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.
Nominated for 3 Oscars. 4 wins & 10 nominations total
Top Critics Reviews
fresh:
On film, with Taylor as the woman who saw something nasty and Clift as the psychiatrist trying to probe her trauma, the one-act material is stretched perilously thin; but it works for Hepburn as the incarnation of civilised depravity.
– ,
Time Out,
24 Jun 2006
rotten:
The main trouble with the picture is not its subject or its style, but its length.
– ,
TIME Magazine,
23 Mar 2011
rotten:
The main trouble with this picture is that an idea that is good for not much more than a blackout is stretched to exhausting length and, for all its fine cast and big direction, it is badly, pretentiously played.
– Bosley Crowther,
New York Times,
20 May 2003
rotten:
It has some very effective moments, but on the whole it fails to move.
– Variety Staff,
Variety,
18 Oct 2008
rotten:
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.