Hammersmith Is Out

By the time Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton made this film in 1972, they were the most famous stars in the world as well as the richest. In short, they could do anything they wanted and at this point in their career they did one odd thing after another and this film may well be the oddest. There may be a parallel for it, but I cannot think of any. As the film progressed I kept thinking how odd the story was and also how original. I cannot think of a single film before it that comes as close to how original this film is. I can certainly understand why Taylor and Burton decided to do it. It simply was unlike anything they had ever done before. Telling the story in a review is pointless because it is virtually impossible to actually tell it, there are so many twists and turns and I think this is the one thing that is compelling about the film is the fact you just do not know what happens next and when it does happen you are always surprised. And it definitely keeps you at the edge of your seat but at the same time it is also very funny so I think it can at least be called a black comedy.

This very silly movie is one of the only ones where you can catch Richard Burton playing comedy. He's more of the "straight man", leaving Elizabeth Taylor and Beau Bridges to get all the laughs, but it's still a rarity.

I absolutely love Liz in this movie. She's adorable and hilarious. Had she made more comedies in her career, she might have been one of my favorite actresses. She has a bright, shining face, a mischievous smile, and that famous cackle. In this odd flick, she's a low-class, bleach blonde diner waitress who gets seduced by cutie pie Beau Bridges, a night guard at an insane asylum. Beau gives her promises of wealth and an easy life, which are, in turn promised to him by a dangerous prisoner (Richard Burton). It's supposedly a take on Faust, but Peter Ustinov's screenplay is so loosely based, if you watch the whole movie and don't figure it out, don't feel bad.

Very few people will probably actually like this movie, but if you loved Liz in The Flintstones, you'll want to watch her in this. She's so funny! In one scene, she's in bed with an oil tycoon, hoping to get all his money, and he requests dirty talk. She thinks about it for a minute, then tentatively tries out, "Pee-pee." In another, after a raunchy quickie with Beau in the diner, he admits to her that he's had gonorrhea twice. She gives him a flat look and asks, "Well, how's it now?" Her comic timing is fantastic, and after seeing her in this silly '72 movie, I know you'll wish she used it more often.

Peter Ustinov's unjustly obscure Burton-Taylor vehicle. A black comedy updating of Faust to 1970s America, in which obnoxious, nose picking hick Billy Breedlove (Beau Bridges) who works at an insane asylum is taken in by the literally devilish inmate Hammersmith (Richard Burton) who promises to make Breedlove "rich and strong, strong and rich" if he releases him from his cell. Now on the run from the law, the pair are joined by a white trash waitress (Liz Taylor) for a satirical road trip across America, where Hammersmith's ability to make good on his promise sees Breedlove transported from stripclub owner, to big business tycoon to political office. As tends to be the case in Burton-Taylor vehicles though, its not long before everyone is miserable, drunk and yelling insults at each other. Being accused by Taylor's character of having a "monkey penis...peanut balls" is but one of many indignities to befall Breedlove as his pursuit of money, lust and power turns sour. Dare you turn Mr Hammersmith loose?

This amazingly bizarre film directed by Peter Ustinov has been largely forgotten.At the time it was released, it made quite a sensation because it featured that 'star couple' known as 'Burtonandtaylor' in it. If Burtonandtaylor agreed to appear in something, money was no object, as they were super-bankable. My wife and I knew Peter Ustinov extremely well about this time. He was one of the wittiest and most amusing men we ever knew, and was never pompous or self-important. It was possible to sit spellbound for hours just listening to his stories and his wonderful jokes, especially in private, as we often did. But Peter had a deeply serious side, and wanted to make serious films, such as for instance BILLY BUDD (1962), from the Hermann Melville story, and this one, which is a version of the Faust theme. Peter was a successful playwright and a highly intellectual, cosmopolitan, and profound person. He did not always pull off his efforts at profundity, however. This film is chilling and fascinating, and of course has moments of exquisite humour and satire, but it does not really work somehow. Richard Burton plays a very calm and quiet madman who sits in a solitary confinement cell in a lunatic asylum wrapped in a straight-jacket. In fact, he himself affects the straight-jacket as a favourite outfit, which he can whip off anytime he pleases because it is never fastened. His steely blue eyes look straight through you as he asks you to 'let me out'. All you have to do is sell your soul to him. So Beau Bridges, who works in the asylum, does just that, because Burton, who is really a Satan figure, promises to 'make you rich and strong, strong and rich'. And he does. Bridges has taken up with a floozy waitress played by Elizabeth Taylor, who is hilarious in such roles, and throws herself about with total abandon, and to great effect. There is no questioning the fact that Burtonandtaylor are such old pros! So Bridges and Taylor get richer and richer and richer with Burton as their financial adviser, they move around the world changing identities, and taking over more and more big corporations. Bridges and Taylor both play total idiots, and Burton puts up with them because he knows he will get their souls, the silly fools. Burton is eerily, almost terrifyingly, convincing. I think perhaps the script was one of the problems. The story just does not really work, despite the hair-raising performances. The music is very bad, which is strange considering that Peter was knowledgeable about classical music and should have had better taste. Peter did have a problem concentrating and focusing, I must say, as it was always tempting for him to stop and tell another funny story. And I think perhaps he knew Burtonandtaylor at the personal level too well. The film is a little bit too much of a 'wouldn't it be fun if we did it?' type of project, and with Burtonandtaylor starring, there was just no struggle involved, and there cannot have been enough rewrites, and probably not many retakes either. Peter was a man of such immense talent and yet he did not always enter top gear, or at least he did always remain there. Too many stoplights, too many jokes. But the film is well worth seeing and is phenomenal in certain ways. Peter himself plays the doctor and is, as usual, very good indeed.

"Hammersmith Is Out" (1972)a hilarious take on "Faust" has stayed with me all these years. I hadn't seen it in almost 50 years, but when it came out on DVD, I had to buy it!

This movie is a scream!

Why it's so rarely on TV, cable or otherwise, is beyond me. I've only seen it listed twice in 40 years. It's directed with decidedly politically incorrect tongue-in-cheek satirical panache by none other than Peter Ustinov, letting down his stiff British upper lip.

Richard Burton as Hammersmith was in full-blown "have fun living life with a nod, a wink and a fifth of Scotch" phase, this coming at the phase-out of the Swingin' Sixties and four years after the masterfully, purposefully over-the-top glory of his poet, Macphisto, in the cinematic wonder that is "Candy" (1968).

Through a manner I'll never explain (my lips are sealed), complete psycho Svengali Hammersmith is able to turn the absolute dumbest hayseed the world has ever known, Billy Breedlove (Beau Bridges, who's a riot) into the world's richest man.

Along the way, they pick up the dame, an almost equally dumb and hilarious Elizabeth Taylor, who is such a knockout that words defy description. Zonga!

One pretty good example of Ustinov's ribald, blue-collar Southern type of comedy this is, is demonstrated by the band playing onstage at a club the trio check out: it's an all-girl topless band called the Tits.

Let's hope some enterprising programmer digs this one out. The world must see "Hammersmith Is Out"!.