Ash Wednesday (1973)

Director:

Larry Peerce

Writer:

Jean-Claude Tramont (writer)

Release Date:

1 November 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Barbara Sawyer and her beauticians.

Plot:

Barbara gets secret plastic surgery in Switzerland in an attempt to save her marriage to Mark, but he doesn't seem interested in meeting her...

Plot Keywords:

Plastic Surgery | Clinic | Facelift | Surgery

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe.

Cast

Elizabeth Taylor	...	Barbara Sawyer
Henry Fonda	...	Mark Sawyer
Helmut Berger	...	Erich
Keith Baxter	...	David
Maurice Teynac	...	Doctor Lambert
Margaret Blye	...	Kate
Monique van Vooren	...	German Woman
Henning Schlüter	...	Bridge Player
Dino Mele	...	Mario
Kathy Van Lypps	...	Mandy
Dina Sassoli	...	Nurse Ilse
Carlo Puri	...	Paolo
Andrea Esterhazy	...	Comte d'Arnoud
Jill Pratt	...	Simone
Irina Wassilchikoff	...	Silvano del Campo

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Sweden:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Sagittarius Productions

Trivia:

Contains footage from actual facelift operations, which repulsed many viewers when it was originally released.

Soundtrack:

Snow Rock

No spoilers here!!!

I lost track of this film after they pulled Elizabeth Taylor's face off, so I can't possibly divulge any plot points. (Okay, so it wasn't Elizabeth getting her face torn off, but it was somebody and it was SICK.)

The whole point to this film, as I understood it, was that Elizabeth Taylor's character Barbara is a superficial women who thinks everyone else is superficial also. Her marriage is on the rocks, so she automatically assumes she's getting ugly. Appearance isn't everything, Barbara dear. She is understandably shocked when her husband lets her in on that fact. He doesn't care if she looks like a troll named Brunhilde (which is how she starts off the film)--he just doesn't love her anymore. I thought he was a real twit, as he acts as if he couldn't care less about her and never did.

I get aggravated when Elizabeth Taylor's face is the centerpiece of a movie. The woman can act, but I have yet to meet anyone who realizes that. Movies like this mirror her real life to me. She has to look beautiful, and if she doesn't, she isn't a whole person. She doesn't function properly. (Small wonder she's had so many personal problems. Being a beautiful goddess all the time has to be difficult.) To me, Barbara Sawyer is a bit like Elizabeth Taylor. Her face seems to be her fortune, and she gets quite distressed if something happens to it. It seems unfortunate that Barbara (and possibly Ms. Taylor) place so much store by looking good. "My husband's leaving me. I'm not surprised, my hair looked awful today." That sounds unreal, but that is how Barbara acts. Even more unfortunate is how my whole review here is based on how she looks. Now I'm doing it. It just makes for a very pathetic individual, and maybe Barbara is supposed to be.