Elizabeth Taylor
Page 13
Collecting the Best Actress Oscar for BUtterfield 8 in April 1961. She later reflected, “I was filled with gratitude when I got it. . . . But it was for the wrong picture. Any of my previous nominations were more deserving.”
As a literal exit to a great career at the studio it was inauspicious but, lo and behold, she received an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress for BUtterfield 8. Before she could find out if she won or not, disaster nearly struck. While in London later that year and into 1961 for the filming of Cleopatra, Elizabeth contracted double pneumonia. An emergency tracheotomy saved her life and instantly put her back in the public’s favor. Thousands of letters were sent to her sick bed. Elizabeth said, “I never knew there was so much love in the world.”
Elizabeth and Fisher attended the Academy Awards in Los Angeles in 1961. When her name was announced as winner for Best Actress, a hush fell over the crowd, followed by a roar of applause. After accepting her award Elizabeth said, “I don’t really know how to express my gratitude. I guess I will just have to thank you with all my heart.” Many in the industry saw the win more as an acknowledgment of her fine work in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly, Last Summer than for BUtterfield 8. Elizabeth, forever after, maintained that she got the award because she had almost died.
An after party following the Academy Awards. Audrey Hepburn is seen at right.
A candid shot during production
As a literal exit to a great career at the studio it was inauspicious but, lo and behold, she received an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress for BUtterfield 8.
Cleopatra
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX
CAST
Elizabeth Taylor Cleopatra
Richard Burton Mark Antony
Rex Harrison Julius Caesar
Pamela Brown high priestess
George Cole Flavius
Hume Cronyn Sosigenes
Casare Danova Apollodorus
Kenneth Haigh Brutus
Martin Landau Rufio
Roddy McDowall Octavian
CREDITS
Walter Wanger (producer); Joseph L. Mankiewicz (director); Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Ranald MacDougall, Sidney Buchman (screenplay), based on histories by Plutarch, Suetonius, Appian and book The Life and Times of Cleopatra by C. M. Franzero; Leon Shamroy, Claude Renoir, Piero Portalupi (photography); Ray Kellogg, Andrew Marton (second unit directors); Alex North (music); Forrest E. Johnston, C. O. Erickson, Saul Wurtzel (production managers); John De Cuir (production design); Jack Martin Smith, Hilyard Brown, Herman Blumenthal, Elven Webb, Maurice Pelling, Boris Juraga (art directors); Walter M. Scott, Paul S. Fox, Ray Moyer (set decorations); Bernard Freericks, Murray Spivack (sound); Fred R. Simpson (assistant director); Dorothy Spencer (editor); Irene Sharaff, Vittorio Nino Novarese, Renie (costumes); Alberto de Rossi (makeup); Vivienne Zavitz (hairstylist)
RELEASE DATE: June 12, 1963
RUN TIME: 320 minutes, color
SUMMARY: Queen Cleopatra of Egypt seeks to secure her throne through an alliance with Julius Caesar of Rome. In Rome she wins not only the emperor’s support but his heart. They have a child, Caesarion, whom Cleopatra aims to see become ruler of the Roman Empire. The love affair, coupled with mounting tensions in Rome, leads to Julius Caesar’s eventual assassination. Mark Antony, Caesar’s would-be successor to the throne, forms a military alliance with Cleopatra against his rival, her brother Octavian. The legendary love affair that ensues between Cleopatra and Mark Antony is set against a backdrop of war, treachery, regal opulence, and deadly ambition.
Lavish expenditures and scandalous headlines notwithstanding, Elizabeth’s interpretation became the predominating image of the legendary Cleopatra.
Elizabeth as Cleopatra
Opulence was poured into every set.
“Has anybody ever told you that you’re a very pretty girl?” Burton’s first line for Elizabeth was quite true, if unoriginal.
REVIEWS
“Physically, Cleopatra is as magnificent as money and the tremendous Todd-AO screen can make it. Sad to say, however, the deep-revolving, witty Mankiewicz fails most where most he hoped to succeed. As drama and as cinema, Cleopatra is riddled with flaws. It lacks style both in image and in action.”
