Suddenly, Last Summer (Turner Classic Movies) 3:00 PM EDT
TCM airs this Gore Vidal-written adaptation of a Tennessee Williams play, which also stars Montgomery Clift. The plot focuses on the death of a gay man and his mother's attempts to purge that aspect of his life from his eulogies.
Beauty and the Geek (CW) 8:00 PM EDT
After a game of flag football turns into a full-contact match, the previews promise a game-changing announcement -- does that mean the "beauties vs. geeks" twist is being thrown out already? If so, who will "Greggie" pair up with? Right now the beauties are still a bit of a blur for me (as are the geeks, aside from Greg, the guy with a beard who'll probably look really cute after the makeover and the guy with the beard who probably won't look cute after the makeover) but do any of you have a beauty you think would be a good teammate for Greg?
Dancing with the Stars (ABC) 9:00 EDT
Out judge Bruno Tonioli will be on hand as the camp-tastic dancing show does its first ever double elimination cutting one male and one female celebrity. With both Steve Guttenberg and Adam Carrolla likely at risk of elimination, how can I possibly pick which one I want gone more? Talk about Sophie's Choice!
The Riches (FX) 10:00 PM EDT
Eddie Izzard's show only has a couple of minor gay characters, and they don't show up here, but a lot of queer folks still dig the cross-dressing son and the show's general sensibility.
Submitted by
on Tue, 2008-03-25 07:48.
Suddenly Last Summer
Ah, Suddenly Last Summer.... I'm recording it at this very moment. This film is so much fun to watch because it is so very, very over-the-top in every way---plot, performances, etc. Even though certain aspects of the plot were toned down due to the more restrictive standards of the 1950's, this is still certainly one of Tennessee Williams' most melodramatic films...
Poor Montgomery Clift, though... he's so zoned out here, on painkillers or whatever; it's apparent that he's just barely hanging in there, in all his scenes...
(Certain aspects of this film do confuse me a bit, however---I still don't know why the son used attractive women to draw gay guys toward him. Why would gay guys give the women a second look?)
I'm like a superhero, with no powers or motivation...
Monty Clift was being
Monty Clift was being horribly abused by the director. There's a story that Katharine Hepburn was so repulsed by the way he was being treated that once she was sure she was done filming and wouldn't be needed for any reshoots, she spat on him. And good for her.
While I actually think Vidal's screenplay is an improvement on the original script, there's one detail that doesn't quite survive the translation. It's more or less implied that Sebastian was using his mother to lure in not attractive men, but rather, social peers. When he decides to forgo his summer with her and instead spend it with Catherine, the Liz Taylor character, he's using her to attract prospective mates, with the implication that he's paying/abusing them, and also that they're quite a bit younger than him.
I know the whole of the film may be over-the-top, but Hepburn's performance is so deliciously icy, it's hard not to love it. I always imagine the relationship between Sebastian and Violet to be the inverse of the relationship between Norman Bates and his mother.
Hysterical Liz
Yes, it's a treat to watch Hepburn in this film---and Elizabeth Taylor as well, who seems to play nearly all her scenes on the verge of hysteria. (Though I suppose it fits the character---heck, how is a person supposed to react when their family is trying to give them a lobotomy?!)
The film really is a lot of fun to watch, but man, what an incredibly negative portrayal of a gay character. I want to say that Tennessee Williams should have known better, but then I do have to think of the very repressive time period in which he lived. Things aren't great now, for gay people---but they were so much worse then. Still, I tend to think that perhaps it was a matter of personality type--- maybe Tennessee would likely have been morose and maladjusted no matter what, no matter when he lived. After all, you have people like Walt Whitman, who lived in an even more repressed society, and he seemed to be fine with being gay...
I'm like a superhero, with no powers or motivation...