RIP Elizabeth Taylor

Many of people from "my generation" who haven't taken the time to investigate the career of the one and only Elizabeth Taylor (she hated to be called "Liz") would probably only know her as an actress that they're meant to like, but who's more famous for marrying a lot of men, releasing perfume, being kooky with Michael Jackson, funny award show mix-ups, AIDS fundraisers and The Flintstones.

I keep meaning to watch more of Dame Elizabeth's films, but get sidetracked. I have, however, seen the performances that are routinely hailed as her best - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Giant, Suddenly Last Summer, A Place in the Sun and Little Women. She is even responsible for the one of the greatest and most poignant moments of The Simpsons' 22 years. Who can forget Elizabeth in that slinky white dress, cooing at Paul Newman as "Maggie the Cat" in Hot Tin Roof? Or, most vital of all, starring as "Martha", sparring with Richard Burton's ""George in Virginia Woolf? Anybody who thinks of her as just a celebrity with a couple of good roles needs to seriously revisit.




Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
General Hospital (bloopers) | The Simpsons
As I've already alluded to, my first on screen experience with Elizabeth Taylor was in the 1994 film adaptation of The Flintstones as "Pearl Slaghoople". A misnomer of a beginning for sure. If anybody from my age group hasn't explored Taylor's amazing filmography - and given the sort of readers that I get here, I'm sure that's the case for nobody, but you never know - then run, don't walk, to the, er, online DVD rental service you use and get to it. RIP Elizabeth Taylor.

Jane Russell Would've Enjoyed Burlesque!

In my review of Burlesque a month or so back I referenced Howard Hawks' classic 1953 musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in my defense that just because a movie is camp doesn't mean it's instantly bad. I questioned what audiences would make of that film, which starred Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, who passed away today at age 89, in 2011. I mean, there were some people who reacted so negatively to the camp nature of Burlesque that I can't even fathom how they'd react to Blondes, what with it's musical number titled "Ain't There Anyone Here For Love" wherein Russell parades herself around surrounded by near naked men performing gymnastic routines. The closest Burlesque came to anything like that is when Cam Gigandet strips down to a box of Famous Amos cookies.


I do love Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - I even feature it alongside Burlesque in the blog's banner up the top there - and, as far as pure filmmaking skill goes, I don't think anybody, not even I, could say Steve Antin, director of Glass House: The Good Mother, can come close to the masterful Howard Hawks. And yet I do find it curious how many won't bat an eye at a scene like "Ain't Anyone Here for Love", or anything else in Blondes that is excessively girly. People like to pick and choose, I suppose, with the passing of time.

It was sad to learn of Russell's passing, but hardly surprising being she was 89 years old at the time. Of course, apart from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Russell was probably best known as Howard Hughes' cause célèbre with his risque marketing of The Outlaw that placed Russell - and her cleavage - at front and centre. The story was humourously mentioned in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator if you remember that. What I didn't know, but have since discovered, is that she was a fierce advocate of adoption, having adopted three children of her own in the 1950s. That was nice to learn. RIP, Jane Russell.