A wealthy eccentric lady lives as a hermit on a protected island, anticipating her imminent demise. All attempts of the outside world and people from the nearby island to see the bitch person fail, one of these troublemakers heroine ordered even execution. But once on the island gets a vagrant, who still falls into the mercy of the lady, only a stranger has the reputation of an “angel of death” – in his track record, more than one visit to rich lonely and dying people, mostly women.
The two main trump cards of the film are that it is actually a solo performance featuring the star couple Elizabeth Taylor – Richard Burton, and the second is that it is a film adaptation of the play by Tennessee Williams, who has established himself as a brilliant singer of the illusion and fragility of human happiness, doomed to inevitable collapse. At one time, the film did not find popularity and there are obvious reasons for this - complex dramaturgical material is possible and good on the stage, but within the framework of the movie screen to watch the monotonous escapades of the heroine, even performed by the magnificent Taylor, a lot of strength is not enough. The blurred ending and the silenced theme of the bisexuality of the “angel of death” are also not good – the viewer will not learn what makes Burton’s hero walk from one dying rich woman to another, but while remaining literally barefoot, the second aspect is generally served as a metaphor that is difficult to catch (here the emphasis should not be made, since for the plot of the film this detail does not play a role at all). But still Elizabeth Taylor is an actress of the same star level that every appearance is fascinating and the film, despite its sluggishness, looks extremely hypnotic, which is further facilitated by the noise of constant waves and sounding musical compositions, which together creates the effect of film meditation.
6 out of 10