Hepburn plots Taylor's downfall since the latter knows Sebastian's secret. He was Hepburn's son, and Taylor's cousin. He died in Europe while on holiday with Taylor, and his death was so shocking that Taylor has become paranoid, incoherent, and otherwise unstable.
How others will see it. Suddenly, Last Summer has an A-list cast, a small cluster of Oscar nominations, and it has been subjected to good reviews. Thus, it is prime rib for classic movie fans. Until they see it, whereupon they scratch their heads. What was that all about?
How I felt about it. Blame it on the Production Code, which prevents anyone from understanding what happened to the mysterious Sebastian unless they read liberally between the lines. Sebastian takes Taylor to a beach, shows her off to locals, invites them to hang out with him, then keeps Taylor at a distance until the scene no longer satisfies. Now the local boy-men are mad at Sebastian, form a mob, and murder him. But why?
The source play was written by a homosexual, Tennessee Williams. Williams co-wrote the screenplay with another homosexual, Gore Vidal. This might explain their interest in Sebastian, who dominates this movie without ever actually appearing onscreen. Sebastian is apparently a molester of pre-teenaged boys, selecting and cultivating his victims using Taylor as a lure.
You can deduce none of this from the actual screenplay, which receives its own lobotomy and actually implies that the kids ate Sebastian because they were hungry and he wouldn't give them any bread. Or something like that.
Dr. Clift is the hero who believes in Taylor from the start, and sets to prove that Taylor is sane and Hepburn is the true head case. The problem is convincing asylum head Albert Dekker and Taylor's own mother, Mercedes McCambridge, both of whom are eager to lobotomize Taylor if it means getting some of Hepburn's money. Taylor's brother Gary Raymond, a stupid opportunist, isn't on her side either.
But the real story isn't whether pretty Elizabeth Taylor is about to become the asylum's hottest-looking zombie. The real story concerns Sebastian. What did he do to deserve his fate? After all, a hundred hungry kids can't be wrong.
In a key scene, Hepburn explains that Sebastian believed he saw the face of God at a beach where birds savagely fed on newly-hatched turtles. Was Sebastian a child of this god? An antichrist who died for his sins? Who spiritually arose from his grave to haunt his family, since they were complicit in the corruption of his soul?
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