Castelli di sabbia

It's fun to compare this to the other film where Richard burton plays a minister.... night of the iguana. Here, he is very much the old fashioned establishment, trying to defend his religion.and trying like crazy to stay dedicated to it. In iguana, he leaves (or gets kicked out of) his church right from the beginning, and has his own demons to fight for the next ninety minutes. In this one, Burton was actually married to his antagonist (Liz Taylor), who plays a single mom raising her son as an athiest. It starts out very adversarial, but they come to an understanding, for the sake of her son. They both make compromises that will affect their lives. Co-stars eva saint and charles bronson. The little boy is played by james mason's son, morgan. It's pretty good. Directed by Vincent Minelli; he won the oscar for Gigi.

Taylor's physical allure is best captured by the wooden sculpture done by Kara for the film. Burton reprises a similar role to his magnificent one of a defrocked priest in "Night of Iguana"--only here he is not eventually defrocked. Burton is superb at showing internal turmoil and it is a shame that so many good performances, many of which were nominated for an Oscar (7 in all), were all bypassed by the Academy.

Minnelli must have cast Burton for the role after Huston's success with Burton in "Iguana". Taylor's agnostic rebellious life and Burton's religious moral life explode on contact and tower over all the other actors in this movie. Though Minnelli is respected for his direction, this effort of his will not be considered a major work.

Eva Marie Saint's role is elegant but not developed beyond the obvious--where are her sons mentioned in the dialogues? What's her relationship with them? Minnelli obviously took interest in the main plot, not the subplots--which is strange for an accomplished director.

The screenplay at times is very strong, e.g., with Burton's clever intonations of his repartees quoting the "Book of Proverbs" and the young child innocently reciting Chaucer in "Olde English". In retrospect the film had good tools: a good script and a good cast. But the tools in the hands of Minnelli did not sculpt a great Kara statue.

This film was designed to take advantage of public curiosity about the recent marriage of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, who were kind of the Bragelina of the 1960's. Their star power were enough to make this picture a hit at the box office. Here, Taylor plays a free-spirited beatnik artist and single mother. She lives on the beach in a glamorous "shack" and makes a living as an artist while raising her son. Very touching. Her son, played by Morgan Mason, gets into trouble and winds up being sent to a religious boarding school. The school is run by the Reverend Richard Burton, along with his pretty and supportive but staid wife, Eva Marie Saint. Well, Burton is going through a mid-life crisis and it comes to fruition when he first meets Taylor and is taken by her heavy make-up and "look at my breasts" wardrobes. So he visits her home to help her keep tabs on her son's progress at school and meets some of her beatnik friends, including Charles Bronson, absurdly cast as a hippie sculptor. What happens then? Well, after taking forever to set up the story, Taylor and Burton fall in love and have an affair, to the surprise of no one. In the process, we are treated to the majestic Big Sur beaches and beautiful music, including the Oscar-winning theme song "The Shadow of Your Smile." In fact, the music and seascapes are more interesting than the story and characters, who just talk everything to death while the story drags on in predictable fashion. This would have been a better coffee table book than motion picture. My recommendation? Watch the opening credits and closing credits, which are by far the best parts of the movie.

The story may be banal, and the dialogue may often seem too studied and affected. But this glossy MGM production still offers some of the pleasures of the "old-fashioned", straightforward moviemaking: first-rate performances by the three leads, good narration, gorgeous cinematography and a refreshingly unhurried pacing. (**1/2)

Free-spirit Laura Reynolds (Elizabeth Taylor) lives in a beach house with her home-schooled son Danny. After some incidents, a judge orders Danny to attend a religious school run by Dr. Rev. Edward Hewitt (Richard Burton) and his wife teacher Claire (Eva Marie Saint). The Hewitts' stale marriage and professional lives give rise to Edward's affair with Laura.

This is definitely more compelling due to Taylor and Burton's real-life love affair. It's a quiet melodrama. There are some intensity usually between the couple. Otherwise, it's a low simmering romance that could push some buttons due to Hewitt as a religious figure.