The Regulars

As far as sequels go, this one was excellent. Lacking the enthusiasm of its predecessor perhaps, but with the same stellar cast and added greats such as Joan Cusack as the evil, money-obsessed nanny. In this follow-up, audiences are graciously privileged to see the blossoming Christina Ricci take her place as one of the better American actresses of latter years playing Wednesday, the gloomy daughter of Morticia and Gomez. Anjelica Huston provides the eerie beauty and creepy allure of Morticia, wife and mother of the Addams clan. In one of his last movies before his untimely death, Raul Julia gives one of his personal best performances as the cigar-smoking patriarch of the clan. Together, Julia and Huston are magical, timeless and perfect in their portrayal of the passionate, gruesome twosome. Huston is comparably as entertaining in 'The Witches', yet in more recent films, I feel she has become slightly stereotyped in her roles. One of her better performances occurred in 'The Royal Tenenbaums' along with Gene Hackman, where she showed some of the same lustrous enthusiasm for the role, as she did in 'Addams Family Values'. Christopher Lloyd of 'Back to the Future' fame stars as Gomez's brother Fester - 'It means to rot.'! Fester is the unfortunate romantic fool and prey to the children's new nanny, due to his infamous amounts of cash. Lloyd as always is loyal to the fans and never fails to make one laugh, as the rascalish younger brother. Entreating the children to adventures with cyanide and arsenic in the first movie, he remains a loving uncle, always willing to light a light-bulb in his mouth for Pugsley's entertainment! Jimmy Workman, I have noticed is hardly ever credited for his very believable performance as the son of the Addams', Pugsley. As a young boy, constantly the play-thing in his sister's world of "Let's play 'God'", letting Wednesday electrocute him, assisting his sister in dropping their new sibling off the roof and generally carrying knives and other sorts of dangerous implements, all for the fun! 'Addams Family Values' is good, clean(ish) fun for all the family, but unlike its predecessor, it might be more enjoyable to the kids.

I always pitied Joseph L. Mankiewicz for his attempts to make this film one of the greatest ever made and never actually getting full control of the project in the first place. Twentieth Century Fox was one of the reasons for the poor quality of the film that is available now. The problematic production costs, Taylor's fragile health and the Burton scandal are also to blame for the negative light that the film has bathed in for so long.

Originally, Mankiewicz had planned to make two films - "Caesar & Cleopatra" - and - "Antony & Cleopatra" - each, three hours in duration. At the last minute Twentieth Century Fox announced that Mankiewicz had to make one complete film involving all characters. The reason for this was that audiences would not be drawn in the same numbers if "Antony & Cleopatra" was released the following year and Taylor & Burton had not still been together. As a result of this Mankiewicz had to cut out more than two hours of footage that had already been filmed, leaving the film at 4 hours and 7minutes, which is it's current duration. This again was cut back to allow the film to be screened twice a day, so the film was originally around 3 hours long. The two hours of footage have never been found and it remains a sad omen to the film that Rex Harrison, Richard Burton and Roddy Mac Dowell have all died without seeing the complete finished film.

When one casts aside all the drama that overshadows the film, it unfortunately doesn't add up to industry standards, or my own personally. There are some credible scenes, which may only be believable as they encounter Antony and Cleopatra during their romance, at the same time as Burton and Taylor were creating their own. Harrison and Burton do rise above the rest in most scenes; particularly Caesar's defeated speech to Antony and the Senate. Burton's, Marc Antony is as Mankiewicz wanted him. A weak, little boy inside who strives to do all that Caesar could not…and fails subsequently. Burton surpasses Mac Dowell in this film I always felt, especially when Antony confronts Cleopatra in her bedchamber about her constant flaunting of the memory of Caesar. In conveying the weakness and hopelessness he feels in himself at that moment, Burton is flawless.

Taylor fluctuates in her performance. At times it is believable that she is the ruler of all of Egypt. The queen who wishes to bring out the warrior in Antony. The child who needs protection and guidance from her mentor and father figure, Caesar. The mother who wants her son to be proclaimed as the true King of Egypt. The strong ruler who will defy Octavian at any cost. At other times, she appears depressed and seemingly hassled by having to play the part when there is so much going on elsewhere. In fact the true story of Cleopatra is completely overshadowed by the false 'facts', and the feeling that the film is going nowhere. Overall, Taylor does seem to be drifting in and out of a sea of consciousness and barbiturates whilst trying desperately to give a good performance. It is impossible to ignore all the drama off the set as it sears through during the film. In one of the final scenes after Antony has been taken away and Octavian demands that the queen should surrender herself to him, Taylor's state of mind is ambiguous. It could be that she is so immersed in thoughts of Antony's death, or it could be that she no longer cares about the part. Taylor has refused to discuss the film for years and probably never will, therefore leaving it in the hands of a confused audience.

As far as entertainment goes, "Cleopatra" does not rank too highly. I think that the film is a sad documentation of the sidelines to what was supposed to be one of the greatest epics ever made. In a way it is timeless because there has never been a film with so much publicised baggage attached to it. It is by no means perfect, Taylor herself threw up upon seeing the premiere in 1963, and it is widely believed to be the film that killed Joseph L. Mankiewicz. It is far better than some other films that have been made since and deserves a place in cinema history for Mankiewicz's brave attempts at filming a movie with no stable script and managing to sign some of the world's most famous stars to make it on this basis. It is quite impressive visually, and would have been even more so had the continuity not been so poor - a repercussion of cutting out the two hours of film.

Although it rarely appears in compendiums of great films, "Cleopatra" is a wonderful film. It's uniqueness and sad undertones make it interesting viewing, even if it is to get a glimpse of the Taylor-Burton affair in full swing.