Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes

Elizabeth Taylor was the real deal, a bonafide movie star, a consummate rule breaker, and a striking beauty who made both classic films and unadulterated bombs and led a notorious personal life that was endless fodder for the gossip columnists until her death in 2011. This 2024 documentary offers a new glimpse into her storied life through archival audio from 1964 interview sessions with biographer Richard Meryman never before released. Providing a wealth of film clips and newsreel footage to complement the tapes, documentary filmmaker Nanette Burstein wisely lets the treasure trove of material speak for itself as she tracks the subject's life from preternatural child star to leading AIDS research activist. The mythos and facts about Taylor are well familiar to anyone who has seen her best work and read the tabloids over the years. Burstein reminds us how vibrant she was in her prime.

That's how she was once referred to in Hollywood and probably strived to be taken seriously for her acting skills.

The documentary mostly consists of conversations with her (with other folks like Burton thrown in the mix) with archival footage shown on screen. Sadly, it's less a reappraisal of her cinematic legacy and more of her marriage drama. There is hardly any insight into her cinematic career beyond the usual fluff (save for Cleopatra) though archival footage for her marriage isn't spared.

This documentary treats her like a spoiled mogul rather than a serious actor.

Greetings again from the darkness. Not many people are famous for their entire life. Elizabeth Taylor came about as close as one can. Director Nanette Burstein uses 40 hours of recordings that resulted from journalist Richard Meryman's 1964 interviews with 32-year-old Ms. Taylor. This was at the height of her fame and popularity.

Liz claims her infamous "violet" eyes are actually "dark blue". She is quite forthcoming during the recordings, and we can't even imagine a top-tier celebrity today offering this much personal insight ... outside of the obvious blabbering we are subjected to on social media and talk shows. Liz became famous at 10 years old when she starred in LASSIE COME HOME (1943) and was a cinema sex-symbol at age 16 when she played the beautiful wife of Robert Taylor (12 years her senior) in CONSPIRATOR (1949). We hear Liz recall her idyllic childhood, yet also describing herself as a "terrified little girl" during those early Hollywood years.

In addition to the recordings which give the documentary a certain structure, director Burstein also includes a treasure trove of personal photos, home movies, archival interviews, and archival footage. A slew of photos of her famous dates stream by - even including football star Glenn "Mr. Outside" Davis. Liz was only 18 years old when she married Conrad "Nick" Hilton Jr, heir to the hotel magnate. She explains how she locked herself in the bathroom on her wedding night, and was so nervous, it took 3 days to consummate the marriage. Of course, Elizabeth Taylor is as famous for her marriages as she is her acting. She wed 8 times to seven different men. The most interesting of those are detailed here, including the plane crash death of true love Mike Todd, which led to Liz wooing singer Eddie Fisher from her friend Debbie Reynolds. What a scandal!

Despite the marriages, she also had close friends - some of whom were closeted homosexuals in order to protect their career and image. Roddy McDowell, Rock Hudson, Montgomery Clift, and James Dean were all close to Liz. She details the shock at Dean's car crash death and notes she had been cruising with him in his Porsche earlier that same day.

During the interviews, Liz makes the point a few times that it was so important for her to be accepted as an actress, not just a movie star. She expresses a humble pride in being the first actor to be paid one million dollars for a role, but then things went sideways for CLEOPATRA, when Liz was hospitalized with pneumonia so serious it required a tracheotomy. Production on the film was delayed more than two years, and it was during her recovery that she won the first of her two Oscars. However, it's surreal hearing her bash BUTTERFIELD 8 as an inferior film. When production on CLEOPATRA re-started, she met her real life Marc Antony in actor Richard Burton, thus kicking off their years-long on-again/off-again intense relationship (including two marriages).

Director Burstein flashes clip after clip to convince those who don't already know that Elizabeth Taylor was an actor, a movie star, and a cultural icon. The film is quite a tribute, though it kind of blows through the later years of a couple of marriages, rehab, and weight gain. She does commit time to Liz's relentless work as an AIDS activist, including her support of long-time friend Rock Hudson. So many of Liz's memorable performances came in 1967 and earlier (some of those not mentioned above are NATIONAL VELVET (1944), FATHER OF THE BRIDE (1950), A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951), GIANT (1956), CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (1958), and of course, WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF (1966, her second Oscar). Despite her career peaking in that era, Elizabeth Taylor remained a star until her death in 2011 at age 79. Nanette Burstein has delivered a worthy tribute.

Premieres August 3, 2024 on HBO and MAX.

As "Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes" (2024 releas4e; 101 min.) opens, we are told that Taylor did extensive audio interviews with a reporter starting in 1964 and that these tapes were finally unearthed. We then go to "1942" as we are reminded of Taylor's upbringing in Beverly Hills, and how she became a child star actress. At this point we are 10 minutes into the documetnary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest biopic documentary from director Nanette Burstein ("Hillary"). Here she revisits the life and times of one of Hollywood's greatest stars ever, Elizabeth Taylor, at one point the highest-paid star in Hollywood. While there are some other talking heads, it is mostly Taylor herself reflecting on her life and career, how marriages came and fell apart, and again and again ("I was infatuated with love", comments Taylor. The video footage including many of Taylor's private stash of 8mm film and polaroid photos, in particular to full color footage) reminds us that this indeed was a very different era. One thing that I kept thinking is that they don't make movie starts like that anymore. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, I will leave that in the middle.

"Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes" premiered at this year's Cannes film festival to good critical acclaim. The movie is currently rate 80% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Last weekend it started airing on HNBO and streaming on Max, where I caught it last night. Whether you are of a certain age and is reminded of Hollywood of a certain age, or you are a younger person not necessarily all that familiar with Elizabeth Taylor, I think this documentary serves young(er) and old(er) alike quite well. I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.

Those of a certain age might enjoy this trip down memory lane of perhaps the most famous woman In America especially in the 1960's, though I suppose Jackie Kennedy might rival that, but whatever, Elizabeth Taylor led one of the most spectacular lives in the 20th century. She was rarely a great actress, though talent was always there and surfaced strongly now and then particularly in A Place In the Sun, Giant and, of course, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. She states here that she never had an acting lesson and perhaps she should have. The result might have been something to witness. These tapes make her sound like a down to earth rational woman, but that's not quite how I remember her 50's/60's heydays. She talks quite kindly about all of her ex-husbands, but oddly today in the NY Times there is an article about her and how she and Richard Burton created the paparazzi that we sadly live with now. It also goes into details on how she took everyone of those ex's to the cleaners when they split, sort of a different version than the one we listen to here. It's filled with wonderful photos and candid clips of her personal life and scenes from some of her films and they are a delight to view. I was a bit surprised to also hear vocal comments from Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds and neither seem to be upset with her, though I suppose time heals a lot of things. She was also simply stunning to look at, especially in shots with no makeup, but like all of us it faded, but in her latter years after pretty much quitting films, while seemingly trying to get her hair to be big as possible, she then became a truly great humanitarian and helped so many with AIDS. She became as admirable crusader. It was a remarkable, enviable, bold life from just about the very beginning. Katharine Hepburn once called her the last movie star and that is true in the tradition of the past greats. It doesn't take much to be called a star these days. This is not a great documentary, but it's a good one and hearing her talk about herself after all these years was quite interesting. I'm not sure why, but I really did adore her especially in the 60's, both on and off the screen. I met her once briefly when she did The Little Foxes on Broadway as I worked in the theater industry at that time. She was short, vulgar, funny with immense presence.