Lee
LIZ AND DICK: BACK IN STYLE ON
DVD
The ultimate glam couple of the Swinging Sixties was undoubtedly Burton and
Taylor. Their scandalous love affair swept the continents during the making of Cleopatra.
Burton may have been cast as Marc Antony, but to the cuckolded Eddie Fisher, he might well have
been born to play Brutus. Burton took method acting to the extreme by wooing his onscreen lover
Elizabeth Taylor into the forbidden love affair of the decade - all the while her hubby Eddie was
joining unit publicists in assuring the world there was no truth to these insulting rumors. This,
despite the fact that the Burton trailer kept-a-rockin' and no one was to come a-knockin' in between
takes.
If Burton and Taylor became the "it" couple of the 1960s,
it was not without price being paid. Burton, who was considered by many to be the natural heir to
Laurence Olivier, was criticized for bypassing art house fare to appear in strictly commercial films
with his betrothed. Taylor had been a previous Oscar winner but her reputation suffered during the
making of the ill-fated Cleopatra. She emerged from that debacle by dismissed by critics as a
tempermental sexpot whose demands almost single-handedly brought 20th Century Fox to the brink of
disaster. The charge was untrue, but it stuck. Now she would be accused of acting as a siren to distract
England's most promising young actor from fulfilling his destiny.
Many of these criticisms may have been untrue, but there is no
question that in the midst of their love affair, which was made in tabloid Heaven, Liz and Dick were
largely denounced as a couple by the same critical establishment that had doted on them as individual
actors. The Burtons began to churn out movies of varying quality, often obviously being tempted by the
large paychecks that were necessary to keep up their extravagant lifestyle. There has been very little
in-depth discussion of the merits of these films in the ensuing years - with the single exception of
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Warner Brothers has released four major Burton and
Taylor films from the 1960s as part of a boxed DVD set. With the exception of Woolf, each of
the titles are making their home video debut: The V.I.P.s, The Sandpiper and The Comedians.
What strikes one in viewing the films today is the fact that what looked like shlock entertainment
in the 1960s now looks almost regal by today's standards.
The weakest of the lot is the 1963
soap opera The V.I.P.s, which was made in the immediate aftermath of the Cleopatra
scandal. It's a long, leisurely paced affair in which Burton plays the cinematic equivilent of
Eddie Fisher - the unsuspecting husband whose wife (Taylor) is having an affair with one of their mutual
friends (the impossibly handsome Louis Jourdan.) The plot contrivance has an assortment of eccentric
supporting characters all stranded at a London airport during inclement weather. Each character has
their own individual crisis that is magnified by the flight delay. It's easy to see where Arthur Hailey
drew his inspiration for Airport. The similarities are so extreme that you keep expecting mad
bomber Van Heflin to pop up. There's even Margaret Rutherford as the obnoxiously "cute" old
lady, a role that would be virtually carbon-copied by Helen Hayes in Airport. The snail's pace
is alleviated by the fact that the cast is populated by real stars who exude genuine glamour:
Orson Welles, Else Martinelli, Rod Taylor and Maggie Smith among them. The fashions are superb, the
music impressive and the entire film is extremely enjoyable.
Burton and Taylor team again for
The
Sandpiper, a 1965 sudser mostly remembered for a love song that quickly became a standard for lounge
singers around the world (
The Shadow of Your Smile). Under Vincente Minnelli's direction, Liz
and Dick once again stretch reality by playing...illicit lovers! This time, Burton is the stuffy, but
happily-married deacon at a strict school for wayward boys. What red-blooded man would desire more than
having Eva Marie Saint as his wife? The film provides the answer when Burton takes in hippie artist
Liz's troubled young son as a student. At first, Burton and Taylor bicker like Ralph and Alice Kramden
before they realize what the audience knew from the movie poster - this relationship is destined to heat
up quickly. The ensuing story is slight and fairly claustrophobic, though there are some stunning scenes
of the Monterey area on display. Robert Webber and Charles Bronson pop up occasionally as men who
mysteriously figure in Taylor's life, much to the consternation of Burton. As with
The
V.I.P.'s, the passage of time has made such a trivial exercise appear to be more substantial than
it is, based largely on the star power involved.
The main attraction in
the set is a newly-issued 2 disc special edition DVD of Mike Nichol's screen adpatation of Edward
Albee's groundbreaking play
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The film was widely considered to
be a disaster in the making, as cynics predicted it would turn Albee's biting drama into a vanity turn
for Burton and Taylor. Against all expectations, it proved to be the couple's singular artistic
triumph. Burton and Taylor play George and Martha, a strange couple who enjoy perverse upstaging each
other with perverse and often cruel mind games. On a seemingly non-descript evening, they invite a young
couple played by George Segal and Sandy Dennis to their house for drinks - only to unleash a torrent of
emotions that proves to be devastating for all involved. The film retains the look of the stage play,
and director Nichols only opens it up a wee bit by extending the action to the immediate exterior of the
house and a small cafe. Burton and Taylor play against type in every respect. He is the wimply,
middle-aged college professor who never made good and who bears a masochisitc need to be tormented by
his shrewish wife, brilliantly played by Taylor as a slutty, non-glamorous shrew. Yet, as the story
progresses, we see that the more we know about George and Martha, the more complex their motivations and
needs become. Taylor won her second Oscar as Best Actress in this role. Burton should have triumphed as
well, but had to settle for a nomination, losing to Paul Scofield's over-praised peformance in
A Man
for All Seasons. There is yeoman work from Segal and Dennis, who won Best Supporting Actress. The
film retains all of its power improves with every viewing.
Lastly, the boxed set contains the DVD debut of Peter Glenville's 1967 film
adapation of Graham Greens's
The Comedians, a dramatically underrated film that explores the
terror of life under Haiti's Duvalier dictatorship. Burton is a British expatriate and hotel owner,
cynically trying to survive amidst the daily murders, shakedowns and incessent corruption. He's a man
similar to Bogart's Rick Blaine in that he lives day to day, only concerned for his own selfish needs.
The situation changes when he falls for Taylor, who plays the wife of the British ambassador (Peter
Ustinov). The love triangle forms the background for a fascinating and highly suspenseful story. Adding
to the pleasures are stunning locations (the movie was filmed in the nation of Benin on the coast of
Africa) and seemless performances from a cast of greats that also includes Alec Guinness, Paul Ford (in
a rare dramatic turn), Lilian Gish, James Earl Jones and Roscoe Lee Brown. Laurence Rosenthal provides a
terrific score. Widely dismissed as a typical Burton Taylor glorified home movie,
The Comedians
deserves a second chance on DVD. It's top-notch entertainment.
The set includes
Woolf, trailers for each film and vintage production short as well as a slew of extras for
Woolf including Sandy Dennis' screen test (opposite Roddy McDowell!) and audio commentaries for
the film- Lee Pfeiffer
Buy this DVD set