For today’s post I would like to do a countdown of my favorite Elizabeth Taylor films! Now this is going to be a difficult one, because I have been a huge Elizabeth Taylor fan my whole life, and I love basically all of her films. None the less, this will be a fun countdown! Without further ado, here is the list.
Number 5: National Velvet (1944)
~This is one movie that I was obsessed with as a little girl! Although, it is not surprising for a girl who loves animals to be obsessed with a film about a girl and her horse. National Velvet is the film that skyrocketed a young Elizabeth Taylor to stardom, making it a film that had to be on this list!
Number 4: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
~Based on the Tennessee Williams play of the same title, this 1958 drama is one of the great films of Elizabeth’s career! On a side note one must commend Elizabeth for being able to complete this film, given that during its filming her then husband Mike Todd died in a plane crash!
Number 3: BUtterfield 8 (1960)
~This film happened to be one of Elizabeth Taylor’s least favorites that she ever was forced to participate in. However, I really love this film about the man-eating protagonist Gloria, and her trials when she falls in love with the wrong man! This film was also the first one Elizabeth Taylor won an Oscar for, although she famously quipped that it was her tracheotomy that actually won it, not her performance!
Number 2: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
~Virginia Woolf is one of the most iconic films of the late 1960s, and it starred Elizabeth Taylor and her then husband Richard Burton as bickering spouses. The verbal repartee was so incredible, and Elizabeth Taylor was unafraid to act in a cringeworthy way. In real life she was known to have a self deprecating sense of humor, and I think her role in this drama shows that. She won her second Oscar for this film, but unfortunately Richard Burton was nominated but lost (which is a travesty)!
Number 1: Cleopatra (1963)
~My absolute favorite Elizabeth Taylor film (at least at the moment, because again, I truly adore all her films) is Cleopatra! This 1963 epic is made more delectable by the fact that the audience literally gets to watch Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton fall in lust, and then in love as the film progresses. I personally would love to see Joseph Mankiewicz’s original vision of two three hour films realized (with all the deleted footage put back into the four hour film)! Elizabeth Taylor herself was initially unhappy with the film, as much of Burton’s important character development scenes were cut.
~I hope you have enjoyed my countdown of favorite Elizabeth Taylor films! She is one of the great legends of Hollywood, and her films were some of the great cinematic joys of my childhood. I continue to adore watching her films as an adult! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra. I found the image on vogue.fr.
White Rose of Avalon 