Elizabeth was wildly miscast in the role of a blushing ingénue that she had outgrown in every respect more than a decade ago. As production got underway, Burton, on the set much of the time, particularly to mock-scowl at Elizabeth and Beatty during their love scenes, began to feel Elizabeth had made a terrible mistake by agreeing to do the film. He thought it was pure rubbish and, typically, exaggerated to the press for the sake of amusement, “The awful thing is that it’s turned me off drink! . . . If it was anyone else of course I’d pack my bags, head for the hills, and go and live in a Trappist monastery, but this woman is my life.”
The film ultimately took six months and $11 million to make. The dynamite trio of George Stevens, Elizabeth Taylor, and Warren Beatty failed to produce a successful film, and it would be the director’s last after a predominantly stellar filmography that encompassed The Diary of Anne Frank, Shane, The More the Merrier, Alice Adams, and a host of other classics. The Only Game in Town generated a mere $1.5 million gross in the U.S. After a succession of box-office disappointments, Elizabeth’s drawing power was seriously called into question.
REVIEWS
“Rarely has [Elizabeth Taylor] seemed less convincing, less sure of a character.”
—New York Post (Frances Herridge)
“Nothing in The Only Game in Town seems quite on the up and up. Everything, including both the humor and the pathos, is bogus. . . . Miss Taylor’s face is still one of the great scenic attractions of our time, but the performance is awfully royal. Beatty, who can be an interesting actor, is required to deliver breezy, bad comedy lines that have the effect of making him look and act like George Hamilton. Stevens’ treatment of the romantic but not necessarily dishonest script is epic. Time passes in lap dissolves that are so long and portentous that one fully expects an army to materialize, instead of a head against a pillow. When Miss Taylor stands at her Las Vegas picture window at dawn, a 707 roars by, sounding like a hound of heaven. It’s almost as if Stevens had decided to make Vivacious Lady (1938) in the manner of A Place in the Sun (1951).”
—The New York Times (Vincent Canby)
Anne of the Thousand Days
HAL WALLIS PRODUCTIONS/UNIVERSAL PICTURES
CAST
Richard Burton King Henry VIII
Geneviève Bujold Anne Boleyn
Irene Papas Queen Catherine of Aragon
Anthony Quayle Cardinal Wolsey
John Colicos Thomas Cromwell
Michael Hordern Count Thomas Boleyn
Katharine Blake Elizabeth Boleyn
Valerie Gearon Mary Boleyn
Michael Johnson George Boleyn
Elizabeth Taylor masked maiden
CREDITS
Hal Wallis (producer); Charles Jarrott (director); Richard McWhorter (associate producer); Bridget Boland, John Hale (screenplay); Richard Sokolove (adaptation), based on play by Maxwell Anderson; Arthur Ibbetson (photography); Georges Delerue (music); Mary Skeaping (choreographer); Maurice Carter (production design); Lionel Couch (art director); Peter Howitt, Patrick McLoughlin (set decorations); Simon Relph (assistant director); Richard Marden (editor); Ivy Baker Jones, Margaret Furse (costumes)
RELEASE DATE: December 18, 1969
RUN TIME: 145 minutes, color
SUMMARY: In sixteenth-century England, King Henry VIII is obsessed with producing a male heir to the throne. After many stillbirths and now past her child-bearing years, his wife, Queen Catherine of Aragon, is deemed useless even though she has given him one daughter. The king sets his sights on the lovely young Anne Boleyn, who he means to take as a mistress only. Anne’s refusal to bed with the king out of wedlock leads him to contrive to have his marriage to Queen Catherine annulled. In doing so he breaks from the Church but gets his wish of freedom to marry Anne. The new queen gives him a second legitimate daughter but no son. Anne’s inability to give him what he wants, coupled with her fiery personality, lead him to new political machinations that end in her beheading. King Henry is then free to take his third of six wives, Jane Seymour.
notes
THE HISTORY OF HENRY VIII AND HIS SECOND OF SIX WIVES, Anne Boleyn, was told many times on both stage and screen in years prior to 1969. Producer Hal Wallis, whose hits of a generation earlier included Little Caesar and Casablanca, based his film on the play Anne of the Thousand Days by Maxwell Anderson, which had been a success on Broadway in 1948 starring Rex Harrison. Richard Burton, in the lead role, as well as several other major players in production of the movie, fared equally well. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Actress. Costume designer Margaret Furse was the only one to take home an award, but Anne of the Thousand Days was nevertheless considered an unqualified success.
