Like a long lie on apsychiatrist's couch,
creepily enacted by starry cast:E. Taylorwith health problems and a husband (Mike Todd) gone in a plane crash,K.Hepburnacting nuttily affected as I suspect she may have been offscreen,
Albert Dekker representing normalcy, but think how he'd die a decade later, and
then Montgomery Clift, who by all accounts barely got through this. Being a
lifelong Clift booster, I find him a best thing about any picture he's in,
Monty at quarter-speed still better than anyone else givingtheir all. It's
said Clift had trouble with lines and struggled through them. His memory was
shot, excess of drink/drugs doing Barrymoresque number on him. Still, he's
worth the wait, maybe not to co-workers who suffered alongside, but certainly
for us at objectivity's distance. Director Joe Mankiewicz had alleged devil's own time with his cast, and costs did a rocket. Adapted from Tennessee Williams, but this wouldn't please like Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, to which it was compared in hopeful ads.
'59 folk still weren't used to loss of looks
Clift suffered in the car crash, fewer realizing how lucky he was just to be alive. Monty
had developed this way of shrinking inside his clothes. Is the idea ofhim
doing comedy evenconceivable? Maybe he'd have had less problem if work weren't
always so heavy and doom-laden. Suddenly, Last Summer has an autopsy feel, as
would following year's The Misfits, also with Clift. For all of decline, he'd
grace two more really good ones before a finish: WildRiver
and Freud. Suddenly, Last Summer was sold primarily on Elizabeth Taylor coming
out of beach water in a sheer swim suit, her emergence not unlike Sophia Loren's
inBoy On A Dolphin, a movie also revolved around iconic visual splash. A
Suddenly, Last Summer letdown for those lured in was having to wait till almost
an end for Liz to get wet. Must have been a trial after promise conveyed by the
one-sheet.
Speaking of Clift dubiously doing comedy, the funniest thing heever did, in a manner of speaking, was Martin Short's killer impersonation of Clift many years ago. It might be on YouTube.
I first saw this in a grind house theater in Toronto that ran four or five films a day while many patrons in the back rows did everything but watch the movies. In other words, it was the worst possible place to see a movie. Nonetheless, it held me riveted. It remains a personal favorite.
Love John Wayne's take on S.L.S. After lambasting it to columnists for it's degenerate content, he was asked if he'd actually seen it, to which the Duke replied, "No, and I'm not going to."
Outdone, perhaps, only by Ernest Borgnine's assessment of Brokeback Mountain, "If John Wayne was alive he'd be turning in his grave."
And no doubt clawing at the lid of his casket as well...
In all the memorial enthusiasm for Taylor not one obituary dared reveal the truth that she remained such a lousy actress for decades because she never bothered to train her voice beyond MGM elocution lessons. She forever sounded like a petulant debutante with nasal drip. She ruined a lot of great parts.
Thank you for this fresh take on this bizarre film (especially for the time period)! I'm one who finds Taylor's southern belle persona hard to take.
Another Clift booster here, who found his comedic timing perfect in the "Big Lift," a Cold War picture. He joins a German cabaret and sings the Chatanooga Choo-Choo while trying to hide from his military unit, and it is funny.
I'd really like to see THE BIG LIFT in a good print, but what they have on You Tube does not look good, and I don't trust any of the Public Domain DVD's.
9 Comments:
Speaking of Clift dubiously doing comedy, the funniest thing heever did, in a manner of speaking, was Martin Short's killer impersonation of Clift many years ago. It might be on YouTube.
I remember that skit. It was hilarious.
I first saw this in a grind house theater in Toronto that ran four or five films a day while many patrons in the back rows did everything but watch the movies. In other words, it was the worst possible place to see a movie. Nonetheless, it held me riveted. It remains a personal favorite.
Love John Wayne's take on S.L.S. After lambasting it to columnists for it's degenerate content, he was asked if he'd actually seen it, to which the Duke replied, "No, and I'm not going to."
Outdone, perhaps, only by Ernest Borgnine's assessment of Brokeback Mountain, "If John Wayne was alive he'd be turning in his grave."
And no doubt clawing at the lid of his casket as well...
In all the memorial enthusiasm for Taylor not one obituary dared reveal the truth that she remained such a lousy actress for decades because she never bothered to train her voice beyond MGM elocution lessons. She forever sounded like a petulant debutante with nasal drip. She ruined a lot of great parts.
To iarla: Yes. Thank you. Liz might have been a movie star but she was no actress.
Thank you for this fresh take on this bizarre film (especially for the time period)! I'm one who finds Taylor's southern belle persona hard to take.
Another Clift booster here, who found his comedic timing perfect in the "Big Lift," a Cold War picture. He joins a German cabaret and sings the Chatanooga Choo-Choo while trying to hide from his military unit, and it is funny.
I'd really like to see THE BIG LIFT in a good print, but what they have on You Tube does not look good, and I don't trust any of the Public Domain DVD's.
The print is lousy, fair point.
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