Episode 61 – Elizabeth Taylor’s THE FLINTSTONES w/guest Sara Century
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I’ve been looking forward to this episode & am probably one of your few listeners who saw The Flintstones & its sequel Viva Rock Vegas in the theater.
I’m about to begin listening to the episode, but have 1 quick initial point of interest regarding Cat on a Hit Tin Roof. Taylor is great as Maggie, but ultimately miscast.
Barbara Bel Geddes originated the role on Broadway & she had a much different persona than Taylor. In a rare interview she said:
“ Everyone saw Maggie as beautiful and slinky and seductive, and I’m a bit of dumpling, well-meaning, the girl you marry but begrudgingly fuck. I get it. That’s me. I can live with that–and have. Kazan, however, told me I was attractive, maternal, and he could see why Brick, a homosexual who marries only to quiet the family, would find me amenable. Kazan also knew that I had been a very fat child and fought my weight at all times. Kazan told me that he had known many former fat girls who had grown into beauties, and no matter how they looked in photographs and no matter how many beaux they gained, they still thought of themselves as fat and ungainly and unloved. ‘Use that,’ he told me, and again, I was a mess, because not only was I the fat girl, but I was the woman who was married to a gay man who hated her; who was fighting an avaricious and brilliantly manipulative family; who was determined never to be poor again; who was really fighting for her life. Kazan made me really live inside this woman’s pathological fear, and it drove me crazy, but it also drove me to a good performance.”
Taylor’s Maggie doesn’t have that same vulnerability to me, but it’s a great performance in its own way.
Eva Marie Saint once told me she liked Elizabeth. They had to film the California set “The Sandpiper” in Europe due to the Burtons’ complicated tax issues.
I totally forgot to mention in my previous post about one of my favorite movie moments that involved Elizabeth Taylor:
Several years ago I attended a screening of the restored GIANT at the TCM film festival. It was wonderful to see this classic on the big screen but the highlight of the evening was the conversation prior to the movie beginning.
George Stevens Jr was there with Steven Spielberg to discuss the relevance & legacy of Giant. I was sitting in practically the front row. What a thrill! The next morning, Stevens was autographing copies of his memoir & I had the opportunity to speak with him for a few minutes. He had known Lillian Gish & her connection to BGSU so we talked about that.
but But if you know the episodes with Wilma’s mother LIZ tayor’s perfect casting
Originally Audrey Meadows & Elizabeth Montgomery were considered for the role of Wilma’s mother.
The only other film star I could think of who did a similarly mad string of uncommercial films around that time was Peter Sellers, although he wasn’t in the same category of stardom I know.
Fascinating discussion. Honestly, I know Liz more from her fame than her actual work, so most of this minus the obvious ones were new to me. I defintely need to check out the horror/slasher.
O.k., up top I have to correct a most glaring error on both your parts: the B-52s did indeed change the band name for the Flintstones movie – to the BC-52s! Geez people, do your research… 😛
As for the Flintstones, I too first saw it in the theater in its first run, here in Zagreb. And since there was no internet back then and I really didn’t follow entertainment news anyway, I only knew that it starred John Goodman as Fred and Rick Moranis as Barney. So when Liz Taylor appeared as Wilma’s mom, I recall being genuinely shocked. Also, my partner, who’s really never really been into global pop culture, whispered to me: “Who’s that actress, she looks really familiar?” When I told her, her response was, “Wow, really?!”
That movie as a whole, though, is more impressive to me for the effort made to create a real life Bedrock – it’s mildly entertaining, and I would agree that it’s kind of a weird endpoint for Taylor’s career, but knowing that she saw that her proceeds went to fund AIDS charities, etc. really makes me appreciate it in a different light.
In fact, your whole discussion gives me a new appreciation for Taylor. Like Chis above, I mainly know her as being famous for being famous. I’d only seen a few of her movies – actually, just National Velvet on TV when I was a little kid, and then Taming of the Shrew in high school for an English class when we were covering Shakespeare (I’d also seen parts of Cleopatra and, I think, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, again on TV). Now I’m really interested in seeing a lot of these more obscure and/or unusual films she did from the latter half of the ’60s and into the ’70s. Great show, Sarah and Rob!