The same, unfortunately, could not be said of the movies Elizabeth made apart from Burton in this period, but husband and wife continued to support each other in every professional move. They were also frequently physically on hand during production. Thus came about Elizabeth’s cameo in Anne of the Thousand Days. The historical drama was not the kind that lent itself to revealing inside jokes, so Elizabeth appeared masked only, as a member of the court who intrudes on Queen Catharine at prayer time. The joke was reported in the press, with some calling it callous of her to replace an otherwise gainfully employed bit player. Elizabeth and Richard’s daughters, Liza and Kate, also got in on the act as unbilled maidens.
REVIEW
“This Anne of the Thousand Days is one of those almost unbearably classy movies, like A Man for All Seasons and Becket, that have a way of elevating the reputations of moviemakers without doing much for the art. It’s been photographed in color and with care in all sorts of lovely English settings; the Tudor costumes are chic and seemingly wrinkle-free; it has a score by Georges Delerue that is mostly alarums and excursions, punctuated by an occasional madrigal, and it makes an extremely complex period in English history (the Reformation) comprehensible by defining it in terms of private personalities who were also public figures.”
—The New York Times (Vincent Canby)
Anne of the Thousand Days was only one of many Richard Burton films on which Elizabeth was a constant presence. As their individual film schedules permitted, Elizabeth and Burton were frequent visitors to the sets of each other’s movies. They were even known to persuade producers to change the locations of films they were making so that they could be near each other when both were working. Presented here are shots of Elizabeth in connection with Richard Burton movies.
Arriving in England to make The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Richard Burton, Elizabeth, and Peter O’Toole during the making of Becket
At the premiere of Where Eagles Dare
In Puerto Vallarta during the filming of The Night of the Iguana
On the set of The Klansman
Taking snapshots on the set of Becket
X, Y & Zee (Zee & Co.)
ZEE FILM/KASTNER-LADD-KANTER PRODUCTIONS/COLUMBIA PICTURES
CAST
Elizabeth Taylor Zee Blakeley
Michael Caine Robert Blakeley
Susannah York Stella
Margaret Leighton Gladys
John Standing Gordon
Mary Larkin Rita
Michael Cashman Gavin
Gino Melvazzi head waiter
CREDITS
Elliott Kastner (executive producer); Alan Ladd, Jr., Jay Kanter (producers); Brian G. Hutton (director); Edna O’Brien (screenplay); Billy Williams (photography); Stanley Myers (music); Peter Mullins (art director); Arthur Taksen (set decorations); Colin Brewer (assistant director); Bob Jones, Cyril Swern (sound); Jim Clark (editor); Beatrice Dawson (costumes); Allan McKeown (hairstylist); Alex Garfath (makeup)
RELEASE DATE: January 21, 1972
RUN TIME: 110 minutes, color
SUMMARY: Zee and Robert Blakeley move among a free-wheeling social set in London. At a party Robert finds the direct opposite of his explosive wife in the form of a placid blonde dress designer nam
ed Stella. Robert begins an affair with her and eventually falls in love. Zee refuses to let another woman steal her husband without a fight. She tries everything from befriending Stella to reigniting the passion in bed with Robert to finally attempting suicide, but Robert and Zee’s miserable marriage is beyond saving and he remains infatuated with Stella. Stella has revealed to Zee that she was expelled from school for developing romantic feelings for a nun, and this prompts Zee’s next move. She goes to Stella and sweet-talks her into bed. Robert arrives on the scene and realizes what has transpired. What will happen for the threesome next—parting ways, two pairing off, or three together—is anybody’s guess.
