Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Running time: 87 minutes
Conspirator (1949)
“Hollywood’s two most famous Taylors take center stage in this atmospheric spy thriller spawned by the early days of the Cold War and filmed on location in London and the English countryside. Making a move into more adult roles, 17-year-old Elizabeth Taylor plays the giddy young wife of a British Army officer (Robert Taylor). Their whirlwind romance and storybook marriage take a sudden, alarming turn when she discovers her handsome husband is a Communist agent under orders to perform acts of espionage. Torn between allegiance to her heart and to her country, she harbors her terrible secret, hoping her spouse will change his traitorous ways. But when her knowledge is secret no longer, she soon becomes a target.” [From the DVD]
Cast
Major Michael Curragh: Robert Taylor
Melinda Greyton: Elizabeth Taylor
Captain Hugh Ladholme: Robert Flemyng
Colonel Hammerbrook: Harold Warranger
Joyce Penistone: Honor Blackman
Aunt Jessica: Marjorie Fielding
Broaders: Thora Hird
Lord Penistone: Wilfrid Hyde-White
Lady Penistone: Marie Ney
Henry Raglan: Jack Allen
Mrs. Hammerbrook: Cicely Paget-Bowman
Mark Radek: Karel Stepanek
Alek: Nicholas Bruce
Detective Inspector Weldon: Cyril Smith
Lady Witherington: Helen Haye
Crew
Director: Victor Saville
Producer: Arthur Hornblow, Jr.
Screenwriter: Sally Benson
Based on the Novel by: Humphrey Slater
Adaptation: Sally Benson and Gerard Fairlie
Cinematographer: F. A. (“Freddie”) Young
Art Director: Alfred Junge
Photographic Effects: Tom Howard
Musical Score: John Wooldridge
Editor: Frank Clarke
Did You Know?
Conspirator marked Elizabeth’s transition to adult roles, despite the fact that she was merely sixteen-years-old and still being tutored during filming. Her leading man, Robert Taylor, was 38 when cameras rolled. “At the age of sixteen—when I looked about twenty-four—I was playing Robert Taylor’s wife in Conspirator," Elizabeth explained. “I’d finish a passionate love scene with him and then the tutor would drag me away to study mathematics. I mean it really kind of made your eyes go crossed!” Later reflecting on the absurdity and double standard of the casting, Elizabeth said: “No one ever suggested that Barbara Stanwyck, Taylor’s wife, play opposite Roddy McDowall or any of my other contemporaries.”
The film’s director, Victor Saville, was delighted with Elizabeth’s performance and told LIFE magazine that she had “acquired complete repose in her work, and she shows amazing clarity, boldness and timing.”
Elizabeth met her future husband, Michael Wilding, for the first time while making Conspirator in England. She had invited her childhood friend, Sheran Cazalet, to visit her on set, and encouraged her to let her know if there was someone special she would like to meet. Cazalet recalled that, “like everyone else, I was madly in love with Michael Wilding. So I said I would like to meet him. She didn’t know him, but she asked him to lunch.”