Studio: Paramount
Running time: 99 minutes
Ash Wednesday (1973)
“Elizabeth Taylor plays Barbara Sawyer, whose beauty has faded during her 30-year marriage to a powerful attorney (Henry Fonda). Hoping to restore romance to her life, Barbara travels to Italy for extensive plastic surgery (shown in graphic detail that was highly controversial in its day). She emerges with dazzling new looks and a restored, radiant confidence—but will she find love?
“With stunning Edith Head fashions, the gorgeous scenery of a posh Italian ski resort and Elizabeth Taylor’s astonishing ‘ugly ducking to elegant swan’ transformation, Ash Wednesday is romance at its most glamorous.” [From the VHS]
Cast
Barbara Sawyer: Elizabeth Taylor
Mark Sawyer: Henry Fonda
Erich: Helmut Berger
David Carrington: Keith Baxter
Doctor Lambert: Maurice Teynac
Kate: Margaret Blye
German Woman: Monique Van Voreen
Bridge Player: Henning Schlüter
Mario: Dino Mele
Mandy: Kathy Van Lypps
Nurse Ilse: Dina Sassoli
Paolo: Carlo Puri
Comte D’Arnoud: Andrea Esterhazy
Simone: Jill Pratt
Silvana del Campo: Irina Wassilchikoff
Viet Hartung: Muki Windisch-Graetz
Helga: Nadia Stancioff
Prince von Essen: Rodolfo Lodi
Gregory de Rive: Raymond Vignale
Tony Gutierrez: Jose de Vega
Samantha: Samantha Starr
Crew
Director: Larry Peerce
Producer: Dominick Dunne
Screenwriter: Jean-Claude Tramont
Cinematographer: Ennio Guarnieri
Art Director: Philip Abramson
Musical Score: Maurice Jarre
Editor: Marion Rothman
Miss Taylor’s Costumes: Edith Head
Miss Taylor’s Mardi Gras Costume: Valentino
Miss Taylor’s Make-up: Alberto De Rossi
Hairstylists: Giancarlo Novelli and Mirella De Rossi
Technical Advisor on Plastic Surgery: Dr. Rodolphe Troques
Did You Know?
Elizabeth’s Ash Wednesday co-star, Keith Baxter, who played the cosmopolitan photographer David Carrington in the film, was due to appear in Cleopatra (1963) as Octavian, but the role went to Roddy McDowall when the production moved from England to Rome.
It took Elizabeth’s makeup artist, Alberto De Rossi, two hours to transform her into the pre-plastic surgery Barbara Sawyer. “Playing an old bag doesn’t bother me in the least,” she said. “But that damn latex makeup drove me crazy. I thought I was out of the woods when those scenes were over, but then I had to have postsurgical makeup . . . scars, stitches, and black and blue marks.”
Ash Wednesday features footage of actual surgeries performed by French plastic surgeon Dr. Rodolphe Troques, who was also the film’s technical advisor. He later commented on the authenticity of Elizabeth’s performance: “She never had to be coached and yet, in the picture, she behaved exactly like the average patient I operate on.”