Elizabeth Taylor in London
Elizabeth Taylor in London is a
Format and setting
The 58 minute film featured
Recitations
The recitations included:
- Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 by William Wordsworth
- How Do I Love Thee? from Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham's 18 November 1777 speech on the American Revolution (" You cannot conquer America... If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms — never — never — never!").
- Queen Elizabeth I's Speech to the Troops at Tilbury
- An excerpt from Prince Albert
- The "London can take anything" speech of Winston Churchill
Music
The music was composed by
Purpose and reception
In addition to showcasing Taylor at the height of her popularity, the show informed Americans of English history and London locations. Her lover Richard Burton (who would soon become her fifth husband) coached Taylor on her delivery of the speeches.
Taylor was paid US$250,000 [2] (equivalent to approximately $2,488,043 in today's funds[3]) - at the time the highest price ever paid for a person to be on television. The BBC paid US$28,000 for broadcast rights[4] and it was shown on Christmas Eve that year.[5] Reviewing the programme in The Listener, however, Anthony Burgess was scathing about Taylor in general and Barry's score in particular:
... a waste of public money, an impertinence and an insult, an invitation to a feast of nothing... The score was Hollywood-inspirational, overblown variations on Greensleeves, a brassy sepulchre.
Yves St Laurent icing, delectability of fairy gold, the poor little box of tricks of Zuleika Dobson. The pretence of being interested in London’s poets was disgusting (‘I am an actress and my medium is words’), the mockery of patrician English positively dirty. Miss Taylor’s own idiolect belongs nowhere. Her general quality of rootlessness would be pathetic did she not claim roots in Hampstead... and somehow imply that she had soared above her place of origin. ‘Elizabeth Taylor in London’: she does us too much honour, she does really. The year is over. I can, with confidence, vote this the most deplorable programme of the year.[6]
Nonetheless, the success of the show led to a follow-up, Sophia Loren in Rome, from the same production team the following year.
References
- ^ Elizabeth Taylor in London soundtrack – John Barry
- ^ 16 October 1963 Time
- ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved 29 February 2024.
- ^ p.161 Dizard, Wilson P. Television: A World View 1966 Syracuse University Press
- ^ "Broadcast - BBC Programme Index".
- ^ "NL1 - Anthony Burgess as Television Critic - Page II".