This movie contains the shot of Elizabeth Taylor that remains one of the defining images in cinema: beautiful and defiant, the star is oblivious to the beach around her and stares directly into the camera. One of the strangest cinematic trips of the 1950s, the big-screen adaptation of Tennessee Williams' wonderfully overwrought Suddenly, Last Summer receives fine treatment from Columbia TriStar on this DVD. The widescreen anamorphic transfer is excellent and though the source print obviously hasn't been restored, it is relatively free of scratches and other blemishes. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono audio track lives up to the integrity of the original theatrical release and is well balanced. It would have been interesting for Columbia to use the DVD as an opportunity to contrast the film with Williams' racier, even darker play (which was filmed by PBS as recently as 1992) or to discuss in depth how cleverly the filmmakers skirted the censorship constraints of the day -- the famous, surreal ending beautifully handles such shocking themes as homosexuality, pedophilia, and cannibalism. However, there are a number of lesser extras such as production notes, a photo montage, a vintage advertising gallery, and trailers. The most important aspect of this DVD is that it restores Jack Hildyard's baroque widescreen black-and-white camera work. This edition of Suddenly, Last Summer looks great in comparison to the video release of the movie.