Portrait of Elizabeth in the role of Zee
REVIEWS
“As directed by Mr. Hutton, who made one of my favorite idiotic action movies (Where Eagles Dare), X, Y & Zee never misses an opportunity to overstate a line, a point or a mood, or simply to confuse the few things that, from the delicacy of the original (not televised) version of Three Into Two Won’t Go, I take to be Miss O’Brien’s sensibilities. . . . Mr. Hutton allows [Taylor] to play Zee as if she were the ghost of whores past, present, and future, clanking her jewelry, her head-bands, her earrings, and her feelings behind her like someone out to haunt a funhouse.”
—The New York Times (Vincent Canby)
“At the beginning of X, Y & Zee Elizabeth Taylor, peering out of blue lamé eye shadow like a raccoon, seemed ridiculous and—well, monstrous. But as the picture went on, I found myself missing her whenever she wasn’t onscreen (when Michael Caine and Susannah York were acting immaculately), and I’m forced to conclude that, monstrous though she is, her jangling performance is what gives this movie its energy. . . . I don’t think she’s ever before been as strong a star personality.”
—New Yorker (Pauline Kael)
“Elizabeth Taylor goes on an all-out campy rampage, pulling out every stop in her first performance in over a year. And it’s her best since Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? . . . Remember how Bette Davis used to upstage everything and everyone, especially in films like Now, Voyager? Well, Miss Taylor does the same thing in this movie. She spews out four-letter words all over the place, screws up her face into strange and wildly funny expressions, and obviously has a good time with this role.”
—Newton North
Michael Caine and Elizabeth have a stormy marriage in X, Y & Zee.
With Michael Caine
notes
ELIZABETH GOT TO USE EVERY ACTING TRICK IN THE BOOK in her performance as Zee Blakeley, a willful woman caught in a turbulent love triangle that ends in her going to bed with her husband’s mistress. Undoubtedly, once she was out from under the control of MGM, Elizabeth showed no fear in her choice of roles and sank her teeth into every performance, good or bad for her career though it may have been judged. In X, Y & Zee she ran the gamut of emotional histrionics: loving, hating, and playing passionately, from seducing her husband to seducing his lover. Based on an original screenplay by Edna O’Brien called Three Into Two Won’t Go, the film ends in ambiguity, but O’Brien’s original work took the triangular love story a step further, ending with husband, wife, and mistress in a threesome.
Zee and Co. was the film’s original title in England, where it was made in 1971 under the direction of Brian G. Hutton, who had recently produced the hit action film Where Eagles Dare with Richard Burton. X, Y & Zee’s leading man was Michael Caine, with whom Elizabeth spent most of the proceedings onscreen in bitter fighting. The “other woman” was Susannah York, a delicate blonde British actress who had tread similar territory playing a lesbian in the drama The Killing of Sister George. There was also a small but showy role in the film for actress Margaret Leighton, the wife of Elizabeth’s second husband, Michael Wilding.
Elizabeth showed no fear in her choice of roles and sank her teeth into every performance.
As Zee Blakeley
Elizabeth’s hair, makeup, and costumes were about as over the top as the character she played. Zee’s wardrobe consisted of exotic print ponchos, dresses, and caftans, all accessorized with bangles, rings, hippy beads, and headbands. Designer Beatrice Dawson said, “Elizabeth has definite ideas as to what suits her. She likes her clothes to be amusing—then she can enjoy wearing them; she likes to see a strong challenge in them—so that she needs to set them off; she needs dramatic color schemes. I chose brilliant color combinations—dramatic black and white, yellow/orange, purple/pink, orange/cerise. Above all, [Elizabeth] likes her clothes to be unrestrictive. She feels happiest in loose clothes because she’s a very active, alive woman—both on the set and in real life.”
American film critics wildly disagreed in their opinions of Elizabeth’s performance in X, Y & Zee, but there was no doubt as to her success in the film from the Italian motion picture academy. Elizabeth was awarded a David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actress for her work as the egocentric, volatile Zee.
