While grieving for Mike Todd she cried on the shoulder of his best friend, Eddie Fisher, and they fell into an affair.
Attending the Academy Awards with Eddie Fisher, 1959
One of the more colorful magazine covers at the time of the Liz-Eddie-Debbie drama. The public was just getting over the scandal of Lana Turner’s daughter Cheryl Crane killing Lana’s boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato, in defense of her mother. It was a lot for movie fans to take in a short time.
Suddenly, Last Summer
COLUMBIA PICTURES
CAST
Elizabeth Taylor Catherine Holly
Katharine Hepburn Mrs. Violet Venable
Montgomery Clift Dr. Cukrowicz
Albert Dekker Dr. Lawrence J. Hockstader
Mercedes McCambridge Mrs. Grace Holly
Gary Raymond George Holly
Mavis Villiers Ms. Foxhill
Patricia Marmont Nurse Benson
Joan Young Sister Felicity
CREDITS
Sam Spiegel (producer); Joseph L. Mankiewicz (director); Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams (screenplay), based on play by Tennessee Williams; Jack Hildyard (photography); Malcolm Arnold, Buxton Orr (Music); Oliver Messel (production design, costumes); William Kellner (art director); Scott Slimon (set decorations); A. G. Ambler, John Cox, Peter Thornton (sound); Bluey Hill (assistant director); William Hornbeck, Thomas G. Stanford (editors); Norman Hartnell (Katharine Hepburn’s costumes); Jean Louis (Elizabeth Taylor’s costumes); David Aylott (makeup); Joan White (hairstylist)
RELEASE DATE: December 22, 1959
RUN TIME: 114 minutes, black and white
SUMMARY: Catherine Holly has been in a mental asylum since the demise of her cousin Sebastian, whose brutal murder she witnessed. The traumatic events which caused his death remain unspoken, locked away in her memory. Consumed with the desire to silence Catherine about Sebastian’s death and peculiar life, his mother, Violet Venable, attempts to arrange for niece Catherine to be lobotomized. Dr. Cukrowicz entertains the notion when Mrs. Venable offers funding to improve conditions at his mental institution. But over time the doctor and Catherine develop a close connection and his goal becomes to help her. When the truth about Sebastian’s death finally comes pouring out of Catherine, it is more shocking than anyone could have imagined.
As the institutionalized Catherine Holly
Catherine is ready to tell her story.
REVIEWS
“Suddenly, Last Summer goes further than any one has previously cared, I won’t say dared, to go. It will be almost certainly so alien to most audiences I doubt they will be able to show it much sympathy, not because it is poorly done, but because of its essentially poetic strength. . . . Miss Hepburn’s performance [is] splendid, as one would expect. And if there were any doubts about the ability of Miss Taylor to express complex and devious emotions, to deliver a flexible and deep performance, this film ought to remove them.”
—New York Herald Tribune (Paul V. Beckley)
“People who leap to conclusions may assume the trouble is that Sam Spiegel and his crew that made the picture were compelled to go easy with the ugly words. They may suspect that because the true nature of the most-talked-of character could not be tagged (he was obviously a homosexual, as well as a sadist of some sort, in the play) and because the precise and horrible details of his death could not be explained (he was literally eaten by urchins), the point of it all is missed. 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 flashback 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.”
—The New York Times (Bosley Crowther)
Taking in the sun at a Spanish beach
On the set, ready to film
The star films one of her big scenes, on location in Spain.
notes
ELIZABETH’S EXPERIENCE WITH TENNESSEE WILLIAMS material in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a pinnacle in her career thus far, led her to take on Suddenly, Last Summer, even though it presented far more challenges than Cat in terms of turning it into a film for mass consumption. Suddenly, Last Summer was originally a one-act play primarily involving two women in a single garden setting, that was presented off-Broadway as part of a Tennessee Williams double bill under the name Garden District.
Patricia Neal, who had starred in a London stage production, expected to re-create her role in the movie, but director Joseph Mankiewicz instead hired Elizabeth Taylor. He had every confidence in the actress Elizabeth had grown to be. He said, “She is close to being the greatest actress in the world, and so far she has done it mostly by instinct. She is still a primitive, sort of the Grandma Moses of acting.” Elizabeth concurred with the latter part of Mankiewicz’s statement, saying “I’m a completely instinctive actress. I’ve never had any lessons. I try and become the character.”
“She is close to being the greatest actress in the world, and so far she has done it mostly by instinct.”
— JOSEPH MANKIEWICZ
As Cat on a Hot Tin Roof had conditioned her to do, Elizabeth gave herself completely to the role. Though embroiled in the aftermath of the love triangle involving Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, Elizabeth was still very much grieving the loss of Mike Todd and that made her vulnerable on the set. While enacting her big monologue in the garden, where she describes the scene of cannibalism she witnessed, Elizabeth became so emotional she had to excuse herself from the set. “I thought she had gone to freshen up,” Mankiewicz recalled, “but then one of the wardrobe women came over and said, ‘Do you know that Miss Taylor is sitting all alone behind the set, crying?’ I found her, and she had broken up completely. I was amazed because she had such great instinctive and understanding of the pain and suffering of the character she was playing. She kept saying, ‘That poor girl!’ Then she went back and completed what I think is one of the finest pieces of acting in any motion picture ever made.”
