Boom (1968)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Joseph Losey

Writers:

Tennessee Williams (play)
Tennessee Williams (screenplay)

Release Date:

26 May 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

She outlived six rich men!

Plot:

Explores the confrontation between the woman who has everything, including emptiness, and a penniless poet who has nothing but the ability to fill a wealthy woman's needs.

Plot Keywords:

Death | Sickness | Satire | Millionaire | Decadence

Cast

Elizabeth Taylor	...	Flora 'Sissy' Goforth
Richard Burton	...	Chris Flanders
Noel Coward	...	The Witch of Capri
Joanna Shimkus	...	Miss Black
Michael Dunn	...	Rudi
Romolo Valli	...	Doctor Luilo
Fernando Piazza	...	Etti
Veronica Wells	...	Simonetta
Howard Taylor	...	Journalist

Also Known As:

Boom! (USA)
Goforth (USA) (working title)
Sunburst (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

113 min | USA:110 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG | USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Capo Caccia, Sardinia, Italy

Company:

John Heyman Productions

Trivia:

The eighth of eleven films that Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton starred in together.

Quotes:

Flora 'Sissy' Goforth: Did somebody tell you I was dying this summer? Did somebody tip you off that Sissy Goforth was about to go forth this summer?
Chris Flanders: Yes. That's why I came.
Flora 'Sissy' Goforth: Well, well. I've escorted six husbands to the eternal threshold and come back alone without them. Now it's my turn. I've no choice but to do it, but I want to do it alone. I don't want to be escorted. I want to go forth alone. And you... you counted on touching my heart because you knew I was dying. Well, you miscalculated with this one. The milk train doesn't stop here anymore.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Pink Flamingos (1972)

Soundtrack:

Hideaway

Divinely bonkers (and cries out to be on video)

Where to begin in discussing the rococo lunacy of this ill-fated project? Would it be Tennessee Williams' overripe script ("My heart beats blood that is not my blood, but the blood of anonymous donors")? Elizabeth Taylor's screeching performance ("S*** on your mother!", she yells at a clumsy servant)? Richard Burton's near-catatonic recitation of the title, or his reading of Coleridge's "Xanadu" (which Taylor interrupts with a "HUH?")?

Director John Waters' favorite movie (he calls it "failed art" and, thus, "perfect") is a non-stop laugh riot, and since "Boom!" is not available on video, you owe it to yourself to catch it on screen on those rare opportunities when it is presented. (The LA County Museum of Art recently screened it as part of its celebration of the Noel Coward centenary -- despite the fact that Mr. Coward appears in it for about 10 minutes -- and it drew hearty laughs throughout its seemingly interminable running time.)

So loony, so overdone, so 1968, this one's a camp classic.