For her best films, begin at 1966 and work backward
The best of La Liz? It depends on which Liz you’re talking about. Elizabeth Taylor had such a long career and went through so many persona mutations — child star, good girl, hussy, actress — that it’s almost more worthwhile to pick a period of her career and go spelunking from there. (Fair warning, though: Everything after 1966 is dreck.) That said, there are peaks that must be seen if you’re ever to understand what made Taylor so big for so many decades.
“National Velvet’’ (1944): The movie is about a horse, but it was a hit because of the 12-year-old Taylor, lit up with unearthly passion for the nag from nowhere that she turns into a steeplechase champion. It was in Technicolor and that mattered, not just for the child star’s lavender eyes but for the sense that both character and actress were bursting into a new world of overripe sensation.
“A Place in the Sun’’ (1951): There was a moment when Taylor was the most beautiful woman on the planet, and this film not only captures that moment but celebrates it and warns us not to burn our fingers. When she whispers “Tell mama all’’ into Monty Clift’s ear, you can almost literally feel her persona deepen from shallow studio starlet to sexualized Hollywood rebel.
“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’’ (1958): The new Liz was as brash as the old one had been demure, and she showed her ambition by jumping at the chance to star in two Tennessee Williams adaptations, this and the following year’s “Suddenly, Last Summer.’’ The latter is weirder and probably better, but “Cat’’ showcases the iconic late-’50s Taylor, hanging from a brass bed and daring all those men to do something about it.
“Cleopatra’’ (1963): Not nearly as bad as you think, but not all that great, either. Still, this infamous four-hour historical epic — the movie that launched a thousand tabloid headlines and almost bankrupted Twentieth Century Fox — deserves to be seen just once for Taylor at her most opulently regal.
“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’’ (1966): Her last good movie also features one of her best and showiest performances, as mad-as-hell Martha railing against her seemingly ineffectual professor husband (Richard Burton, who matches Taylor stride for stride). Based on the Edward Albee play, it won the star a richly deserved second Oscar (the first was for “BUtterfield 8.’’ Unlike many of her films, it’s as savagely effective as the day it was released.
