Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

Katherine Hepburn keeps Liz Taylor locked in an asylum to prevent her from telling the truth about her son's mysterious death. That's kind of an odd movie just from the premise, isn't it?

Montgomery Clift is Dr. Cukrowicz, a neurosurgeon who has been asked to perform a lobotomy on the disturbed niece of the wealthy Violet Venable, a grieving mother who was totally obsessed and in love with her son Sebastian, who had died last summer. Usually, Violet and Sebastian would on vacation during the summer, but on his final trip, he instead asked his cousin to go, where she witnessed his death. Upon meeting Violet's niece Catherine, it is apparent that she is only being kept away so she doesn't tell anyone about the way her son died. What follows is Dr. Cukrowicz digging to uncover the truth and hopefully set Catherine free from the trauma that is affecting her.

This film is particularly odd in structure, since it mainly centers around a few key scenes that are almost monologues on the part of either Violet or Catherine. But it certainly allows for the showcasing of some fantastic acting. Katherine Hepburn is brilliant in the role, portraying a woman that is full of wit and intelligence, but also hopelessly, unnaturally devoted to her son at one point referring to them as a couple, how no one ever said "Mrs. Venable and her son" or "Sebastian and his mother", but instead "Violet and Sebastian, Sebastian and Violet". She'll do anything to preserve the memory of her son, even if it means subjecting Catherine to a lobotomy to shut her up.

Elizabeth Taylor is equally as great, having to play a damaged young woman who is being told by everyone around her that she is insane, and possibly beginning to believe them as she deals with the shocking truth about her beloved cousin Sebastian and how he truly felt about her.

The actual resolution to what happened with Sebastian is shocking, but also unbelievable. But I think this has less to do with the quality of the film and more to do with the limitations that the filmmakers undoubtedly encountered in bringing the topics and themes from Tennessee William's play to the screen. If they had been allowed to say everything they needed to say, than the outcome probably would seem less out of left field.

Overall the film is fantastic, especially if you are a fan of the two leading actresses, because this is essentially a platform for them to deliver some brilliant (and Academy Award nominated) performances, as well as serving as a meditation on the brutality of humanity and other themes that were most likely shocking for its time.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

One of my favorites movies of all-time, featuring a brilliant cast, a great script, and an insane amount of venom and poison.

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton are George and Martha, a middle aged married couple who spend their days insulting each other, insulting others, and engaging in various flights of fancy. George is a history professor at a college where Martha's father is the president. One night, after a part welcoming a new instructor, the couple have the new teacher, Nick (George Segal) and his wife, Honey (Sandy Dennis) over for a nightcap. What follows is a descent into the twisted relationship between George and Martha and the cruel games they play with others and themselves.

The acting in the film is phenomenal. Elizabeth Taylor (who at the time was too young to play a middle aged woman) gained a significant amount of weight to play a character whom she inhabits with great zeal and nastiness. Martha is loud, obnoxious, rude, nasty, and is willing to do whatever she can to break her husband's spirit, even if they happen to be entertaining guests at the time. But Taylor never does it to a point where it becomes unbearable to watch, instead, she fuses Martha with a great bit of humor that allows for several funny moments in the film, even though she happens to be digging into her husband.

Richard Burton is great here as well, playing a man who hasn't amounted to much in life, who speaks in an odd, roundabout manner, possibly because he seems to constantly drift in and out of some sort of daydream. While he tries to go toe-to-toe with Martha, he comes across as much weaker, usually letting her dig into him over and over. Burton gives George as great deal of weariness and sadness that never becomes too overbearing.

George Segall, unfortunately, seems to have the least to work with. His character, Nick, comes across as just a normal guy who happens to be stuck with a pair of old bitter people. But, this is probably intentional, because he has to serve as the main reaction to the anger and venom we see unleashed between the two, and they become a reminder of what he and his wife may eventually turn into one day.

Last but not least is Sandy Duncan as Honey. Duncan was the second Oscar winner for this film (Taylor also won Best Actress) and it's totally deserved. Honey is someone who wants to be the perfect housewife, so she deals with the craziness of the night by laughing it off, and by taking a drink. And another, and another, and another, until she's dancing around the room. Duncan has to make the more significant transition in the film, going from a seemingly happy housewife to a sobbing, drunk mess who discovers a few things about her marriage she never wanted to hear and she plays it off perfectly.

The script is insanely good, able to be both layered and entertaining. George and Martha's bickering originally starts as funny, only to descend into nastiness and anger, it also contains a lot of subtext about what is and isn't true about what George and Martha say about themselves. It's just fantastic.

I cannot recommend this movie enough, it's easily of on my top movies ever, and for those who don't mind "movies where they just talk" with a very small cast (only 4 characters), you're in for a brilliant movie.

BUtterfield 8 (1960)

Elizabeth Taylor plays a hooker in a film that is for the most part, pretty bad.

Oh, and by the way, the BU in the title is correct, it's not a spelling mistake, so I don't want any complains (though at this point any sort of reaction by someone would be desired)

Liz plays Gloria a part-time model and part-time hooker who begins a relationship with the married Weston Ligget, a commoner who has married into money.

Let me say this right off the bat, the only redeeming quality of this film is Elizabeth Taylor's performance, other than that, the film is light on plot and the actual plot evokes no emotional connection. Weston is a total pig, and we are never really shown anything to their relationship beyond scenes of them in various places and hints that they're getting ready to have sex.

The biggest mistake of the film is featuring Weston's wife as predominantly as the film does, because she's made out to be incredibly sympathetic, blaming the affair on herself for being from a rich family, it makes it almost impossible to want Gloria and Weston to make it as a couple. The best way to execute a love triangle (at least to make it interesting) is one of two ways. Make all of the character likable, so we have some sort of emotional investment in who ends up with whom, or make one of the two women or men some horrible person so we can cheer the moment they are left in the dust. Unfortunately, we feel for both women, but we want them to dump Weston as soon as possible. He's a very whiny drunk who's biggest issue is the fact that his wife comes from money, big woo.

There's a minor subplot about Gloria's musician friend Steve (Eddie Fisher, Taylor's then husband) who might be in love with Gloria, but has a girlfriend. Frankly, the plot is very underdeveloped and only serves as a catalyst for Gloria to make a decision later in the film.

As I said earlier, the only reason to see this film is to see Elizabeth Taylor's incredible performance. She plays a woman that craves attention and feels shame for doing so, as well as being extremely vulnerable. There is one scene (the best scene in the whole movie) where Gloria explains how when she was 13, a friend of the family raped her for a week while her mother was out of town. And through tears, anger, and shame Gloria admits to loving it. The scene, which would already be shocking if seen today, showcases Taylor's talent as she allows for a combination of revulsion, fury, sorrow to play across her face.

It's a shame that her Oscar win for this film is so tainted by the opinion (which she also shares, in addition to hating this film) that she only won due to a serious illness at the time, which many thought would have killed her, because she really deserved to win. I'm not saying she's better than the other nominees (I don't even know who they are, besides Shirley Maclaine for The Apartment) but she certainly gave an Oscar-worthy performance, which is the only reason for seeing this film.

Oh, and don't get me started on the ending. It's absolutely horrible and completely out of left-field.