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.
- Awards
- 1 win & 2 nominations total
Bob Harks
- Make-Up Man
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
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Featured reviews
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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?
Did you know
- TriviaThere 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.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Andy Hamilton's Search for Satan (2011)
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Hammersmith flippt aus
- Filming locations
- Santa Monica, California, USA(I was there.)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $90,933
- Runtime
- 1h 48m(108 min)
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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