I've seen "Behind the Candelabra" from 2013 and "Behind the Music" from 1988. Behind the Candelabra was an expensive HBO production starring Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Rob Lowe, Debbie Reynolds, and Scott Bakula.
"Behind the Music" was done much more cheaply and starred stage and screen actor Victor Garber. Unfortunately he didn't have the rich material Michael Douglas had to work with. It's a shame because he was truly excellent.
"Behind the Music" seems to cover more of Liberace as an entertainer and a little less on his private life. With both films, we are shown the efforts he went through to hide his homosexuality. It seems incredible now, given that he was such a flamboyant showman. Interestingly, this flamboyance can be a trait of the "twinless twin" where a twin dies at birth.
Elvis Presley and Diego Rivera are two other twinless twins, as were Thorton Wilder and science fiction writer Philip Dick. Each of these artists and also many twinless twins have demonstrated an unusual ability and drive - the twinning motif.
Their careers are dominated by a compulsion to bring together different strands of creativity, and render something completely new. By doing this, they are attempting - for a lifetime to seek a more fuller understanding of why they lived while their twin died.
In a way, this is Liberace-lite. It doesn't go into a tremendous amount of detail about his relationship with Scott Thorsen, for instance. Nothing like "Behind the Candelabra." We don't see as much of Liberace's personality in this film. He comes off as a rather sad man. I believe he was, but I also believe that there was a lot more to him than just sadness. He loved his work, he loved his audiences, and he loved the lifestyle he had. Still, there was something about affecting about Garber's performance.
One thing this film went into a little more was Liberace's relationship with Joanne Rio, a showgirl. I'm not sure what the real story was - in this version, she sells her story to the press, and apparently in real life, he told newspapers that they were engaged.
The HBO cast had a lot more big names, but Maureen Stapleton as Mrs. Liberace was no slouch! Saul Rubinek turned in a nice performance.
Marni Nixon, the great singer who dubbed Deborah Kerr, Natalie Wood, and Audrey Hepburn in films, worked with Liberace and toured with him. She obviously loved him. He comes across as warm and generous, and someone who enjoyed spending lots of money, calling his gifts "happy happys."
Internally, however, he lived in the wrong time and was obsessive with hiding his identity as a gay man. It's a shame. He had a wonderful talent to entertain, and a vivid imagination he was able to share with his audience with his over-the-top clothing, shows, and his personality.
A final note: I visited the Liberace Museum in Los Angeles. Liberace had a set of china made in the mold of the royal family's - and after Liberace's, the mold was broken. That was true of him too. When they made him, they broke the mold.
