Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Mike Nichols

Writers:

Edward Albee (play)
Ernest Lehman (screenplay)

Release Date:

22 June 1966 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

You are cordially invited to George and Martha's for an evening of fun and games.

Plot:

A bitter aging couple with the help of alcohol, use a young couple to fuel anguish and emotional pain towards each other.

Plot Keywords:

Couple | Professor | Marriage | New England | Aging

Awards:

Won 5 Oscars. Another 13 wins & 18 nominations

Cast

Elizabeth Taylor	...	Martha
Richard Burton	...	George
George Segal	...	Nick
Sandy Dennis	...	Honey
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Agnes Flanagan	...	Roadhouse waitress (uncredited)
Frank Flanagan	...	Roadhouse manager (uncredited)

Directed by
Mike Nichols

Writing credits
Edward Albee		(play)
Ernest Lehman		(screenplay)

Produced by
Ernest Lehman	....	producer

Original Music by
Alex North

Cinematography by
Haskell Wexler

Film Editing by
Sam O'Steen

Production Design by
Richard Sylbert

Set Decoration by
George James Hopkins

Costume Design by
Irene Sharaff

Makeup Department
Gordon Bau	....	makeup artist: Miss Taylor
Ron Berkeley	....	makeup artist: Mr. Burton (as Ronnie Berkeley)
Sydney Guilaroff	....	hair stylist: Miss Taylor
Jean Burt Reilly	....	supervising hair stylist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Bud Grace	....	assistant director

Art Department
Craig Binkley	....	set dresser (uncredited)
Harold Michelson	....	storyboard artist (uncredited)
Joseph Musso	....	production illustrator (uncredited)

Sound Department
M.A. Merrick	....	sound
George Groves	....	sound recordist (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Frank Flanagan	....	gaffer (uncredited)
Ralph Gerling	....	camera operator (uncredited)
Michael A. Jones	....	rigging gaffer (uncredited)
Robert Willoughby	....	special still photographer (uncredited)

Music Department
Alex North	....	conductor
Bob Bain	....	musician: guitar (uncredited)
Henry Brant	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
Richard Barr	....	stage producer
Doane Harrison	....	production advisor
Hal W. Polaire	....	assistant to producer (as Hal Polaire)
Meta Rebner	....	script supervisor
Clinton Wilder	....	stage producer
Wayne Fitzgerald	....	title designer (uncredited)
T.J. Healy II	....	production assistant (uncredited)
Herbert Ross	....	choreographer (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Warner Bros. Pictures
• Chenault Productions

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (1966) (USA) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. Finland (1966) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (2004) (Czech Republic) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (1966) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Warner-Tonefilm (1966) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1973) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Mainostelevisio (MTV3) (1976) (Finland) (TV)
• Warner Home Video (19??) (West Germany) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2007) (Finland) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2007) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (1966) (Sweden) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (1992) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Warner Home Video (1994) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (1997) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2000) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD) (two-disc special edition)

Also Known As:

Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

131 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Latin

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:R (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Portugal:17 (original rating) | Singapore:PG | West Germany:16 (f) (re-rated) | West Germany:18 (f) (original rating) | USA:Approved (certificate #21074) | South Korea:12 | Netherlands:12 (2007) | UK:12 (re-rating) (2009) | Australia:M | Czech Republic:12 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:X (original rating) | UK:15 (video rating)

Filming Locations:

Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

When Martha opens the door to find George with the snapdragons, he says "Flores... Flores para los muertos." This is a direct quote from "A Streetcar Named Desire", when a peddlar woman comes to the door and offers these "flowers for the dead" to Blanche.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: As George and Nick are coming back into the house from their scene in the garden, Nick's shadow on the porch is seen to suddenly disappear just before George enters the shot.

Quotes:

Nick: [to Honey] We'll go in a little while.
George: Oh no. No, you mustn't. Martha is changing, and Martha is not changing for me, Martha hasn't changed for me in years. If Martha is changing, that means we're going to be here for days. You're being accorded an honor, and you mustn't forget that Martha is the daughter of our beloved boss. She is his right... arm. I was going to use another word, but we'll leave that sort of talk to Martha.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Sex Movie (2006)

That's what comes from too much alcohol and too few mutual respect

'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf' tells the story of two couples that are quite different at first sight - one used to each other for years, the other one rather freshly wed in comparison. Actually it doesn't tell their story, but it displays their relationships.

The film begins on a Sunday morning at 2 o'clock, right after a party, and ends just after the sun rises. In these few hours we get to know these four people better then we might possibly want.

George and Martha are the older couple. He is a history professor, she is the daughter of the head of the university. Their relationship seems to be from hell, full of mutual disgust and humiliation. Their guests are Nick and Honey. He is the new, ambitious biology professor, she is his naive young wive. As all these four characters are more or less drunk throughout the entire film, alcohol works as a catalyst, and we quickly see the different kind of character traits they have: George is a cynic, Martha loves to torment her husband, Nick is an opportunist and Honey is very much a stupid blonde.

The two relationships deserve closer examination: We wonder why Martha and George married in the first place. They keep swearing at each other. Martha can't stop humiliating George, when they are alone as well as when Nick and Honey are there. Maybe there is still a rest of love in them, but there mutual respect has vanished completely. And then there is the strange story of their son, who is supposed to visit on his birthday. They way George and Martha talk about him make us feel that there is something peculiar about him. At the end we get to know more about him, and we can only guess how important the son is for their relationship.

Nick and Honey, on the other hand, seem to be quite the opposite. But, being used as weapons by the older couple, we see that their relationship isn't as perfect as it seems to be, either. Nick didn't marry Honey because he loved her, but because he thought she was pregnant and because of her money. And when Martha tries to seduce him to tease George, he plays the game with her, always in mind that this woman's father is the head of the university. Honey, on the other hand, is much more emotional than her husband, but she also is the most passive character, and the one most affected by the alcohol.

Mike Nichols assembled an outstanding cast for his film. Casting Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton as Martha and George is a stroke of genius - not only are they terrific actors, but it also heats the imagination of the viewer how much their real-life-marriage resembled the relationship they had in this film. Elizabeth Taylor outshines her co-stars a little. Never was she any better than in this one; although her character is the meanest in the film, she manages that we still feel compassion for her at the end. But Richard Burton, George Segal and especially Sandy Dennis deliver memorable performances, too.

'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf' succeeds at something rather difficult: It makes us care for characters we wouldn't want to have anything to do with in real life. And although it actually consist of nothing but four people talking for two hours, it never bored us for a second.