Review by thomandybish

Interesting film about two women who use each other to concoct a fantasy world of instability that ends in tragedy. Mia Farrow is an unstable young heiress whose mother has died. Elizabeth Taylor is a middle aged hooker whose daughter died in childhood. Farrow spies Taylor on a bus and is struck by her physical similarity to her mother. Farrow, in a long brown wig, resembles Taylors daughter. Taylor reluctantly allows Farrow to take her home, feed her tea and sausages, and slowly comes to fill the role of the dead mother, even dressing in the woman's clothes and confronting some thieving elderly aunts. The psychological charade is complicated when the two go on holiday as mother and daughter and happen to encounter Farrow's stepfather, played by Robert Mitchum.

A fascinating psychological study of two damaged women and their own disturbed inner worlds, SECRET CEREMONY is a great movie for anyone looking for something different. Elizabeth Taylor gives a nuanced performance in this film, despite having chomped scenery unchecked in some other films from this era(BOOM, X Y AND ZEE). Highly recommended.