Night Watch

Night Watch (1973) 

Starring Elizabeth Taylor, Laurence Harvey, and Billie Whitelaw

Directed by Brian G. Hutton

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C

Movie Review - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

Starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, and Sandy Dennis

Directed by Mike Nichols

Having seen Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf recently on Broadway (review), when I saw this pop up during Turner Classic Movies' 31 Days of Oscar, I had to check it out.  I'm not going to delve into anything much here in this sorry excuse for a review except to say that while this movie was well acted and nicely directed, there's something a bit more magical about watching a quartet of actors onstage than onscreen.  Don't get me wrong -- Elizabeth Taylor (in only the second thing I've seen her in) is great as the drunken Martha and her real-life hubby Richard Burton is also strong has her onscreen hubby George.  Still, there's something invigorating about this story unfolding onstage.

That said, one of my qualms about the story while staged -- why the hell didn't party guests Nick and Honey (played here by George Segal and Sandy Dennis) get up and leave this disaster of a nightcap get-together?  In the film, with the luxury of being able to open things up beyond a single set, George and Martha actually attempt to take the duo home via car and while the quartet eventually returns to their original location, it still made a bit more sense to me than in the play.

I also must point out that while it certainly might have been that I had just seen the play a mere two weeks before watching the film, but I felt like I needed the intermissions that the play provided to let things sink in.  As a film, despite being nearly an hour shorter than the play, it dragged on a bit, and I found myself longing for the respite that a play can sometimes provide.

The film also makes the somewhat ambiguous ending onstage much clearer and foreshadows the conclusion a few times throughout so as to leave the audience completely aware of what they witnessed rather than have them questioning anything.  Admittedly, I'm not sure which I liked better.  I enjoyed leaving the stage production wondering if "I got it."  Turns out, I did.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

Starring Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, and Burl Ives

Directed by Richard Brooks

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Seeing as how the only Elizabeth Taylor movie I'd seen prior to today had been The Flintstones, I figured I'd better make reparations with what some would call a heinous cinematic crime by watching one of the recently deceased star's more revered works.

Without a doubt, even after viewing just one movie of hers (because, let's face it, the less one thinks about The Flintstones, the better), it's easy to see why she became a movie star.  One, she's stunning onscreen.  The camera loves her in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  She draws your eye to her in every scene.  Second, and perhaps more important, she's a pretty darn good actress.  As modern Southern belle Maggie, she exudes bitchiness and prissiness.  However, you get the odd sense that Maggie is the only character onscreen who is being truthful with all of her feelings which allows the audience to connect with her rather than distance themselves from her.

Family secrets are the underlying basis of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof's story and the film certainly has the aire of 1950s melodrama so prevalent in films back then.  Buoyed by Taylor's great performance and a similarly nice turn from Paul Newman as Maggie's alcoholic husband Brick, who, like his name implies, doesn't allow his emotions to show, the actors elevate the film beyond the corny vibe that easily could have overtaken this piece.  Tennessee Williams can certainly write some great dialog (although he's not credited in writing the screenplay here), but he does have a tendency to layer the emotions and drama on pretty thick.  Don't get me wrong, I've liked mostly every Williams piece I've seen/read, but his depiction of "family" isn't exactly "normal," and, if you're not in the mood for him, his work could seem laughably absurd.

That wasn't the case for me here, though, as I bought into the tale.  Unfortunately, the movie's not without faults.  I felt that the character of Brick simply doesn't work for the first half of the film.  Newman admirably tries to create a persona for the guy, but the character is such a one-note crotchety grump for fifty minutes, that I had difficulty finding any type of personality in the character.  Of course, there is an emotional arc that Brick eventually takes part in, but it took a tad long to get there.  I don't place the fault in Newman, however, it would be interesting to see another take on this to see if Newman's to blame or the character itself is just a tad flawed.

Similarly, I can't say I was a huge fan of Burl Ives' portrayal of Big Daddy.  Even though I'd never seen a staging of the play before, the character of "Big Daddy" is somewhat of a literary icon in that I knew a whole lot about the backstory of the character before the movie even started.  That larger than life ideal that I had set up for myself just didn't mesh with the performance of Burl Ives.

Still, as an introduction to Elizabeth Taylor, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was a good choice.  She is quite the scene-stealer and certainly carries this film on her shoulders (which, considering the talent that is Paul Newman, is surprising).

The RyMickey Rating:  B