—Time
“This most publicized film of our (if not all) time is at best a major disappointment, at worst an extravagant exercise in tedium. It depends, of course, on what you have been waiting for. Certainly if you want to devote the better part of four hours to looking at Elizabeth Taylor in all her draped and undraped physical splendor, surrounded by elaborate sets, all in the loveliest of colors, this is your movie. And if you adjust your focus from time to time, you will get two fine performances by Rex Harrison and Roddy McDowall, the lilting speech of Richard Burton and a couple of parades and divertissements that Flo Ziegfeld or Busby Berkeley might well have master-minded.”
—New York Herald Tribune (Judith Crist)
“In vocal competition with the clipped precisions of Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar or the poetic sonorities of Richard Burton as Mark Antony, [Elizabeth Taylor] sounds like something dragged in from a minor league. Perhaps one of her faults is that you can understand what she says and the dialogues leave much to be desired. It pains one to reflect that the Liz Taylor, so brutally over-matched here, who started her career with the perfection of National Velvet 19 years ago, is over the edge. Cleopatra proves an expensive way to demonstrate it.”
—New York Post (Archer Winston)
“One of the great epic films of our day. . . . Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra is a woman of force and dignity, fired by a fierce ambition to conquer and rule the world—at least, the world of the Mediterranean basin—through the union of Egypt and Rome. In her is impressively compacted the arrogance and pride of an ancient queen. Harrison’s faceted performance is the best in the film. But Richard Burton is nonetheless exciting as the arrogant Antony. . . . There may be those who will find the length too tiring, the emphasis on Roman politics a bit too involved and tedious, the luxuriance too much. But unless you are one of those skeptics who are stubbornly predisposed to give Cleopatra the needle, I don’t see how you can fail to find this a generally brilliant, moving and satisfying film.”
—The New York Times (Bosley Crowther)
Hollywood history is made. Flanked by producer Walter Wanger and Fox executive Buddy Adler, Elizabeth inks the deal that made her the town’s highest-paid actress.
“I was never terrified by the bigness of the production. I was a playing a fascinating, complex woman.”
In the hospital recovering from pneumonia and a tracheotomy, Elizabeth and Fisher read some of the thousands of letters and telegrams sent by friends and fans
On set in Rome. Elizabeth sits on Eddie Fisher’s lap while exchanging words with Richard Burton.
A candid shot during filming.
With her Julius Caesar, Rex Harrison, who earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor for the role. Richard Burton said, “There’s one thing I’m absolutely certain of—the absolute brilliance of Rex’s and Elizabeth’s performances. Both of them are extraordinary craftsmen.”
On the set with director Joe Mankiewicz and Burton. Due to delays and overtime payments due the stars, in the end it was Burton who got the $1 million paycheck for Cleopatra. Elizabeth’s final take was $7 million.
Elizabeth’s eye makeup stirred a revival of Kohl eyeliner.
On location with Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy McDowall, and Hume Cronyn
A world-weary Cleopatra
Capturing the intensity of Cleopatra. Elizabeth told an interviewer her favorite scene was “the one in which Cleopatra hears of her lover Antony’s marriage to Octavia. I was so energetic and fierce that I dislocated my thumb.”
Elizabeth’s children enjoyed the fantasy world of ancient Rome and Alexandria, created before their eyes. Here Elizabeth has a moment with daughter Liza.
Ready for her close-up as Cleopatra
notes
&
nbsp; WHEN TACKLING THE LEGENDARY SUBJECTS OF CLEOPATRA, Julius Caesar, and Mark Antony, it is difficult to imagine how the epic tale behind the making of the film rivaled that which producer Walter Wanger and director Joseph L. Mankiewicz endeavored to bring to the screen. But after an international scandal involving the breakup of two marriages, the near-financial ruin of a major motion-picture studio, the near-death of its star, and expenditures upwards of $40 million, a filmmaking history as storied as Queen Cleopatra herself was the result.
