Welcome to the world of Southern Gothic, a genre in its own right as director John Huston adapts Carson McCullers novel.

The breakdown of the Hays Code allowed this picture to be released in the mid 1960s with a daring depiction of sexual mores and sexuality in an army base along with some nudity and repressed emotions.

The film deals with a group of grotesques in a Southern army base after the second world war. Elizabeth Taylor plays the wife, Leonora of Major Penderton (Marlon Brando) who loves her horse, Firebird. She is having an affair with her neighbour Lt Colonel Langdon (Brian Keith.) There is a touch of the Cat on the Hot Tin Roof about Taylor's character, very much a spoilt rich girl on heat.

A more subtle but also visceral performance is given by Brando. He is left embarrassed by his wife's antics, in awe with army life and culture. Just look at the way he works out with weights, gives the lecture to a class and talks about the army at a dinner party. Yet Penderton is a repressed homosexual maybe why he is prepared to turn a blind eye to Leonora's infidelity.

Langdon's only solace is his time with Leonora, his own wife played by Julie Harris has had a traumatic breakdown resulting in self harm and he also has to deal with an effeminate Filipino houseboy who brings great comfort to his wife.

Robert Forster is the final piece in the jigsaw. His Private Williams cares for the horses in the army stables and has the habit of riding the horses naked in the fields. He becomes an object of Penderton's lust but Williams is also a creep himself. A voyeur who has a perverted desire for Leonora and sneaks into her bedroom and watches her.

Huston uses subtle use of light and visual tricks such as reflection in Private Williams golden eye to infuse the film with some artistic pretensions as well as various symbolisms.

It's a steamy, hothouse melodrama from the south, it imbues carnage and a tragic ending. Forster says few words in this film and his character has a dark edge, Brando despite a few heated argumentative scenes is more subtle here. He brings machismo and sympathy to a complicated character.

The film just feels too pretentious though, Taylor is kind of replaying A Cat in a Hot Tin Roof and would go on to play a more better known role a year later dealing with the breakdown of a twisted, bitter married couple in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

It is Brando that's makes the film watchable and he gives it a sort of quirkiness but I felt that this adaptation never gained full steam.

God knows what this picture looked like on the printed page--or, indeed, what this cast of talented actors were thinking when they first read it. Elizabeth Taylor probably thought it a hoot. I certainly did, but really...Julie Harris as a woebegone colonel's wife, living on a southern Army base in the 1950s with her sexually-estranged husband and a flamboyant houseboy, who has used pruning shears to--oh never mind. It's really about Marlon Brando as a sexually-repressed major, married to flirtatious belle Taylor but secretly lusting for stud-soldier Robert Forster (who rides his horse "barebacked and bare-assed"). Is it camp, serious, heartfelt or just terrible? Actually, it's all of the above, which is not only what kept me watching but keeps me returning. The moody film, based on Carson McCullers' Gothic novel, feels tampered with, muted in spots where it should be played to the hilt yet overdrawn when it should be subtle, yet this is part of its erratic appeal. Aldo Tonti's vivid cinematography (most especially in the full-color re-release print) is amazing, as is Toshiro Mayuzumi's hyperbolic score. John Huston directed, boldly and with flourish. It's a glorious mess. *** from ****

I saw the DVD version of this film and its print is the original golden-toned version (where the only other color that is noticeable are the reds). Apparently, audiences were NOT impressed by this weird amber look and the film was removed from circulation and released in a normal print. I would have preferred this second print, as the look of the original is hard on the eyes.

This story must have really caught folks' attention back in 1967. Not only did it star two of the hottest stars of the day (Liz Taylor and Marlon Brando),but its plot was very, very adult--with themes of adultery, sadism, homosexuality, perversions I cannot classify (what's with the horse and that naked guy?!)and voyeurism! In addition, there is some nudity (I think they used a body double for Taylor in her scenes--as you can't see her face)--something very unusual for the time. Heck, even today this would make quite a stir in the theaters! This is one you have to see for yourself to believe!

The film begins with Brando playing an officer in the Army. His wife has contempt for him, as he's impotent--and deeply closeted. So, she has an affair with their neighbor (Brian Keith)--a fellow officer. As for Keith, his wife (Julie Harris) is severely depressed following the death of their child and all her moments with their houseboy. As for this houseboy, he is a VERY effeminate homosexual who minces about the house to the wife's amusement (clearly the woman could have used a TV or some books). Clearly, this was not filmed in Mayberry! And, more importantly, is the film any good or is director John Huston just warming up for his next and even more super-offensive film, "Myra Breckenridge"? Unfortunately, once you peel away all the shock value of this film, you are simply left with nothing...no plot of any great interest and a waste of some talented actors. I have no idea WHAT this film was trying to say other than we are all hypocrites--though this is hard to generalize from the film since NO ONE in the film acts like anyone remotely normal or realistic. A weird misfire...but a misfire nevertheless.