oldhollywood:

Suddenly, Last Summer (1959, dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz) (via)

“Man devours man in a metaphorical sense. He feeds upon his fellow creatures, without the excuse of animals. Animals actually do it for survival, out of hunger…. I use that metaphor [of cannibalism] to express my repulsion with this characteristic of man, the way people use each other without conscience: ‘We all use each other and that’s what we think of as love.’

It horrified me, the film. [Producer] Sam Spiegel made the mistake of inviting me to a private screening of it in his apartment and I walked out in the middle of it. I was so offended by the literal approach because the play was metaphorical; it was sort of a poem, I thought. I loved Katharine Hepburn in it, but I didn’t like the film. 

…[The death by cannibalism scene] became so realistic, with the boys chasing Sebastian up the hill - I thought it was a travesty. It was about how people devour each other in an allegorical sense.”

-Tennessee Williams, Conversations with Tennessee Williams