A candid shot away from the set during production
About to film her famous white swimsuit scene
A candid with Montgomery Clift
Throughout the filming at England’s Shepperton Studios, it was a difficult time for Elizabeth. Though she had married Eddie Fisher two weeks before production began, she continued to venerate Mike Todd. One journalist who visited their hotel room during the making of Suddenly, Last Summer was struck by the only photo in her and Fisher’s room—there was a giant likeness of Mike Todd looking down upon them. And she was still wearing Todd’s $92,000 engagement ring.
Equally, if not more, troubled by ill health and private crises than Elizabeth was her costar, Montgomery Clift. She was reunited with her great friend onscreen for the third and final time in Suddenly, Last Summer. “A friend who stands by you is worth a thousand rubies,” Elizabeth once said. She and Clift had seen each other through many difficult times and though they never worked together again, they continued to cherish each other’s friendship until Clift’s death in 1966. She had learned a great deal from him from the moment they began making A Place in the Sun, and now it was Elizabeth who was receiving the major accolades. Both she and costar Katharine Hepburn, hauntingly memorable as the eccentric Mrs. Venable, received Academy Award nominations as Best Actress for their respective roles in Suddenly, Last Summer. Both being nominated in the same category for the same film seemed to split the vote, and the Oscar that year went to Simone Signoret in Room at the Top.
With Montgomery Clift and Katharine Hepburn. Doctor and aunt discuss Catherine’s future.
Images of Elizabeth swimming in her white bathing suit were transmitted around the world.
The same magazine that heralds the discovery of the abominable snowman asks a far more realistic question: Is Liz “too much for Eddie?”
On the set with son Christopher. Her children always traveled with her on location.
In costume as Catherine. Her wardrobe in the film was the work of Jean Louis.
At the premiere of Suddenly, Last Summer
The film performed well, bringing in $6.3 million at the box office. In addition to her acting, there was the famous scene of Elizabeth in a white swimsuit in Spanish waters that garnered a great deal of press. The movie was not uniformly a critical triumph. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times panned the film. His review alluded to sensational details of a story involving cannibalism, homosexuality, sadism, and all manner of corruption. Screenwriter Gore Vidal was convinced Crowther’s lurid details only helped drive audiences to see Suddenly, Last Summer.
“A friend who stands by you is worth a thousand rubies.”
— ELIZABETH TAYLOR
With Fisher at the Academy Awards in 1960
Elizabeth and Eddie Fisher arrive in London to make Suddenly, Last Summer. Her children came as well. Eddie appeared as an extra on the beach in the film, too.
At the Academy Awards. She was nominated that year as Best Actress.
Scent of Mystery
MIKE TODD COMPANY
CAST
Denholm Elliott Oliver Larker
Peter Lorre Smiley
Beverly Bentley Decoy Sally
Paul Lukas Baron Saradin
Liam Redmond Johnny Gin
Leo McKern Tommy Kennedy
Peter Arne Robert Fleming
Diana Dors Winifred Jordan
Mary Laura Wood Margharita
Elizabeth Taylor cameo
CREDITS
Mike Todd, Jr. (producer); Jack Cardiff (director); Gerald Kersh, William Rose (screenplay), based on story by Kelley Roos; John von Kotze (photography); Harold Adamson, Mario Nascimbene, Jordan Ramin (music), Franco Ferrara (musical director); Vincent Korda (production design, art director); Dario Simoni (set decorations); Murray Spivak (sound); James E. Newcom (editor); Charles Simminger (costumes); Neville Smallwood (makeup)
RELEASE DATE: January 12, 1960
RUN TIME: 125 minutes, color
SUMMARY: Tourist Beverly Bentley mysteriously disappears from a Spanish tourist destination and an international incident ensues as shady and honorable characters and even imposters traipse in and out to either uncover new information or further muddy the mystery. In the end, the girl is found alive and well.
REVIEWS
“There is a strong smell of the midway about Michael Todd Jr.’s Scent of Mystery, a color film accompanied by odors that opened at the Warner Theatre last night. As theatrical exhibitionism, it is gaudy, sprawling and full of sound. But as an attempt at a considerable motion picture it has to be classified as bunk. . . . It is an artless, loose-jointed “chase” picture set against some of the scenic beauties of Spain, which, indeed, are the most attractive and rewarding compensations of the show. And whatever novel stimulation it might afford with the projection of smells appears to be dubious and dependent upon the noses of the individual viewers and the smell-projector’s whims.”
—The New York Times (Bosley Crowther)
notes
THE SON OF ELIZABETH’S LATE HUSBAND, MIKE TODD, JR., had his first producing effort with Scent of Mystery, a gimmick film that introduced Smell-o-Vision. It was an unsophisticated process that involved pumping out odors related to what was unfolding on the screen. A scene in a rose garden, for example, prompted a spray like fresh blooms. Not all theaters were equipped for Smell-o-Vision. Audiences did not take to the gimmick and critics considered it pure nonsense. Elizabeth, who had an interest in the film with Mike Todd, Jr., made a cameo appearance that was small but critical. She proves to be the crux of the story—she’s the missing girl all have been searching for over the course of the 125-minute run time.
