Studio: Warner Brothers-Seven Arts
Running time: 109 minutes
Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967)
“‘An Army post in peacetime is a dull place.’ So begins Carson McCullers’ famous novel of secret passion, Reflections in a Golden Eye. But beneath the smooth surface of military routine, a deadly tension mounts. Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando star in this startling screen version that, like the book, crackles with mysterious, exotic energy. They play the Pendertons: He’s a hidebound career officer wrestling with inner demons; she’s a caged lioness needful of love, whatever the source. Their off-kilter relationship plays out under the voyeuristic gaze of a soldier (Robert Forster) soon to become the focal point of tragedy. Provocatively directed by John Huston, and costarring Brian Keith and Julie Harris in moving supporting performances, this spellbinder is powerful and complex — just like that emotion called love.” [From the Blu-ray]
Cast
Leonora Penderton: Elizabeth Taylor
Major Weldon Penderton: Marlon Brando
Lieutenant Colonel Morris Langdon: Brian Keith
Alison Langdon: Julie Harris
Anacleto: Zorro David
Stables Sergeant: Gordon Mitchell
Captain Weincheck: Irvin Dugan
Susie: Fay Sparks
Private Williams: Robert Forster
Crew
Director: John Huston
Producer: Ray Stark
Screenwriters: Chapman Mortimer and Gladys Hill
Based on the Novel by: Carson McCullers
Cinematographer: Aldo Tonti
Production Designer: Stephen Grimes
Art Director: Bruno Avensani
Set Decorator: William Kiernan
Musical Score: Toshiro Mayuzumi
Editor: Russell Lloyd
Costumes: Dorothy Jeakins
Hairstyles for Miss Taylor: Alexandre de Paris
Did You Know?
This film adaptation of Carson McCullers’s novel was to have reunited Elizabeth with her dear friend and three time co-star Montgomery Clift, who was set to co-star as the repressed homosexual Major Weldon Penderton. She was prepared to forgo her standard million dollar paycheque to insure Clift, who, at the time, was considered uninsurable. “Miss Taylor was determined to have Monty in Reflections and to make another picture with an actor she admired greatly and loved as a friend,” recalled Robbie Lantz, agent to both Elizabeth and Monty. “Her immense devotion to him was not only responsible for the acceptance of Clift by [the film’s director,] John Huston, but she also overcame certain insurance problems.”
Clift, aged forty-five, tragically died of a heart attack before filming began. Elizabeth, who learned of the news while making The Taming of the Shrew in Rome, issued the following heartfelt statement: “I am so shocked I can barely accept it. I loved him. He was my dearest friend. He was my brother.”
After Clift’s death, both Richard Burton and Lee Marvin turned down the part. Elizabeth, who had co-star approval, then suggested Marlon Brando. “To me, they [Clift and Brando] tap and come from the same source of energy,” she said. “They both have this acute animal sensitivity.”
Reflections in a Golden Eye, which was, according to its director, John Huston, “one of the first American films to broach the subject of homosexuality,” was made at De Laurentiis Studios in Rome and on location at an abandoned army base in the United States. Elizabeth had gotten to know the already mythic Huston in Mexico three years earlier when he directed Richard Burton in The Night of the Iguana (1964). During the filming of Reflections in a Golden Eye, Huston was impressed with Elizabeth’s horsemanship and concluded that she was a “supremely fine actress.” Huston would consider Reflections among his finest work. “I like Reflections in a Golden Eye," he would later conclude. “I think it is one of my best pictures....scene by scene – in my humble estimation – it is pretty hard to fault.”
The film was initially released in a desaturated, “gold”-hued version, which heightened the film’s atmosphere and theme of voyeurism. Much to Huston’s disappointment, however, a full-colour general release version was quickly rushed into theatres to appease the public. Both versions appear on the two-disc Blu-ray release of the film.