Susannah York is Stella, a prominent London fashion designer who gets the wrath of she-devil Elizabeth Taylor when she begins an affair with her architect husband, Michael Caine. Liz, even more of a harpy than her Oscar Winning role of Martha in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", runs around London in colorfully made clothes that look like "Laugh-In" backdrops. Liz is not content enough to stalk her prey-she reveals vital information of her marriage's intimacy to York, harasses her on the phone, stalks her with a gay confidante, and ultimately uses a suicide attempt to extract info about York's past from the unsuspecting woman. The revelation is a doozy, and what Liz does with it has to be seen to be believed!
Liz's Zee is a dangerous woman who would rather see herself and Caine endure a miserable marriage than to let York's good girl have him. Poor Liz screeches her way through another performance, sometimes seeming older than her 40 years, all the while acting like a grown-up Rhoda from "The Bad Seed". "I don't bray!", Liz cried in "Virginia Woolf", but here she does. It's such a shame that Liz and Michael Caine's only film together was this delightfully awful movie, because they truly compliment each other. If you want to see how real bitchery can be art, however, watch Michael Caine exchange barbs with Maggie Smith in "California Suite". Fortunately, this was the end of Liz's cycle of screeching is acting films, and she took time off for another Richard Burton marriage, her fling as a politician's wife, and thankfully, her magnificently brief career on stage. When she came back to films (on television), she had a somewhat softer image, but in "The Flinstones" and "These Old Broads", this brassy side was out again.
York is lovely and manages to come off a bit more dignified than Taylor, while Michael Caine is a true pro. Margaret Courtney in a cameo looks like Vincent Price getting ready to fry Coral Browne in "Theatre of Blood".
Liz's Zee is a dangerous woman who would rather see herself and Caine endure a miserable marriage than to let York's good girl have him. Poor Liz screeches her way through another performance, sometimes seeming older than her 40 years, all the while acting like a grown-up Rhoda from "The Bad Seed". "I don't bray!", Liz cried in "Virginia Woolf", but here she does. It's such a shame that Liz and Michael Caine's only film together was this delightfully awful movie, because they truly compliment each other. If you want to see how real bitchery can be art, however, watch Michael Caine exchange barbs with Maggie Smith in "California Suite". Fortunately, this was the end of Liz's cycle of screeching is acting films, and she took time off for another Richard Burton marriage, her fling as a politician's wife, and thankfully, her magnificently brief career on stage. When she came back to films (on television), she had a somewhat softer image, but in "The Flinstones" and "These Old Broads", this brassy side was out again.
York is lovely and manages to come off a bit more dignified than Taylor, while Michael Caine is a true pro. Margaret Courtney in a cameo looks like Vincent Price getting ready to fry Coral Browne in "Theatre of Blood".