Dalbert Pringle The up-side to 1967's Doctor Faustus was that throughout the entire course of the film Elizabeth Taylor didn't utter one, single word. Whew! What a relief that was! In Doctor Faustus, Elizabeth Taylor was strictly there as eye-candy, just an over made-up piece of very pretty decoration. That's all.But, then, on the down-side of Doctor Faustus, actor Richard Burton, that loud, bellowing alcoholic, never shuts his trap for even 5 seconds. Sheesh! You can bet that Burton's incessant yattering all but made up for Taylor's ludicrous silence.I won't tell you why Taylor never talked throughout the entire course of the film. All I'll say is that she played the character of "Helen of Troy" and that apparently had something to do with it. (You go figure)In some ways Doctor Faustus was an interesting enough production. There were certainly plenty of fascinating and bizarre set designs. And the make-up effects were quite impressive. But, all in all, Doctor Faustus was a film that completely lacked any soul, which, is sort of ironic when you consider that its story was all about a man who actually sold his soul to the devil.Set in 16th Century Germany, Doctor Faustus, a brilliant scholar at Wittenberg University, employs the magic of necromancy to conjure up the evil Mephistopheles from the absolute depths of Hell. Through the assistance of this wicked spirit, Faustus bargains away his soul to Lucifer in exchange for 24 years of youth, invincibility, and unlimited power at his complete disposal.Faustus willingly signs this pact (with its exclusive "no-escape" clause) using his own blood and, soon enough, Mephistopheles reveals to him the works of the Devil, otherwise known as "The 7 Deadly Sins".I think that you really need to be a completely devoted, die-hard "Taylor & Burton" fan to actually appreciate Doctor Faustus any more than I did.

moonspinner55 Richard Burton co-produced, co-directed, and stars in this adaptation of Christopher Marlowe's play "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus", concerning an aged 16th century German scholar who conjures up Mephistopheles, servant to Lucifer. Despite a warring of conscience in which saints and demons both attempt to sway Faustus to their side, the conflicted doctor signs his soul over to the Devil in exchange for lust and power, quickly discovering the black magic not living up to its promise. Marlowe's poetry, like subterranean Shakespeare, seems to flow naturally from Burton, and the combination of soliloquy and performance is a lively one. The art direction, production design, and cinematography are all first-rate, with pop-art colors insanely, imaginatively blended together like bewitched Jell-O powder. Elizabeth Taylor's intermittent (and mostly silent) entrances and exits as Helen of Troy probably do the picture more harm than good, but Burton is in fine form (after an unsure start) and Andreas Teuber cuts a striking figure as the Devil's Aid. The film has the same late-'60s, hallucinogenic quality of the other-worldly "Barbarella" (and no wonder: both pictures were made in Rome under the auspices of movie mogul Dino de Laurentiis). You can't take your eyes off "Doctor Faustus"--and, for fear of missing anything, you wouldn't want to. **1/2 from ****

MARIO GAUCI Cerebral and altogether too-literal transcript of Christopher Marlowe’s venerable play – the end result is opulent yet claustrophobic, not to mention dull.Burton the producer/director certainly made inspired choices for his collaborators – production designer John De Cuir, cinematographer Gabor Pogany, composer Mario Nascimbene. Burton the actor, then, is riveting as always (particularly the monologue towards the end) – but real-life spouse Elizabeth Taylor is simply ludicrous as Faustus’ object of desire (in various disguises including Helen of Troy)! The remaining cast is largely made up of Oxford University drama students (the University itself, of which Burton was a former graduate, partly financed the film!): of these, only Andreas Teuber’s bald-headed, monk-clad Mephistopheles manages a striking performance.The “Mondo Digital” review had likened this to the cult horror films made by Hammer, Roger Corman and Mario Bava: judging by the campy Papal sequence (with a host of fey clergymen on whom Faustus plays childish pranks) and an equally tacky conjuring act before a medieval court, I’d say that Burton and Coghill probably drew more on the decadent work of Federico Fellini or Pier Paolo Pasolini than anything else! Anyway, the experimental nature of the film extends to the baffling over-use of a pointless ‘foggy’ effect; its depiction of lust, however, emerges as traditionally naïve – with frolicking satyrs in a garden setting and decorous female nudity (including Taylor herself for one very brief moment).Ulimately, DOCTOR FAUSTUS is to be considered an interesting failure – a personal tour-de-force for Burton but which, perhaps, needed a steadier hand…say, Joseph Losey (with whom the two stars would soon work on BOOM! [1968], curiously enough, a similar and equally maligned blend of fantasy and theatricality).

lil_princess_08 The movie was one I watched because I was doing some project on it and found the movie at the library. So when I checked it out, I hoped to find a stunning movie about a man and his immortal love. Instead, I was distracted by wild images and scene changes. The plot line was choppy, and was not easy to follow. The end was disappointing. Overall, I rate this movie a three out of ten. It's just not worth it. The actors were good, but even the famous actors and actresses did not make this move a success. Although, I must admit, some of the most famous quotes did come from this movie--"Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss!" I overestimated how much I would like this film. A nice history lesson but no movie in my opinion.