Absolutely Fantastic

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Very good stampedes. Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Finch have built a mansion, ignoring the fact that they are right on the road elephants like to take. Had there been squirrels or raccoons, it wouldn't have been so bad. Elephants don't really care what's in front of them, especially if they are in a herd. Somehow, the people who built this mansion have decided that these elephants will simply find a way around. Sorry. The problem with this movie is it has no direction. The native citizens want nothing to do with these white guys and so they just stay away. Liz looks nice as things come tumbling down. Peter Finch is so full of himself that he doesn't see the jungle for the trees. Just kind of a silly movie.

This tepid melodrama concerns John Wiley, a rich tea planter (Peter Finch) who brings his new wife Ruth (Elizabeth Taylor) home to "Elephant Walk," his plantation in Ceylon. The palatial home was built (purposely) to block the wild elephants' path to water, and they have never forgiven the owners. Ruth finds the adjustment difficult as her loving, debonair groom turns into a drunken, boorish lout who cares more about entertaining his fellow planters than being with her. Enter the sensitive overseer (Dana Andrews) who takes a liking to Ruth and there's trouble in paradise.This 1954 movie has exactly the same plot as "The Naked Jungle" which was also released that year, only with elephants instead of army ants. It was only partially filmed on location and those scenes are easy to spot as the colors are intensely bright and vivid with natural light. It's too bad they cut corners and filmed half of the movie indoors in front of stock footage. Going back and forth between real outdoors and fake outdoors is distracting, to say the least. Taylor is lovely to look at, but she and her co-stars overact to the point of being silly; she's too loud, dressing in ridiculous gowns for the jungle, and generally acts like a one-dimensional shrew. There is no romantic chemistry at all between her and Finch or Andrews; both men are wooden caricatures and unconvincing ones at that.The best part of the movie is the finale which has hundreds of elephants storming the mansion, taking back their "walk." Mercifully, this signals the end of a long and overwrought movie which gives the viewer more opportunities to laugh than swoon.

I was prepared for a turgid talky soap opera cum travelogue, but was pleased to find a fast-paced script, an underlying moral, excellent portrayals from all the actors, especially Peter Finch, amazing special effects, suspense, and beautiful cinematography--there's even a shot of the majestic stone Buddhas recently destroyed by the Taliban. Not to mention Elizabeth Taylor at her most gloriously beautiful and sympathetic, before she gave in to the gaspy hysterics that marred her later work. All the supporting players round it out, and I do wonder who trained all those elephants.Speaking of the stone-Buddha sequence, you really can discern that it's Vivien Leigh in the long shots. Her shape and the way she moves is distinct from Taylor's. The only thing marring that sequence are the poorly done process shots, where the background moves by much too fast for horses at a walk.If you want a thought-provoking film that is beautiful to watch and never boring, spend a few hours with Elephant Walk.

I guess the moral of this tale is "be careful where you build your house". Certainly not on the side of a cliff or--better still--not where the elephants like to roam, especially when they're thirsty.ELIZABETH TAYLOR, in all her youthful splendor, was a last minute replacement for VIVIEN LEIGH, who bowed out due to severe mental illness that overtook her shortly after she read the script. In fact, there are a few glimpses of Miss Leigh remaining in certain long shots if you care to look.But Elizabeth settles down in a role that does nothing for her acting career but does allow her to be drop dead gorgeous throughout. She has to feign impatience with a husband (PETER FINCH, who was, by the way, having an affair with Leigh), who ignores her and the uneasiness that any young bride would have if she finds herself in a strangely situated house--a huge tea plantation in Ceylon, India.She copes bravely with her worries and falls in love with a neighbor (DANA ANDREWS, in one of his less impressive performances). Andrews seems to be sleep-walking through his role.Finally, after a lot of dull talk, a cholera epidemic breaks out and nobody is minding the elephants. This is where they take their famous "walk" and practically destroy everything in their path.Of course, even before their rampage, the script is a mess and the audience must have been stifling a few yawns while the melodrama builds to a ferocious climax.It's all highly improbable with a sort of "Jane Eyre in India" feeling that pervades the eerie plot. But if you want to see Taylor in her prime, this is for you. Vivien probably never regretted being unable to finish the film.