...the film initially captured divisive reviews during its time because of its themes of insanity, cannibalism and homosexuality but as those have neutralized over the course of time, its appraisal remains critically mixed though with the criticisms towards commonly being judged at having suffered of being stretched out to feature length and having its content toned down from that of the play. Nonetheless, it does have its strengths as Mankiewicz creates an engrossing gothic thriller bringing out capricious atmospheric tones that’s anchored with a superb cast and first-rate performances by Taylor, Hepburn and Clift in this psychodramatic mystery delirium paradigm.

There's no doubt that a great deal of the feeling of dank corruption that ran through the play has been lost or pitifully diluted by a tactful screening of the words. And certainly what should be thoroughly shocking in the flash-back scenes of the focal character's death is only confusing and baffling, because you can't really see what's happening, and the lady who is describing the occasion is much less vivid and exact than she could be.But, in this viewer's estimation, 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.In structure, as well as in content, the drama is a simple mystery, a psychological whodunit—or howdunit, to be exact....Mr. Williams and Gore Vidal, who helped him prepare his play for the screen, have indulged in sheer verbal melodramatics which have small effect on the screen and are barely elevated from tedium by some incidental scenes of inmates of a mental institution....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.

Perversion and greed, Tennessee Williams’ recurrent themes, are worked over again in Suddenly Last Summer. The play was concerned with homosexuality and cannibalism. The cannibalism has been dropped, or muted, in the film version. It has some very effective moments, but on the whole it fails to move.... Although Joseph L. Mankiewiez’ direction is inventive in giving the essentially static narrative some movement and rhythm, it must be faulted for blunting Taylor’s final scene so it fails to match Hepburn’s opening monolog. (The play was actually only two monologs of almost equal power and length.)