MIke Nichols
1966
Mike Nichols brings Edward Albee's original Lockhorns from stage to screen expertly in this Hollywood classic. Boozy beefy Elizabeth Taylor and elegantly wasted Richard Burton bring a green young couple into the perpetual bad-trip of their marriage during a hooch-fueled nocturnal crawl towards day. George Segal and Sandy Dennis play the entrapped couple with cocksure blonde swagger, and awkwardly accented naivety (respectively). Haskell Wexler's lighting and photography is a masterpiece in black and white. The DVD I viewed was stunningly beautiful and I can only imagine how this would look on Blu-Ray. On the surface it appears to be an actor's film as the principals chew up the screen with their dizzy dialogue and breathless tension, but the camera moves frequently and with balletic panache to keep up with the grand gestures and proclamations. There's definitely a somewhat shocking quality in the intensity of cruelty employed by all the characters save passively bovine Honey, and a surprisingly risque quality in the flaccidly aborted adultery perpetrated by Taylor and Segal. Nichols picture is quite the accomplishment and transcends the "filmed play" quality suffered by many theater to cinema adaptations.
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