Is Maude based on Hepburn fron Suddenly Last Summer?

Rating: 9/10 (17 October 2002)

I just saw the Tennesse William's film Suddenly Last Summer the other night and I found there to be a distinct similarity between Katherine Hepburn's character Violet and Julianna Moore's Maude from The Big Lebowski. Now I don't think that Maude is a copy of Violet but if you listen to the way she talks and the way she leads a conversation you can hear a distinct similarity between them. The best part of the movie to make this comparison is when Hepburn is showing Montgomery Clift around her son's garden and the way she talks about flowers and her niece Catherine (Elizabeth Taylor) and then compare that to when Maude first meets The Dude and she is talking about art, the female form, sex, and her step mother Bunny. I don't know, maybe it's just me. For other Cohen Brother inspiration check out The Alan Ladd/Veronica Lake film "The Glass Key," as inspiration for "Miller's Crossing," and check out Akim Tamiroff as Uncle Joe Grande in "Touch of Evil" as a model for several characters that Jon Polito plays in a bunch of Cohen Brother's movies.