with Sebastian.
Catherine reports that Sebastian said “that gang of kids shouted vile
things at me”, which means that they probably called him “queer”. This
helps explain why they killed him and then ate him.
Almost certainly what really happened is that these boys had found out
that Sebastian had been paying young boys for sex. This would almost
certainly produce exactly the reaction shown in the movie. Knowing
that Sebastian had been having sex with little boys, the crowd almost
certainly would have chased him up the hill, killed him and
dismembered him.
Nowadays the public is more tolerant of homosexuality than it was in
1935, but even today the kind of activity in which Sebastian was
engaging would not be considered advisable. Gay bashing still takes
place and the killing of gays or gays killing each other still occurs.
Catharine Holly had been running up the hill to try to catch and help
rescue Sebastian and had arrived in time to see Sebastian being killed
and gobbled down by the boys. (It must have been a good meal!)
Catharine had gone crazy. Ever since, every time Catharine had tried
to explain what had really happened, the doctors had said that her
delusions were the result of her being crazy. However, this time, the
doctor had given her injections of Sodium Pentothal, —a "truth
serum"—, so he knows she was telling the truth. Finally, at the end of
the movie, we realize that actually Mrs. Venable is crazy. Catharine
Holly is normal and what she is saying is what really happened.
Tennessee Williams went on to denounce the film and denied having any
involvement with the script despite being credited on-screen for it.
He felt that Elizabeth Taylor was miscast as Catharine, telling Life
magazine in 1961, "It stretched my credulity to believe such a 'hip'
doll as our Liz wouldn't know at once in the film that she was 'being
used for something evil'.” Williams told The Village Voice that the
film "made [him] throw up" and that the script moved too far away from
his original play.
However, there is little basis for his complaints. There were almost
no changes except for a few changes in the order of the events. Almost
every line in the movie comes directly from the script. There are only
minor changes. One change is that in the movie, the first interview by
Dr. Cuckrowicz of Catherine Holly takes place in the office of the
psychiatric hospital where Catherine Holly is being kept. However, in
the script, the same interview takes place in the home of Mrs.
Venable. Otherwise, the words are mostly the same. Also, Catherine
Holly gives Dr. Cuckrowicz a kiss on the cheek and, later in the
movie, gives him a full frontal kiss. Can one expect Elizabeth Taylor
to go through an entire movie without at least a few kisses?
These complaints must be discounted because Williams made similar
complaints about all of the movies that were based on his plays. He
had retained artistic control over the productions and could have
stopped the films from being made. The copyright notice to the play
insists that there be no changes in the script. He apparently wanted
no changes at all, not even small changes. He made millions from these
movies and did not offer to return the money. A chess-playing friend
of mine went to see one of these movies and saw Tennessee Williams
himself sitting in the audience watching it.
Like many of the plays by Tennessee Williams, this one was to some
extent autobiographical or depicted characters he knew in real life.
Lobotomies were a procedure performed in the period 1935 to 1954. More
than 20,000 were performed in the United States alone. This practice
was stopped after medicines were developed to treat psychosis. Rose,
the sister of Tennessee Williams had had this procedure performed on
her. A more notorious case was Rosemary Kennedy, sister of future
President John F. Kennedy, who was lobotomized in 1941 with tragic
results as she was turned into a vegetable where she remained until
she died in 2005.
One difference between the script and the movie is that in the movie
it appears at times that Catharine really is crazy. In the cigarette
scene near the beginning of Scene II, Catharine sticks the cigarette
into the palm of the hand of the nun, burning the nun. This was
certainly not a good thing to do, but not proof that she was crazy.
She was just angry at the nun for not allowing her to smoke. Later in
the movie, Catharine is upset because she finds out that her mother is
willing to agree to have her lobotomized, just so the mother can get
the $50,000. Catharine escapes onto a railing that overlooks the
woman's psychiatric ward and prepares to jump, to kill herself.
However, she is rescued before she can jump. This scene is not in the
script at all.
A disturbing incident had occurred at “Dueling Oaks”. This is
described in Scene IV in the play and much earlier in the movie.
Catharine recounts how she was taken to a party by a young man who got
so drunk he could not take her home, so another man had offered to
drive her home. However, he did not take her directly home. Instead he
took her to Dueling Oaks at the end of a street. She asked him “What
for?” but then she realized what he wanted. She did not resist and in
fact had gotten out of the car and gone to the grass even before he
did. It is clear in the play that they had sexual intercourse,
although the script does not specifically say so. In the movie, it is
suggested that they perhaps just went for a walk on the grass,
although subsequent references to this incident at various times in
the movie indicate that there was sex involved. Later in the movie
this incident is referred to as “rape”.
After the sex was over, he had said that he was married and his wife
was pregnant so they had better just forget that this had ever
happened. He had taken her home. However, after she had been left off,
she went back to the party and found that he had gone back there too.
She went up to him and started beating him in the face and chest. Her
entire family found out what had happened and this had been used as
further evidence that she was crazy.
An interesting question concerns the association of Elizabeth Taylor
with male homosexuals. In several of her most famous movies, including
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) and Suddenly Last Summer (1958), her
counterpart in the script was a homosexual man. In Suddenly Last
Summer, the two male leads, including Montgomery Clift, were
homosexual in real life. Late in life she was best known for
campaigning for AIDS research, even though she did not have the
disease herself. When asked about this, Elizabeth Taylor declared:
“Without homosexuals there would be no theater, no Hollywood, no
Art!”.
The performance of Elizabeth Taylor in the movie version of Suddenly
Last Summer proves that she was one of the greatest actresses of our
times. In the movie, she must go from being a mad lunatic in a mental
institution to being a perfectly normal but hysterical woman horrified
by the sight of her cousin being killed and eaten. Her acting must
range to and from every place in between.
However, the movie also proves, in my view, that Elizabeth Taylor was
not really as beautiful a woman as she was said to be. She merely had
the most talented and expensive make-up artists and fashion designers,
and wore the most beautiful wardrobe. In the early scenes in the
movie, when Elizabeth Taylor is locked up in the psychiatric ward, she
is wearing no makeup and her hair is not done. She looks like, at
best, a woman of average appearance, and certainly is not especially
beautiful. Indeed, she is hardly recognizable.
She complains about this, saying “you can't have a compact or
lipstick” inside the psychiatric ward.
However, in a later scene, after they have allowed her to get her hair
done, she re-appears as the fabulously beautiful Elizabeth Taylor we
all know.
In my view, if you want to see a woman just as beautiful if not more
beautiful than Elizabeth Taylor, all you have to do it walk down any
street or take a public bus or train. There you will see lots of women
just as beautiful as Elizabeth Taylor. Today, with all kinds of hair
and skin products readily available (but at high prices) almost any
girl can be just as beautiful as Elizabeth Taylor. (I know, because my
five daughters are always trying to get me to buy this expensive stuff
for them.)
Although you can easily find a girl just as beautiful as Elizabeth
Taylor, see if you can find one who can act as well as she can. I do
not believe that you can find one.
Sam Sloan
Ishi Press International
461 Peachstone Terrace
San Rafael California 94903
August 1, 2011

