Elizabeth Taylor, in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

approximately 78 minutes and 46 seconds
61% of the film

The film

The film focuses on the self-destructive relationship of history professor George and his hard-drinking wife Martha, as they invite a younger couple over for drinks.

You can read my short review of the film just by clicking HERE.

I was quite young when I first saw it and didn’t know what to expect from it. To me, it’s one of those moments: Remember where you were the first time you saw Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Yes, I do, definitely; because such performances you never forget and the film will always be a tribute/proof of what great acting does to a film.

Elizabeth Taylor as Martha

What was Liz thinking when she accepted/went for this role? It was a role like none other attempted by her and definitely not something a box office star and glamour puss would easily feel comfortable doing. It was the height of her career and strangely enough nothing merely interesting came after it. Rarely does a film like this have such a strong impact on someone’s career, taking her from the level of good actress to one of the most talented performers of the century.

Liz plays Martha, the hard-drinking, loud-mouthed wife of a college professor. She is selfish, mean, exploitive, and sometimes vulgar but unexpectedly likeable. She goes from one emotion to another during one bumpy night which will definitely change her marriage dynamic. It’s a fascinating, interesting, rich character, a challenge for any great actress willing to take the chance and go all the way, without any vanity.

The performance itself is quite flawless. Though young at age, you can feel the acting experience: she knows where the camera is and, with the help of great direction and camera work, she can make the best out of any difficult close-up! There’s no hesitation in the line delivery and she perfectly shifts between the different emotions Martha goes through.

Her chemistry with Richard Burton needs no explaining and the fact that they know eachother so well can only help the performance and adds a spark of charm to the film itself. Her bitchiness is so well played, from the exaggerated laughter to the angry drunk moments and the sarcastic arrows she keeps pointing towards George.

What completes the performance to me is the human side of the character, something I’m always looking for in a performance of this calibre. Liz makes Martha so believable and heartbreakingly human. The last part only goes to prove she’s no monster indeed but a woman with many flaws and weaknesses and Liz always keeps her likeable, relatable.

We get to understand Martha and I was almost excited when, towards the end, she finally sides-up with George, admitting he was her only love and the only man who would actually be able to keep up with her. The final scenes are heartbreaking and her two monologues at the end are delivered perfectly, making for some of the best acting this category’s ever seen: so touching, so meaningful, so perfectly delivered.

My one small issue was that even with Liz’s deglam I could still feel that maybe an older actress would’ve made for a wiser casting; however, by the time the story starts moving, it all seems very much in place. Elizabeth Taylor delivers, with the help or great screenplay and steady direction, what was easily a career best for her and definitely one of the worthiest winners in Best Actress history. No other rating could do justice: .

Elizabeth Taylor, in Raintree County

approximately 54 minutes and 52 seconds
33.5% of the film

The film

A graduating poet/teacher falls in love with a Southern woman, and then the Civil War and her past create problems.

You can find my short review of the film just by clicking HERE.

To quote from what I wrote there: Unfortunately the film (…) is a huge flop and for most part a waste of time, camera work and potential. It's not an epic, but a badly acted, directed, written film lacking the fluidity it needs to put some sense into the story.

Elizabeth Taylor as Susanna Drake

I’ve always lived under the impression that Elizabeth Taylor’s star persona, beauty & personal life were way above her acting and her body of work. She’s a movie star if there’s even been one. Unfortunately, her Raintree County performance confirms my theory and taunts me in believing that Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was her only undeniable & brilliant achievement. There’s no doubt she had the potential for great acting, but her regular efforts were way too inconsistent. Raintree County is also her first Oscar nomination, and from what I can tell it’s quite an undeserved one.

Liz plays Susanna Drake, a Southern belle with a bit of a troubled past and lots of unresolved trauma, who falls in love with a Yankee and tricks him into marrying her. But as she approaches motherhood, her mental state starts to decline more and more and a tragic ending for her seems unavoidable. As you can tell, the role is very baity, even though she’s not the leading character of the movie, just the wife; a crazy wife, that is. At times, the role’s too much for Liz to handle and more often the messy screenplay doesn’t live up to the potential of the character.

There aren’t many good things about this performance. Sure, Liz looks great and the more seductive, mean girl role fits her. However, she’s at her most annoying when she’s playing nice, overdoing it. Her Southern charms are often overcooked, and I’m not referring to the accent, but to the loud talking and all the mannerism she brings to the performance and the falseness she defines Susanna by.

Some of her confrontation scenes just don’t work. Either she doesn’t understand the character (to be honest, the screenplay doesn’t help her at all) or she doesn’t have the experience at playing this much of a challenging, mature role (yeah, she was a child actor, but that’s a different ball game). Every time she’s in crisis, she puts on the despair, Alzheimerish look that works only once or twice. And her final scenes, right at the ending, feel boring, uncreative and I got the sense I didn’t like (nor found believable) the direction she decided for the character.

There are, however, two good elements/moments about this performance. First is when, during their boat trip after the wedding, Susanna transforms into this racist Southern bitch for a couple of minutes. As I am condemning the character, Liz showed us a bit of her speciality: playing hard bitches and nasty women. It wouldn’t have harmed the performance had she had more cruel scenes in her acting. The second is the madhouse scene, where we see a Susanna that’s beaten down and that has given up on a chance of a normal life. She’s more approachable and it’s probably for the first (and only) time we feel for the character. Not spectacular, but worthy of mentioning.

This is not a performance I liked. I didn’t hate it, nor did I find something terribly wrong, but it has it’s weak parts and a lot of mediocrity. In all fairness, the direction and the screenplay are shit, but sometimes a performance can rise above the material. Liz does it, but not enough. I hesitated on the rating. I’m gonna go with , even though it’s really a 1.5 and this is officially the least satisfying (another word for bad) performance I’ve written about ever since the birth of the blog.