Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes

Elizabeth Taylor brings to mind many things: her glamor, her numerous marriages, her calling attention to AIDS, and so on. But who was she as a person?

Nanette Burstein's "Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes" sets out to answer this question. Featuring a recently unearthed 1964 interview with Liz. The actress talks about her career, her personal life, and other things. Although Taylor doesn't mention it in the interview, the documentary notes her friendship with gay actors Montgomery Clift and Rock Hudson; it sounds as though she was more comfortable around gay men than straight men, and she made sure to cover for her gay friends. As to Liz's serial marriages, I guess that we could chalk this up to her fame sweeping over her at a young age, or maybe that Hollywood was trying to boost her image (not counting her marriage to Mike Todd, which ended with his death in a plane crash). The documentary doesn't mention Taylor's friendship with Michael Jackson; I guess that his reputation has suffered too much to reference.

What emerges is an actress who was more than the sum of her parts. Whatever you think of Elizabeth Taylor's movies or about her as a person, you can't deny the impact that she had on popular culture. I think it's safe to say that her legacy will live on forever.

"Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes" is without a doubt a compelling, provocative, and revealing doc that any film buff or movie history fan should see. Elizabeth from an early age shined by getting her start at age 10 in 1943's "Lassie Come Home". Soon Taylor electrified as she became the stuff of legend. On the "HBO" doc it's mostly her voice that we hear which was pulled from over 40 hours of discovered audio recordings with Richard Meryman.

Taylor admits she made mistakes and was not perfect as her love life and many marriages would prove, and like any doc we the viewers are treated to photos, film clips, footage, and headlines, always when she wed and divorced it was front page news.

Highlighted was Elizabeth growing up in front of the camera from her young teen roles to winning an Oscar for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?". She owed much of her success to her parents for helping her get involved in movies learning to act at acting and film school.

Taylor's life was a roller coaster from being swept off her feet by director Mike Todd and dealing with his tragic death in a plane crash. Then Liz romanced Eddie Fisher after he left Debbie Reynolds, only Elizabeth changed again leaving Eddie for Richard Burton whom she meet on the set of "Cleopatra".

Touching was highlighting Taylor's friendships with closeted gay actors such as Roddy McDowall and Rock Hudson, which later lead to her activism for AIDS research. Good look at a legendary actress who's work public and private will never be forgotten.

That's how she was once referred to in Hollywood and probably strived to be taken seriously for her acting skills.

The documentary mostly consists of conversations with her (with other folks like Burton thrown in the mix) with archival footage shown on screen. Sadly, it's less a reappraisal of her cinematic legacy and more of her marriage drama. There is hardly any insight into her cinematic career beyond the usual fluff (save for Cleopatra) though archival footage for her marriage isn't spared.

This documentary treats her like a spoiled mogul rather than a serious actor.

Those of a certain age might enjoy this trip down memory lane of perhaps the most famous woman In America especially in the 1960's, though I suppose Jackie Kennedy might rival that, but whatever, Elizabeth Taylor led one of the most spectacular lives in the 20th century. She was rarely a great actress, though talent was always there and surfaced strongly now and then particularly in A Place In the Sun, Giant and, of course, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. She states here that she never had an acting lesson and perhaps she should have. The result might have been something to witness. These tapes make her sound like a down to earth rational woman, but that's not quite how I remember her 50's/60's heydays. She talks quite kindly about all of her ex-husbands, but oddly today in the NY Times there is an article about her and how she and Richard Burton created the paparazzi that we sadly live with now. It also goes into details on how she took everyone of those ex's to the cleaners when they split, sort of a different version than the one we listen to here. It's filled with wonderful photos and candid clips of her personal life and scenes from some of her films and they are a delight to view. I was a bit surprised to also hear vocal comments from Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds and neither seem to be upset with her, though I suppose time heals a lot of things. She was also simply stunning to look at, especially in shots with no makeup, but like all of us it faded, but in her latter years after pretty much quitting films, while seemingly trying to get her hair to be big as possible, she then became a truly great humanitarian and helped so many with AIDS. She became as admirable crusader. It was a remarkable, enviable, bold life from just about the very beginning. Katharine Hepburn once called her the last movie star and that is true in the tradition of the past greats. It doesn't take much to be called a star these days. This is not a great documentary, but it's a good one and hearing her talk about herself after all these years was quite interesting. I'm not sure why, but I really did adore her especially in the 60's, both on and off the screen. I met her once briefly when she did The Little Foxes on Broadway as I worked in the theater industry at that time. She was short, vulgar, funny with immense presence.

As "Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes" (2024 releas4e; 101 min.) opens, we are told that Taylor did extensive audio interviews with a reporter starting in 1964 and that these tapes were finally unearthed. We then go to "1942" as we are reminded of Taylor's upbringing in Beverly Hills, and how she became a child star actress. At this point we are 10 minutes into the documetnary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest biopic documentary from director Nanette Burstein ("Hillary"). Here she revisits the life and times of one of Hollywood's greatest stars ever, Elizabeth Taylor, at one point the highest-paid star in Hollywood. While there are some other talking heads, it is mostly Taylor herself reflecting on her life and career, how marriages came and fell apart, and again and again ("I was infatuated with love", comments Taylor. The video footage including many of Taylor's private stash of 8mm film and polaroid photos, in particular to full color footage) reminds us that this indeed was a very different era. One thing that I kept thinking is that they don't make movie starts like that anymore. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, I will leave that in the middle.

"Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes" premiered at this year's Cannes film festival to good critical acclaim. The movie is currently rate 80% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Last weekend it started airing on HNBO and streaming on Max, where I caught it last night. Whether you are of a certain age and is reminded of Hollywood of a certain age, or you are a younger person not necessarily all that familiar with Elizabeth Taylor, I think this documentary serves young(er) and old(er) alike quite well. I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.