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Sunday, January 6, 2019

NIGHT WATCH (1973)

If you can be satisfied with merely a finale (clever, vicious, two scenes & out), this late Elizabeth Taylor vehicle just might pass. Only 41 at the time, but near the end of her run as a regular working actress, La Liz goes thru the (e)motions as Lady in Distress while husband Laurence Harvey & BFF Billie Whitelaw (his secret mistress) try driving her mad and into a posh sanatorium, ‘Gaslighting’ with visions of bloody murder behind the shutters of that vacant house across from her bedroom window. GASLIGHT/’44, the movie with Ingrid Bergman & Charles Boyer, set the standard on these things, and more recently, Doris Day pulled the same stunt at about the same age with Rex Harrison in MIDNIGHT LACE/’60. Based on a play by SORRY, WRONG NUMBER author Lucille Fletcher (five months on B’way with Joan Hackett & Len Cariou), it’s tiresome stuff under Brian Hutton’s dogged direction. But you can amuse yourself waiting for the big explosion/confrontation by watching Taylor’s hair & makeup change from scene to scene (even shot to shot) depending on what kind of night she’d had. The Grand Guignol, when it comes, is half-hearted, but a followup telephone routine finds Liz in excelsis, masterfully switching character between puffs on her cigarette. Barely lasting a minute, it’s the happiest piece of acting she‘d done in years.

DOUBLE-BILL: As mentioned above, the slightly ludicrous MIDNIGHT LACE (see below), creating its fantasy London nabe on the Universal backlot to risible effect.

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