I'll never forget the review of this particular movie that I read in the N.Y. Times many years ago: "Ye Gods and little fishes, break out the gin for this one!" Now that I've finally gotten a chance to see it, I know exactly what they meant.
I suppose the production of this film was intended to answer a question on the minds of many film-goers and gossip-column readers in the late 1960s; namely, what can the most famous and notorious couple in pictures possibly do to top "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". The answer: "Doctor Faustus". In this film Richard Burton barters away his immortal soul to Lucifer for a roll in the hay with Elizabeth Taylor. Top that for an ego trip!
Admittedly, this film also includes a great deal of plummy Elizabethan language, and plenty of lurid, pseudo-psychedelic special effects. However, most of the movie consists of Dick spouting reams of incomprehensible gibberish (in both Latin and English) in that incomparable voice of his, and drooling, literally, over Liz.
Liz actually had the much easier role in this movie. She wasn't required to recite a single line of dialog. All she had to do was simply stand there and BE, the effect of which was to seemingly mesmerize every male actor in sight. Come on, what actress wouldn't give anything for a role like that? And for the piece de resistance, at the end of the movie Liz, laughing maniacally, gets to drag Dick, kicking and screaming, down to Hell for his well-deserved reward. What wife wouldn't have a ball playing a scene like that with her husband? By that point in the movie, anyone who isn't rolling in the isles with laughter simply has no sense of humor!
I suppose the production of this film was intended to answer a question on the minds of many film-goers and gossip-column readers in the late 1960s; namely, what can the most famous and notorious couple in pictures possibly do to top "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". The answer: "Doctor Faustus". In this film Richard Burton barters away his immortal soul to Lucifer for a roll in the hay with Elizabeth Taylor. Top that for an ego trip!
Admittedly, this film also includes a great deal of plummy Elizabethan language, and plenty of lurid, pseudo-psychedelic special effects. However, most of the movie consists of Dick spouting reams of incomprehensible gibberish (in both Latin and English) in that incomparable voice of his, and drooling, literally, over Liz.
Liz actually had the much easier role in this movie. She wasn't required to recite a single line of dialog. All she had to do was simply stand there and BE, the effect of which was to seemingly mesmerize every male actor in sight. Come on, what actress wouldn't give anything for a role like that? And for the piece de resistance, at the end of the movie Liz, laughing maniacally, gets to drag Dick, kicking and screaming, down to Hell for his well-deserved reward. What wife wouldn't have a ball playing a scene like that with her husband? By that point in the movie, anyone who isn't rolling in the isles with laughter simply has no sense of humor!