Previous Cleopatras of twentieth-century stage and screen included Helen Hayes, Vivien Leigh, Claudette Colbert, Tallulah Bankhead, Theda Bara, and Katharine Cornell. When Fox conceived of making the film in 1959, studio executive Spyros Skouras considered Joan Collins or Joanne Woodward. Producer Walter Wanger, meanwhile, had only one star in mind: Elizabeth Taylor. Elizabeth had no interest in playing the role, so she asked for $1 million and 10 percent of the gross, never believing she would get it. Wanger was so anxious to see her bring his vision to life that he agreed to pay the highest salary ever paid to an actress at that time. Elizabeth also requested that it be shot in Todd-AO, the widescreen format that had been developed by Mike Todd.
The queenly sum paid to the star notwithstanding, Cleopatra got off to a fairly ordinary start with Rouben Mamoulian set to direct. (Mamoulian and Wanger had partnered successfully back in 1933 on Greta Garbo’s Queen Christina.) Elizabeth’s Elephant Walk costar Peter Finch had been cast as Julius Caesar and Stephen Boyd would portray Mark Antony. Keeping the $5 million budget for the film in mind, Wanger thought it would be cost-effective to shoot in the controlled setting of England’s Pinewood Studios, setting the stage for all that was to follow, if not for the film itself.
Cast and crew set out in September 1960. The cold, damp weather of England in fall quickly took a toll on Elizabeth’s always fragile health. She began calling in sick with what, over the next few months, went from a cold to meningitis to double pneumonia. She went into the hospital in early March 1961 and underwent an emergency tracheotomy to assist her breathing and save her life. “I was desperately ill,” she later explained, “coming in an out of comas, for about six days. At one time, the doctor had to announce that I had less than one hour to live. . . . They cut a hole in my throat and inserted a big silver tube to help me breathe.” By the end of the month she could sit up in bed and read the thousands of messages from fans and well-wishers who had prayed for her recovery. The fight for her life endeared Elizabeth to the public once more. The Liz-Eddie-Debbie scandal was forgotten.
Elizabeth returned to Los Angeles in time to attend the Academy Awards ceremony in April 1961 to collect her Oscar for BUtterfield 8. Reminders of her illness could be heard in her gravel-voiced acceptance speech and seen in the bandage covering the healing incision on her neck. Embraced by the public again and recognized with top honors by her colleagues, Elizabeth was appreciative and happy to be alive. She also had $50,000 worth of medical expenses, so she rested up in order to resume work on Cleopatra as swiftly as possible. She was the only Queen of the Nile that Wanger wanted. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who had replaced Mamoulian as director, concurred, so they would wait for her to fully recover.
Cleopatra was not a vamp. She was a highly complicated, intelligent woman who was carried to great heights in her ambition. Elizabeth Taylor has an understanding of this.
TEST SHOTS. These costumes were not seen in the film, but sixty of Irene Sharaff designs did make the final cut.
The film resumed production in the fall of 1961. This time Fox took no chances on exposing Elizabeth to elements that might be detrimental to her health and moved filming to sunny Italy, in and around Cinecittà Studios outside of Rome. Elizabeth traveled with husband Eddie and her children, who delighted in the vacation. Son Michael Wilding said: “The entire city of Alexandria was re-created in Italy. . . . For a kid just seven or eight, it was a fantasy. It was this fantastical playground.”
Due to the delays, male leads Peter Finch and Stephen Boyd had opted out of the playground. Rex Harrison was signed to play Julius Caesar and Welsh-born star of stage and screen Richard Burton was brought in as Mark Antony. Burton had first encountered Elizabeth at a party in Los Angeles a decade earlier but they “carefully avoided each other,” according to Burton. Still, his initial reaction to her at that first encounter was recorded in his diary: “She was so extraordinarily beautiful that I almost laughed out loud. . . . She was lavish. She was a dark unyielding largesse. She was, in short, too bloody much.”