ISBN 4-87187-620-9
978-4-87187-620-9
Copyright © 2011 by Sam Sloan

Notes: The title to the movie is "Suddenly, Last Summer" with a comma
included. However, the title to the play is "Suddenly Last Summer"
with the comma omitted.
In the play, her name is spelled Catharine but in the movie it is
spelled Catherine.
In the movie, these events take place in 1937 but in the play it is
1935. This probably relates to the fact that lobotomies as a medical
procedure first became established in the USA in 1935.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/4871876209
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?ISBN=4871876209

 

This is not an odd complaint. The character she plays is not supposed
to
be beautiful, she is supposed to be attractive but not so beautiful
that
people would go out of their way to view her beauty.

Homosexuals have sex. Just not with women.

She had not gone insane. She told people what had happened to her
cousin
Sebastian up there on the hill, and Sebastian's mother had her locked
up
so people wouldn't know. She had seen starving children tearing bits
of
flesh out of a man.

These were not delusional. It was the truth about what can happen if
you
make poor, starving kids come to service you, attract them to you with
money, and then think you can just send them away when you grow tired
of them. They were not tearing his flesh because they were hungry,
they
were tearing it out because he had rejected them after leading them
on.

In the French Revolution 1789 - 1795 or 6, people were seen to carve
bits of flesh out of the dead and restaurants served human meat.

That's a good one. Since when did lobotomy ever do any good thing for
anyone.

They were unwilling because it was ethically wrong.

He was reluctant to do it because it was ethically wrong.

It doesn't say that and sheds a bad light on you to mention it.

Mrs. venable is not crazy. She is a conservative person who lived for
and idolized her son and does not want anything to tarnish his
reputation. She wants to stop Catherine from telling the truth.
Nowadays, she'd probably just hire a killer.

No, this is something an angry girl would do; but instead of hurting
the nurse - Catherine does not want to hurt anyone, which is why she
is repeatedly used and abused - first by the married guy who has sex
with her at the dance, then by Sebastian, and then Mrs. Venable tries
to use her and discard her - Catherine instead hurts herself. This
is better theatre than hurting the nun. If Catherine had been that
kind of angry, aggressive girl, she would never have been abused.

 

Why do you use a clinical term, "homosexual" instead of the vernacular "gay", but then choose the vulgar "dick" instead of "penis"? I agree with the other commenter: it says more about you than you may have chosen to.