ThiefHott Too much of everything

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

prager-robert 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.

austinmanix 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.

ROD ONEAL 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.

Sammi Kat "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.