Studio: Columbia Pictures
Running time: 92 minutes
Doctor Faustus (1967)
“Of the many films they made together, nowhere is the seductive power of Richard Burton (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) and Elizabeth Taylor (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) better showcased than in this brilliant adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s classic play, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.
“First dramatized in the 16th century, the legend of Doctor Faustus is the immortal tale of a German conjurer who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for a life of adventure and excitement. It has proved to be one of the richest legends of our time, inspiring countless plays and motion pictures (including Damn Yankees and the Dudley Moore-Peter Cook comedy Bedazzled). In fact, Burton and Taylor and Peter Ustinov filmed a modern adaptation just a few years after Doctor Faustus called Hammersmith Is Out.
“In this classic version, Burton stars as the aging scholar who makes a deal with the devil for youth, knowledge and a dazzling mistress. But when Faustus begins to regret his decision, the devil’s assistant, Mephistopheles, sends Taylor as the spellbinding seductress who seals Faustus’s fate. This lasting achievement is distinguished by its visual beauty and the great performances of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.” [From the DVD]
Cast
Doctor Faustus: Richard Burton
Helen of Troy: Elizabeth Taylor
Mephistopheles: Andreas Teuber
Empress: Elizabeth O’Donovan
Emperor: Ian Marter
Beelzebub: Jeremy Eccles
Lucifer: David McIntosh
Valdes: Ram Chopra
Cornelius: Richard Carwardine
Pope: Adrian Benjamin
First Scholar: Richard Heffer
Second Scholar: Hugh Williams
Third Scholar/Lechery: Gwydion Thomas
Cardinal/Pride: Nicholas Loukes
Evil Angel/Knight: Richard Durden-Smith
Wagner: Patrick Barwise
Attendant at Emperor’s Court: Jeremy Chandler
Rector Magnificus: Angus McIntosh
First Professor/Avarice: Ambrose Coghill
Second Professor/Envy: Anthony Kaufmann
Third Professor: Julian Wontner
Fourth Professor: Richard Harrison
Fifth Professor: Nevill Coghill
Good Angel: Michael Menaugh
Boy-Turned-into-Hind: John Sandbach
Idiot: Sebastian Walker
Wrath: R. Peverello
Sloth: Maria Aitken
Idleness: Valerie James
Gluttony: Bridget Coghill, Petronella Pulsford, and Susan Watson
Dancers: Jacqueline Harvey, Sheila Dawson, and Carolyn Bennitt
Nun/Court Lady: Jane Wilford
Crew
Directors: Richard Burton and Nevill Coghill
Producers: Richard Burton and Richard McWhorter
Screen Adaptation: Nevill Coghill
Based on the Play “The Tragicall History of Doctor Faustus” by: Christopher Marlowe
Cinematographer: Gabor Pogany
Production Designer: John De Cuir
Art Director: Boris Juraga
Set Decorator: Dario Simoni
Musical Score: Mario Nascimbene
Choreographer: Jacqueline Harvey
Editor: John Shirley
Costumes: Peter Hall
Did You Know?
Richard and Elizabeth invested £300,000 of their own money to bring Doctor Faustus to the screen, and all profits went to the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS). Elizabeth, Richard, and many of the student cast members from the Oxford University Dramatic Society production, reprised the roles they performed on stage in February 1966. The film, like the stage production, was again directed by Richard and his former professor, Nevill Coghill, the man who gave him his start in the theatre.
The Premieres
Premieres were held on both sides of the Atlantic: in Oxford in October 1967, and in New York in February of the following year. The Burtons kicked off a round of promotion ahead of the Oxford premiere with a rare joint TV interview. Richard recorded the following in his diary:
“We were nerve-racked and nightmared at the prospect of 48 hours of solid public exposure. On Saturday we televised with D. Lewin, Alexander Walker, [...] N. Coghill, Lord D. Cecil, and a Professor Rosenberg of Berkeley California. The scholars were fine but the journalists, especially D. Lewin, were quite silly and shaming – on and off TV. Cecil was a joy and both E and I quite fell in love with him. He is the best kind of well-bred eccentric, sane, compassionate but acerbic brilliant maiden aunt – though married and clearly male. Nevill said, upon being asked on TV, that E would have made a fine scholar because she was among ‘the most intelligent creatures he’d ever met’ and was paradoxically ‘an instinctive intellectual.’ So there.”
At the New York premiere party, held on February 7, 1968 at New York’s iconic Plaza Hotel, Elizabeth was resplendent in a diaphanous, embellished Christian Dior gown. Guests included Senator Robert F. Kennedy and his wife, Ethel.