With Margaret Leighton, the wife of Michael Wilding, Elizabeth’s second husband
Behind the scenes of X, Y & Zee
Richard Burton visits the set.
Under Milk Wood
TIMON PRODUCTIONS/THE RANK ORGANIZATION (U.K)/ALTURA FILMS (U.S.)
CAST
Richard Burton First Man
Elizabeth Taylor Rosie Probert
Peter O’Toole Captain Tom Cat
Glynis Johns Myfanwy Price
Vivien Merchant Mrs. Pugh
Siân Phillips Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard
Victor Spinetti Mog Edwards
Ryan Davies Second Man
Angharad Rees Gossamer Beynon
Ray Smith Mr. Waldo
Talfryn Thomas Mr. Pugh
CREDITS
Jules Buck, Peter James, Hugh French (executive producers); John Comfort (producer); Andrew Sinclair (director, screenplay), based on play by Dylan Thomas; Robert Huke (photography); Brian Gascoigne (music); Geoffrey Tozer (art director); Dominic Fulford (assistant director); Cyril Collick (sound); Willy Kemplen, Greg Miller (editors)
RELEASE DATE: January 27, 1972 (U.K.); January 21, 1973 (U.S.)
RUN TIME: 87 minutes, color
SUMMARY: The world of the small Welsh fishing village of Llareggub and its inhabitants is brought to life through a series of episodic stories. At the outset, a narrator informs the viewer that they are hearing and witnessing the dreams of the colorful cast of villagers. Captain Cat recalls his seafaring adventures and the whore he loved in his youth, Rosie Probert. Sweet shop owner Myfawny Price has sweet dreams of Mog Edwards. Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard thinks on her late lamented husbands. Schoolmaster Mr. Pugh dreams of doing away with the shrewish Mrs. Pugh. When all awake, life goes on in Llareggub and the viewer has a unique understanding of the characters’ innermost thoughts.
As Rosie Probert, the whore so loved by Captain Cat
REVIEW
“Burton’s readings are fine, especially when you close your eyes. Nothing that Andrew Sinclair, the director, chooses to show us does more than complement the text, which often means literalizing it, making it seem smaller, less mysterious, more postcard-picturesque than need be. When Burton tells us that we can hear the dew falling, I had a small panic that Sinclair would show us even that, though he doesn’t. Gone is any sense of discovery of language, which, when Thomas was working well, could make one feel very young again, almost drunk with surprise and pleasure. The problem is all those pictures. In a way, Thomas did to words what booze did to him. He shook them up, liberated them, twisted them around so that they took on, if only momentarily, a higher order of meaning. The camera has the presence of a sober-sided friend. It interrupts most of the poet’s flights of fancy.”
—The New York Times (Vincent Canby)
notes
WELSH POET DYLAN THOMAS’S FINAL MAJOR WORK, AND perhaps his most famous, was Under Milk Wood, a lengthy episodic play written for radio which had been performed occasionally onstage as well. The verbose play was never intended for the visual medium of cinema, but director Andre
w Sinclair undertook the challenge with gusto, soon lining up a cast headed by Peter O’Toole as Captain Cat and Richard Burton as narrator, Voice One. The movie was filmed in Wales, in the area in which Burton had grown up, which made the project one especially close to his heart. Sinclair supplemented his cast with town locals.
Through Burton, Sinclair secured Elizabeth to make a cameo appearance as Rosie Probert, the memorable love of Captain Cat’s youth. Because it was such a small role, Elizabeth asked that she not be billed as one of the film’s stars, but producer Jules Buck knew a good thing when he had it. He refused, stating Elizabeth’s contract dictated that she receive star billing. Thus Elizabeth’s face and name loomed large on all advertising material produced for Under Milk Wood, though she actually appears for less than a few minutes.
Because it was such a small role, Elizabeth asked that she not be billed as one of the film’s stars, but producer Jules Buck knew a good thing when he had it.
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