Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor in George Stevens' A Place in the Sun
Elizabeth Taylor can be found in 11 movies to be presented on Turner Classic Movies on Monday, Aug. 23, as part of TCM's "Summer Under the Stars" series. [Elizabeth Taylor schedule.]
Curiously, even though Taylor is one of the biggest movie stars ever, she did appear in a few (to the best of my knowledge) still hard-to-find titles. Is Franco Zeffirelli's Young Toscanini (1988) available on home video in the US? Are Night Watch (1973) and Ash Wednesday (1973) easily available?
Unfortunately, none of those titles will be shown on TCM, but there's one that most people probably haven't heard of despite its stellar cast: Brian G. Hutton's X, Y & Zee (1971), a bizarre psychological drama in which Taylor co-stars with Michael Caine and Susannah York.
Though hardly what I'd call a great film, X, Y & Zee is an intriguing, cynical portrayal of dysfunctional human relations: married couple Caine-Taylor, lovers Caine-York, and seducer/seducee Taylor-York. It's definitely worth a look, especially since both Taylor and York are excellent. As a plus, the supporting cast includes Margaret Leighton and John Standing.
In spite of Joan Bennett's presence, Vincente Minnelli's Father of the Bride (1950) is the sort of family movie that could only be saved by an invasion of flesh-eating zombies. As far as I'm concerned, the old MGM's Andy Hardy sensibility is the stuff that nightmares are made of.
On the other hand, Life with Father (1947) — a Warner Bros. release — has enough oddball humor to make it quite enjoyable. The fact that the film's production values are first-rate, and that William Powell (as the unreligious father) and Irene Dunne are in top form surely helps.
Clarence Brown's National Velvet (1945) left me cold, but Fred M. Wilcox's Lassie Come Home (1943) left me misty-eyed. I cared more about that collie than about most humans in most MGM movies. Ah, I cared about two-legged Dame May Whitty, too.
Taylor is both beautiful and surprisingly effective in George Stevens' A Place in the Sun (1951), co-starring Montgomery Clift and Shelley Winters. (Despite a Best Actress Oscar nomination, she was less effective in another pairing with Clift, Raintree County, MGM's attempt to create a second Gone with the Wind. Clift's disfiguring car crash took place during filming.)
Taylor is less beautiful but even more effective in Mike Nichols' Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966, right), the kind of family movie that requires no zombies.
In fact, I'd say the complex, engrossing, disturbing Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? probably hasn't aged one day since it first came out nearly half a century ago.
Adapted by Ernest Lehman from Edward Albee's play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? also stars Richard Burton, George Segal, and Oscar winner Sandy Dennis.