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IMDbPro

Hammersmith Is Out

  • 1972
  • R
  • 1h 48m
IMDb RATING
5.3/10
494
YOUR RATING
Hammersmith Is Out (1972)
Dark ComedyComedyDrama

The Faust legend retold (loosely) and applied to a mentally disturbed patient in a hospital run by a doctor (Sir Peter Ustinov) of dubious sanity. The patient (Richard Burton) offers the inn... Read allThe Faust legend retold (loosely) and applied to a mentally disturbed patient in a hospital run by a doctor (Sir Peter Ustinov) of dubious sanity. The patient (Richard Burton) offers the innocent orderly (Beau Bridges) vast riches if he'll help him escape.The Faust legend retold (loosely) and applied to a mentally disturbed patient in a hospital run by a doctor (Sir Peter Ustinov) of dubious sanity. The patient (Richard Burton) offers the innocent orderly (Beau Bridges) vast riches if he'll help him escape.

  • Director
    • Peter Ustinov
  • Writer
    • Stanford Whitmore
  • Stars
    • Elizabeth Taylor
    • Richard Burton
    • Peter Ustinov
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.3/10
    494
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Peter Ustinov
    • Writer
      • Stanford Whitmore
    • Stars
      • Elizabeth Taylor
      • Richard Burton
      • Peter Ustinov
    • 17User reviews
    • 8Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win & 2 nominations total

    Photos33

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    Top cast19

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    Elizabeth Taylor
    Elizabeth Taylor
    • Jimmie Jean Jackson
    Richard Burton
    Richard Burton
    • Hammersmith
    Peter Ustinov
    Peter Ustinov
    • Doctor
    Beau Bridges
    Beau Bridges
    • Billy Breedlove
    Leon Ames
    Leon Ames
    • General Sam Pembroke
    Leon Askin
    Leon Askin
    • Dr. Krodt
    George Raft
    George Raft
    • Guido Scartucci
    John Schuck
    John Schuck
    • Henry Joe
    Marjorie Eaton
    Marjorie Eaton
    • Princess
    Lisa Jak
    • Kiddo
    Linda Gaye Scott
    Linda Gaye Scott
    • Miss Quim
    Mel Berger
    • Fat Man
    Anthony Holland
    Anthony Holland
    • Oldham
    Brook Williams
    • Pete Rutter
    Carl Don
    • Cleopatra
    • (as Carl Donn)
    Joe Espinoza
    • Duke
    Neola Graef
    • Topless Shoeshine Girl
    Bob Harks
    Bob Harks
    • Make-Up Man
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Peter Ustinov
    • Writer
      • Stanford Whitmore
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews17

    5.3494
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    Featured reviews

    7HotToastyRag

    Liz is so funny!

    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.
    7wes-connors

    Liz, Dick & The Devil

    Slow-witted nut-house orderly Beau Bridges (as William "Billy" C. Breedlove) smells his shirts to determine which to wear, cleans up with breath spray and goes out to the local diner. There, he is fully serviced by beautiful blonde-wigged waitress Elizabeth Taylor (as Jimmie Jean Jackson). The horny pair make plans to run away with criminally insane inmate Richard Burton (as Hammersmith), after Mr. Bridges helps him escape from the asylum. Bridges has made a Faustian deal with Mr. Burton, who is either the devil or a very close associate. With the Burtons on his side, Bridges becomes filthy rich, but there is a price to pay...

    This was the last of the Taylor/Burton feature films, which peaked with "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966). Many of the couple's subsequent films were so startlingly bad you wonder what was behind their collective thought process. Faust was a favorite topic (especially for Richard) and having smugly humorous Peter Ustinov as director and co-star certainly helps. Today, the tame sex scenes and long segment with the trio out enjoying a topless band called "The Tits" in a topless bar aren't much, but they were not widely distributable in 1972. The film was meant as a comedy for arty urban cinema audiences, apparently...

    There were some good reviews and Taylor won a "Best Actress" award at the Berlin Film Festival, but "Hammersmith" didn't exactly set the world on fire. Taylor is typically vulgar - very appealing as the hash-slinging waitress - but the character eventually becomes her standard shrew; this makes its own point, however, in the context of the film. Burton appears pickled but pleased, and Bridges has fun being grungy. Reading "Studies in Anal Retention", Mr. Ustinov keeps his tongues in cheek. Assistant orderly Anthony Holland (as Oldham) secretly enjoys his time in Beau's bed. In a sexy black bathing suit, Taylor splashes water on a perfectly fine copy of "Flash" comics (#205, April/May 1971). The door was left open for a sequel, but got shut up...

    ******* Hammersmith Is Out (5/12/72) Peter Ustinov ~ Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Beau Bridges, Peter Ustinov
    jazzboj

    Review and question

    I saw the UK-EC version of this film in 1972. Very funny, well acted and directed and worthy of the awards given it by the Berlin Film Festival. HOWEVER, I took some friends to see it in the States and was shocked to see that some cretin(s) had re-cut this work of art to conform to what they perceived as the sophistication level of the USA audience. This USA release was beyond belief! "They" had changed the entire premise of the movie from a black comedy into an action/thriller cutting out the best comedic efforts of the actors. I can resonably assume that the Matlin review reflects this version. If ever the actors and director had a reason to sue for artistic perversion, this was it! My question is "Does anyone have another example of this happening?" While certainly aware of nude scenes being cut from USA films of this era I have never heard of the entire genre of a film being changed.
    6JOHNBATES-1

    Unfortunately Mr.'Hammersmith' is out to lunch

    Certainly with a cast of this caliber, you expect much, much more. Maybe the problem is with the uninspired directing, awkward screenplay, thin story line and some very choppy editing. Maybe all the money was spent on the stars' salaries giving it a low, low production budget feel. Maybe Burton and Taylor should have quit acting together after 'Virginia Woolf.' But something sure went wrong with this project.

    The cassette version I watched recently was just under 102 minutes of running time, but the cassette itself was labeled 108 minutes. Makes you wonder what was left out. I saw this film when it originally played in 1972 and could see no differences between that version and the cassette. So who knows what went on here. Maybe it was just meant to be a quickie, 'What the hell. Let's make it anyway.' turkey.
    7gavcrimson

    HammersmithisOut

    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?

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    Related interests

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    Dark Comedy
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    Comedy
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    Drama

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      There appears to be no truth in the rumor that spread in the 1980s to the effect that Richard Burton had so disliked this movie that he had bought the negative and had it destroyed so that no one would ever see it again. However, it is a very hard movie to see, despite its stars.
    • Quotes

      Doctor: [taking Hammersmith back to the asylum] It's the end of a chapter, Hammersmith; time to turn the page.

    • Connections
      Referenced in Andy Hamilton's Search for Satan (2011)
    • Soundtracks
      For Openers
      Music by Dominic Frontiere

      Lyrics by Sally Stevens

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    FAQ16

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • May 12, 1972 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Languages
      • English
      • Spanish
    • Also known as
      • Hammersmith flippt aus
    • Filming locations
      • Santa Monica, California, USA(I was there.)
    • Production company
      • J. Cornelius Crean Films Inc.
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $90,933
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 48m(108 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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