Synopsis
The only son of wealthy widow Violet Venable dies while on vacation with his cousin Catherine. What the girl saw was so horrible that she went insane; now Mrs. Venable wants Catherine lobotomized to cover up the truth.
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Cast
- Elizabeth TaylorCatherine Holly
- Katharine HepburnViolet Venable
- Montgomery CliftDr. Cukrowicz
- Albert DekkerLawrence Hockstader
- Mercedes McCambridgeGrace Holly
- Gary RaymondGeorge Holly
- Mavis VilliersMiss Foxhill
- Patricia MarmontNurse Benson
- Joan YoungSister Felicity
- Maria BritnevaLucy
Recommendations
- 80
Empire
Superbly adapted with blistering performances from Taylor and Hepburn. - 78
Austin Chronicle
The battles between the imperious Hepburn and the presumed-mad Taylor are pure theatricality, while sensitive shrink Clift observes it all and emotes. - 70
Time Out
An outrageous, melodramatic shocker touching on madness, homosexual prostitution, incest, disease and cannibalism, replete with enough imagery to sustain an American Lit seminar for months. - 58
Entertainment Weekly
A deliciously bad film. - 50
Chicago Reader
The cast packs enough sexual ambiguity to satisfy the most rabid Williams fan (not to mention a screenplay by Gore Vidal), but Mankiewicz leaves much of the innuendo unexplored—thankfully, perhaps. - 50
TV Guide Magazine
It was the first time that homosexuality and cannibalism had ever been handled by a mainstream studio as a commercial venture. Let's hope that it remains the last time those two practices will be presented in tandem. - 50
Variety
It has some very effective moments, but on the whole it fails to move. - 40
The New York Times
Joseph L. Mankiewicz' direction is strained and sluggish, as is, indeed, the whole conceit of the drama. It should have been left to the off-Broadway stage.
