Studio: 20th Century Fox
Running time: 113 minutes
The Only Game in Town (1970)
“The incomparable George Stevens’s last film, The Only Game in Town (1970), stars the dazzling pair of Elizabeth Taylor and Warren Beatty in Frank D. Gilroy’s adaptation of his own Las Vegas-set play. Taylor’s an exhausted showgirl fed up with waiting for her married lover to divorce his wife; Beatty’s a piano-playing gambling addict who keeps compulsively losing the stake he needs to high-tail it to New York. Together they parlay an instant attraction into a mutual effort to get their lives together—no strings attached. Gorgeously shot by French New Wave stalwart Henri Decaë." [From the Blu-ray]
Cast
Fran Walker: Elizabeth Taylor
Joe Grady: Warren Beatty
Thomas J. Lockwood: Charles Braswell
Tony: Hank Henry
Crew
Director: George Stevens
Producer: Fred Kohlmar
Screenwriter: Frank D. Gilroy, Based on His Broadway Play
Cinematographer: Henri Decaë
Art Directors: Herman Blumenthal and Auguste Capelier
Set Decorators: Walter M. Scott and Jerry Wunderlich
Musical Score: Maurice Jarre
Editors: John W. Holmes, William Sands, and Pat Shade
Costumes: Mia Fonssagrives and Vicky Tiel
Miss Taylor’s Hairstyles: Alexandre of Paris
Did You Know?
This was Elizabeth’s third collaboration with legendary director George Stevens, who was at the helm of two of her most iconic films, A Place in the Sun and Giant. It was his first film since the critical and commercial failure of The Greatest Story Ever Told, released five years earlier. (In 1960, Elizabeth had been announced as playing Mary Magdalene in that project, a role that eventually went to Joanna Dunham.) The Only Game in Town would be Stevens’s final film.
The role of the piano-playing gambler, which was played by Warren Beatty, was originally intended for Frank Sinatra, who was forced to withdraw after filming was delayed. Beatty was staggered by Elizabeth’s legendary beauty. “No one could be that beautiful,” he said.
The film, although set in Las Vegas, was shot in Paris so Elizabeth could be close to Richard, who was making Staircase in the French capitol with Rex Harrison. Some second unit photography was completed in the United States.