BUtterfield 8
METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER
CAST
Elizabeth Taylor Gloria Wandrous
Laurence Harvey Weston Liggett
Eddie Fisher Steve Carpenter
Dina Merrill Emily Liggett
Mildred Dunnock Mrs. Wandrous
Betty Field Mrs. Fanny Thurber
Jeffrey Lynn Bingham Smith
Kay Medford Happy
Susan Oliver Norma
George Voskovec Dr. Tredman
CREDITS
Pandro S. Berman (producer); Daniel Mann (director); Kathryn Hereford (associate producer); Charles Schnee, John Michael Hayes (screenplay), based on novel by John O’Hara; Joseph Ruttenberg, Charles Harten (photography); Bronislau Kaper (music); George W. Davis, Urie McCleary (art directors); Gene Callahan, J. C. Delaney (set decorations); Hank Moonjean, John Clarke Bowman (assistant directors); Ralph E. Winters (editor); Helen Rose (costumes); Sydney Guilaroff (hairstylist)
RELEASE DATE: November 4, 1960
RUN TIME: 109 minutes, color
Elizabeth as Gloria Wandrous
SUMMARY: Gloria Wandrous is a high-priced Manhattan model and party girl accustomed to a revolving door of men in and out of her life—wealthy, respected “gentlemen,” often of good families and bad marriages. One of these is Weston Liggett. At the outset neither has any respect for the other—and possibly not even for themselves. They mistreat each other until eventually falling head over Gloria’s stiletto heels in love. Weston is married to wife Emily, and Gloria comes to feel herself undeserving of his love, at least until she has had time apart in a new town to reform and atone for her past. Weston’s pursuit of Gloria in his car puts an end to it all in a dramatic twist of events.
At the airport in London, Elizabeth returns home following her near-death experience.
Arriving in Los Angeles at the end of her long journey back from England
REVIEWS
“In BUtterfield 8 the object seems to have been to make some unpleasant people attractive. Dressmakers and interior decorators must have worked overtime on it, and, of course, Elizabeth Taylor, who has a crackling effect on the screen, would dress up a rag picker’s shack, but the effect only makes things ambiguous and cancels out the hard, brittle definitions that the theme promises.”
—New York Herald Tribune (Paul V. Beckley)
“In the first place, it has Miss Taylor, playing the florid role of the lady of easy virtue, and that’s about a million dollars right there. ‘I was the slut of all times,’ she tells her mother in one of those searing scenes wherein the subdued, repentant playgirl, thinking she has found happiness, bares her soul. But you can take it from us, at no point does she look like one of those things. She looks like a million dollars, in mink or in negligée. . . . Mildred Dunnock is excellent as the mother of Miss Taylor. So is Betty Field as the mother’s friend. When these two cut up Baby, the film is livelier than it has a right to be. Dina Merrill is lovely and simple as Mr. Harvey’s wife. Only Eddie Fisher, as a boyhood friend of the frantic playgirl, seems like something dragged in from left field.”
—The New York Times (Bosley Crowther)
A bandage to cover the scar from her tracheotomy did not stop Elizabeth from going out often.
Candid shot during production
notes
PRODUCER WALTER WANGER OFFERED ELIZABETH THE opportunity to star in his upcoming film, Cleopatra, in 1959. After negotiating a landmark $1 million contract, Elizabeth was set to do the film, but she owed one more picture to MGM to conclude what she came to look upon as a period of servitude to the studio after nearly two decades under contract. Elizabeth would have made anything they wanted just to get out from under her obligations, but then and for the rest of her life, she remained vocal about her great distaste for BUtterfield 8, always describing it in colorful terms.
The story was based on a 1935 novel by John O’Hara that MGM at times had considered attempting to put on the screen, but through the era of the Production Code, they kept the racy story on the back burner. It was a soap opera—a slick, stylish, expensive one—which was a specialty for MGM, and filled with camp dialogue that litte
red the script by John Michael Hayes and Charles Schnee. The deal for Elizabeth to appear in the film was sweetened when director Daniel Mann agreed to cast her husband Eddie Fisher in a supporting role. Lawrence Harvey, Dina Merrill, and the unexpectedly great twosome of Mildred Dunnock and Betty Field rounded out the cast.
Shot on location in New York, production took place during the first three months of 1960. When it was over, Elizabeth’s tenure as a studio contract player was up, but she did not receive any sort of send-off. She said, “After I had ended my eighteen years of servitude at MGM, wouldn’t you expect a phone call, or a telegram, or one wilted rose? Or some kind of goodbye? I got nothing. Some of the stars say that at least the man at the studio gate says goodbye to you. But even this didn’t happen.”
Elizabeth and Eddie Fisher get lunch on the set. The cast received much praise, but Fisher was roundly panned by the critics.
A scene with Laurence Harvey, with whom she became friends offscreen
Elizabeth Taylor Page 12