Elephant Walk
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Movie Reviews of Elephant Walk
Movie Review: Elephant Walk
Summary: 4 Stars
Hokey, early 1950's movie, but the casting was terrific, the scenery location, Ceylon/Sri Lanka, was a plus.Movie Review: Elephant Walk
Summary: 4 Stars
I enjoy this movie very much. The quality of the picture and sound was also very good.
Movie Review: Tea and Sympathy
Summary: 3 Stars
Robert Standish's novel "Elephant Walk" is about a tea plantation owner's bride doing battle with the hold his dead father has over him and her new life. It was to have been shot on location in Ceylon starring the iconic Vivien Leigh. She, Peter Finch (as her husband), and Dana Andrews (as his foreman) were dispatched to what is now Sri Lanka. Shooting had begun when the bi-polar Leigh sadly suffered another episode and what was to be a prestige production shut down. But the footage in the can was too good to waste, forget the money already spent, and Paramount resumed the film in Hollywood as an adult vehicle for the lovely young Elizabeth Taylor.
The result, regrettably, is what you'll see on this new DVD.
Leigh can be seen in many long and medium shots. She, Finch and Andrews appear in actual exotic locations, and some of those scenes are intact, such as the tea harvesting, a show of costumed dancers, and masses of elephants stampeding about. These sun-lit locations are in stark contrast to the studio-lit settings into which they have been edited. We see Leigh arriving at a jungle mansion, strolling onto a veranda and sitting down to tea, a mountain landscape behind her, only to cut to Taylor on a set with that landscape seen on a screen. It is tantalizing to wonder what kind of classy melodrama this might have been had Leigh not suffered a breakdown.
It's also very easy to mourn that non-movie while watching this one. Taylor is beautiful in Edith Head gowns and lavish interiors, but she is not yet the actress of "A Place in the Sun" or "Virginia Woolf" (one scene, in which men ignore her after dinner, is repeated later in "Giant.") Taylor is only as responsive as her director, and she's had some fine ones. Finch (Leigh's lover then) and Andrews (too old opposite Taylor) try hard, but the script and leading lady were not in their league. "Elephant Walk," patched together as it is, is still an interesting curio, pretty to behold, and perhaps that's how it should be remembered. It certainly won't be otherwise.
Movie Review: Ahhh! The elephants are coming!
Summary: 3 Stars
A long, drawn out melodrama used as a vehicle to showcase Elizabeth Taylor in various, ravishing costumes of dress, each more extravagant than the next is the main ingredient of "Elephant Walk". Oh that, and thousands of natives thrown in doing exotic dances for good measure. Thus, you get an incredibly over the top, but still fairly watchable movie that hasn't stood the test of time well. It's in Technicolor (what else is new?) and follows the story of a young bride taken to her husband's tea plantation in India, where she discovers a different side of her husband than she expected. What is most intriguing (although at times rather humorous) is the idol worship of the husband's deceased father, founder of the plantation. At one point, the natives all bring presents and place them at the grave of the father. And then there's Appuhamy, the creepy little Indian servant, who prays to the grave as if it were a temple. Creepy. Of course, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying "Elephant Walk" is a complete farce. It's interesting, and the viewer is left wanting to know if Ruth will hook up with Carver or stay trapped on Elephant Walk forever. What really killed it for me though, was the incredibly over the top ending. The elephants are made to look like a bunch of violent beasts which is so far from the truth, it's ridiculous. Ruth's husband John comes to save her in the end, and in an overly symbolic scene that slaps its viewer on the head, turns his back on the burning portrait of his father. Thus, the viewer is left to believe that John will suddenly change his selfish ways and love Ruth after all. So watch this movie with your own disbelief suspended. Oh yeah, and beware of those violent elephants.Movie Review: Liz is an exquisite creature with an unquestioned beauty and talent...
Summary: 3 Stars
Robert Standish's novel is about a triangular romantic situation on a Ceylonese tea plantation... So the events of the Ceylon backgrounds and pictorial beauty are rewarding points to William Dieterle's film...
The story is about a rich powerful planter (Peter Finch), who brings a charming and tender beauty (Elizabeth Taylor), into the jungle as his bride... The plantation, of course, is endangered by some kind of wild life... For this reason Taylor -- elegant as never in dazzling costumes -- finds herself in a strange atmosphere... The echo determination of a ghost, the bad temper of a husband obsessed by the memory of his autocratic father, a highly dangerous disease, and the fury of wild animals...
In her confusion, boredom and annoyance Elizabeth Taylor looks to a friendly face, a pretentious foreman (Dana Andrews), who admires her beauty but tries to conquer her love...
With echoes of "Jane Eyre," the mysterious Yorkshire mansion with a brooding master, and "Rebecca," the innocent young second wife hunted by the image of the glamorous first wife, "Elephant Walk" is a menace melodrama with a wide view of a huge tropical bungalow, exotic dances with rage excessively colorful, stampeding big bull elephants, amazing mansion set on fire, all in the company of an exquisite creature with an unquestioned beauty and talent...
The movie gave Liz a change of scenery, and allowed her more creative energy and self-respect than most of her other willful debutante-rebels... The wife here has a sharp tongue and a strong will, and so Taylor plays her movie star heroine with more spirit than she was given credit for...