When Burton first arrived in Rome he was friendly with both Elizabeth and Fisher. Then they played their first scene together on January 22, 1962. It was the start of one of the great romances of the twentieth century. Elizabeth was married to Fisher and Burton to his wife of thirteen years, Sybil Williams, but from that first moment the bond between them was so intense that they could not hide what was happening. Mankiewicz cabled back to Walter Wanger: “I have been sitting on a volcano all alone for too long and I want to fill you in on some facts you ought to know. Liz and Richard are not just playing lovers—they are Antony and Cleopatra.” Wanger, who himself had once been involved in a scandal for shooting his wife Joan Bennett’s lover in the groin, urged Fisher to go home—advice the spurned husband took. Soon the press let the entire world in on La Scandale in Italy. Elizabeth’s son, Michael, recalled, “[the paparazzi] were going wild. . . . I remember once we were given permission to use the garden hose on the telephoto lenses that were peering over the wall.”
When all was said and done, Fox was banking on cashing in on the priceless publicity generated by the Taylor-Burton romance.
Elizabeth, Richard Burton, and Eddie Fisher: La Scandale in Italy, 1962
Photographs such as this were sent out all over the world, heralding the budding romance.
Tabloid magazines had a field day with the stories behind Cleopatra.
Meanwhile, pyramiding overruns from delays and the most lavish film production ever attempted took Fox to the brink of bankruptcy. The studio continued to pour money into it. When all was said and done, Fox was banking on cashing in on the priceless publicity generated by the Taylor-Burton romance. The international headlines generated by the film were matched by the production that Mankiewicz mounted. It was a sumptuous extravaganza filled with regal sets, expansive battle scenes, and no fewer than sixty elaborate costumes crafted for Elizabeth by Irene Sharaff.
Elizabeth loved the makeup created for Cleopatra so much that she wore it offscreen as well. The one downside—the sequins caused irritation because they kept dropping in her eyes.
Ultimately, Elizabeth was disappointed with the final assemblage of footage, feeling that in editing it down to a manageable length they had cut the heart out of the film and it lacked substance. She had been so invested in the production from both a personal and professional standpoint that she truly wanted it to be a great film. If not for her own sake, she offered to the press, “Rex Harrison is superb, different, remarkable, and brilliant. . . . And I must say that Richard Burton is one of the greatest actors, without question, who has ever worked on the screen or in the theater.” Her final assessment was summed up years later when she said, “I really could have done without Cleopatra, except for meeting Richard.”
Reviews of the film were mixed, at best, but Taylor and Burton drew the public to theaters in droves and in the end Cleopatra earned nine Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture) and took home four Oscars. As to Elizabeth, for all her reservations about her performance and the indifference of the critics, she created a truly indelible image that is forever linked with Cleopatra. More often than not, when conjuring visions of the Queen of the Nile, it is kohl-eyed Elizabeth Taylor one sees.
The V.I.P.s
METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER
CAST
Elizabeth Taylor Frances Andros
Richard Burton Paul Andros
Louis Jourdan Marc Champselle
Elsa Martinelli Gloria Gritti
Margaret Rutherford the Duchess
Maggie Smith Miss Mead
Rod Taylor Les Mangrum
Linda Christian Miriam Marshall
Orson Welles Max Buda
Robert Coote John Coburn
CREDITS
Anatole de Grunwald (producer); Anthony Asquith (director); Terence Rattigan (screenplay); Jack Hildyard (photography); Miklós Rózsa (music); William Kellner (art director); Pamela Cornell (set decorations); Kip Gowans (assistant director); Frank Clarke (editor); Felix Evans (costumes); Hubert de Givenchy (Elizabeth Taylor’s wardrobe); Pierre Cardin (Elsa Martinelli’s wardrobe); Vivienne Walker-Zavitz (hairstylist)
RELEASE DATE: May, 1963 (U.K.)
September 19, 1963 (U.S.)
RUN TIME: 119 minutes, color
SUMMARY: Fog rolls in around London airport, putting a halt to all air traffic and affecting the lives of an assorted group of first-class passengers. A dotty duchess attempts to save her estate. Movie mogul Max Buda counts on timeliness to save him a fortune in taxes. Les Mangrum and his secretary Miss Mead need to get to America posthaste to save his business interest. But at the center is the story of Frances and Paul Andros. Frances has come to feel unloved by her shipping magnate husband and plans to leave him for playboy Marc Champselle. While waiting for the fog to lift, Paul tries to win Frances back, but their marriage may be beyond repair. As with their fellow travelers, uncertainty reigns as the clock ticks.