The Sandpiper(1965).

The Sandpiper(1965). Cast: Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Directed by Vincente Minnelli.

Laura Reynolds, is living a wonderful life as single, bohemian artist/model, with Danny her 9-year-old son (Morgan Mason, James Mason's son), in a run down beach house. Until one day Danny, shoots and kills a deer which gets him in trouble with the law and Laura is ordered by the court, to enroll him in the private school, headed by clergyman Edward Hewitt and his wife. Even though she is resentful at first, she is surprised, at how quickly Danny accepts the schools routine.

Laura and Hewitt, fall into into a passionate love affair after he walks in on her modeling nude for her artist friend. They spend many long afternoons together, along the beautiful surf and sand. Things are going well until, a jealous colleague of Hewitt, blows the whistle on the couple.

Tormented by guilt, Hewitt tells his wife, Claire about the affair, who is brokenhearted. He then makes a public admission. Laura furious that he exposed their private relationship never wants to see him again. How will Hewitt confront is problems?

This movie is filmed at the height of the Burton/Taylor popularity. We get to see a side of Liz Taylor, that is so different from past silver screen performances… here she plays a "new woman of the 60s," who believes in free love, which turns out to be the film's theme... Richard Burton, character once again pays the price for his actions..

 

Fun Facts:

Then unknown Raquel Welch doubled (uncredited) for Elizabeth Taylor in some of Taylor's beach scenes on location at Big Sur, California.

The third of eleven films that Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton starred in together.

Script was originally envisioned as a Kim Novak vehicle, until she had a falling out with producer.

Great On Screen Couples: Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton

As I write this post, I just learned Liz has been admitted to a hospital for congestive heart failure, so I may get a little emotional as I write. I pray everything turns out fine for her and she will be home soon. Now onto my post about her and Richard Burton, one of the most well known and fiery couples both onscreen and off. They were married and divorced...twice! And they made 11 films together, some of them being instant classics. Their relationship was turbulent to say the least but they were magic on camera, producing some of the best acting on film ever. Their performances in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? should be shown in acting school as a primer to show how it's done. Liz and Dick put on quite the show in real life and on film. It's ironic their film together was the massive and troubled Cleopatra, which turned out to be one disaster after another. Production delays, Liz getting sick, directors being fired then rehired, etc. But it's where Liz and Dick met and fell in love and married 2 years later, and their history would go on for the next 15 years. While Cleopatra may have been a financial disaster and almost bankrupted 20th Century Fox, the pair would go on to make 10 more films, including the star-studded drama The V.I.P.s (1963) co-starring Maggie Smith, Orson Welles, Rod Taylor, and Margaret Rutherford. It's ironic because Liz and Dick play an unhappily married couple. Shades of things to come maybe?

The two would reunite the following year for the gorgeously filmed The Sandpiper. It's noted that the cinematography stands out more than the couple. It is a very beautiful film, that had Big Sur, California as it's setting. And while The Sandpiper is not one of their best films, it is still engaging to watch Liz as a single mom falling in love with a married headmaster of an Episcopal school (Burton).

Their masterpiece Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? came out the following year and brought Liz her second Best Actress Oscar. She gives one of the best film performances I have ever seen as Martha, the frumpy wife of a New England college professor (Burton). Liz gained 30 pounds and used no make-up to turn herself into a 50ish housewife who tends to drink a lot and scream at her husband. Dick gets to deliver some of his best acting as well and the pair's volatile on screen relationship on full display brought more attention to their off screen relationship.

Another volatile on screen relationship beckoned with 1967's The Taming Of The Shrew with Liz and Dick playing Shakespeare's Kate and Petruchio. A perfect fit for this combustible pair. It would be one of their last great films. They would make several more films including Boom!, The Comedians, and Hammersmith Is Out, but their best work had already came and went. Still 11 films, 2 marriages, and so much drama that could fill a dozen novels and several soap operas assures us we will never forget Liz and Dick.
Below are my top 5 Liz and Dick movies:
1. Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf (1963)
2. The Taming Of The Shrew (1967)
3. The Sandpiper (1965)
4. The V.I.P.s (1963)
5. Cleopatra (1963)

The Great Dramas: The Night of the Iguana (1964).

The Night of the Iguana (1964). Based on the 1961 play The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams. Directed by John Huston. Cast: Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, and Deborah Kerr. It won the 1964 Academy Award for Best Costume Design, and was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography. Actress Grayson Hall received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and Cyril Delevanti received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

A defrocked Minister by the name of Shannon, is now working as a tour guide for Blake Tours, his first job is to take a group of Baptist School teachers on a bus to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Charlotte's aunt, accuses Shannon of trying to seduce her niece and fires him. Panicked, Shannon drives the bus and ladies, to a Costa Verde Hotel in Mismaloya on the coast of Mexico, where he tries to prevent Fellowes from calling his boss.

Shannon is surprised when he hears that his old friend Fred, died a month earlier and the hotel is now run by Fred's widow, Maxine Faulk.

Soon after, Hannah Jelkes, a painter from Nantucket who travels from place to place with her elderly poet grandfather show up. They have run out of money and Shannon convinces the not to happy Maxine, to let them stay.

While Shannon ties to battle his demons, Miss Fellows niece continues to make trouble for him.

Shannon suffers a breakdown, the cabana boys tie him in a hammock, Hannah calms him with poppy tea and understanding..



Night of the Iguana is very emotional film. The characters all have their troubles, but.. they are also thoughtful and face life head on. Creating a film that is absolutely amazing. One that you will want to watch many times.

BEHIND THE SCENES OF: NIGHT OF THE IGUANA (1964).

I always find it fascinating to learn what goes on behind the scenes of my favorite films. The Night of the Iguana(1964), is one of my favorites. The film is based on the 1961 play The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams. Directed by John Huston. Cast: Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, and Deborah Kerr. It won the 1964 Academy Award for Best Costume Design, and was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography. Actress Grayson Hall received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and Cyril Delevanti received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The film had plenty of behind the scene stories. Richard Burton brought his soon-to-be-wife Elizabeth Taylor to the location shoot. The filming attracted the paparazzi, and turned the city of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico into a tourist attraction.

Director John Huston, was a filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. Along with Night of the Iguana, he directed: The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Key Largo (1948), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), The African Queen (1951), Moulin Rouge (1952) The Misfits (1960), and The Man Who Would Be King (1975).
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Poem from Night of the Iguana

How calmly does the olive branch
Observe the sky begin to blanch
Without a cry, without a prayer
With no betrayal of despair

Some time while light obscures the tree
The zenith of its life will be
Gone past forever
And from thence
A second history will commence

A chronicle no longer gold
A bargaining with mist and mold
And finally the broken stem
The plummeting to earth, and then

And intercourse not well designed
For beings of a golden kind
Whose native green must arch above
The earth's obscene corrupting love

And still the ripe fruit and the branch
Observe the sky begin to blanch
Without a cry, without a prayer
With no betrayal of despair

Oh courage! Could you not as well
Select a second place to dwell
Not only in that golden tree
But in the frightened heart of me.