User Reviews

Certainly with a cast of this caliber, you expect much, much more. Maybe the problem is with the uninspired directing, awkward screenplay, thin story line and some very choppy editing. Maybe all the money was spent on the stars' salaries giving it a low, low production budget feel. Maybe Burton and Taylor should have quit acting together after 'Virginia Woolf.' But something sure went wrong with this project.

The cassette version I watched recently was just under 102 minutes of running time, but the cassette itself was labeled 108 minutes. Makes you wonder what was left out. I saw this film when it originally played in 1972 and could see no differences between that version and the cassette. So who knows what went on here. Maybe it was just meant to be a quickie, 'What the hell. Let's make it anyway.' turkey.

I saw the UK-EC version of this film in 1972. Very funny, well acted and directed and worthy of the awards given it by the Berlin Film Festival. HOWEVER, I took some friends to see it in the States and was shocked to see that some cretin(s) had re-cut this work of art to conform to what they perceived as the sophistication level of the USA audience. This USA release was beyond belief! "They" had changed the entire premise of the movie from a black comedy into an action/thriller cutting out the best comedic efforts of the actors. I can resonably assume that the Matlin review reflects this version. If ever the actors and director had a reason to sue for artistic perversion, this was it! My question is "Does anyone have another example of this happening?" While certainly aware of nude scenes being cut from USA films of this era I have never heard of the entire genre of a film being changed.

Reworking of the Faust legend has a slovenly, nose-picking orderly at a mental institution helping a patient to escape in exchange for a life of privilege. Taking along a roadside diner waitress on his journey, the young man eventually becomes one of the most successful men in the world--but at the expense of personal happiness. Crummy-looking satirical enterprise, scattered with absurdist humor and "Cleopatra" in-jokes, has enough interest in it for about 40 minutes of its length. The quirky match-up of material and cast (a haggard Richard Burton, an overly-tanned Elizabeth Taylor, and a pitilessly miscast Beau Bridges) can't carry the poorly-paced film beyond that. Taylor, in a variety of wigs, gives the picture a little bounce in the early stages; but when she's turned into a vindictive shrew, her role seems to evaporate--and yet she hangs around without anything to do. Bridges gives a ruinous performance; attempting to play a rough-hewn rube, the well-spoken actor cannot get a grip on his role. There's no story arc showing us the passage of time, and each new episode looks like it was cooked up on the spot. Director Peter Ustinov (who has an extraneous role as a psychiatrist with a Viennese accent) flails about behind the camera, alternating rude comedy with a messy narrative structure that simply gets worse as the film progresses. * from ****

Slow-witted nut-house orderly Beau Bridges (as William "Billy" C. Breedlove) smells his shirts to determine which to wear, cleans up with breath spray and goes out to the local diner. There, he is fully serviced by beautiful blonde-wigged waitress Elizabeth Taylor (as Jimmie Jean Jackson). The horny pair make plans to run away with criminally insane inmate Richard Burton (as Hammersmith), after Mr. Bridges helps him escape from the asylum. Bridges has made a Faustian deal with Mr. Burton, who is either the devil or a very close associate. With the Burtons on his side, Bridges becomes filthy rich, but there is a price to pay...

This was the last of the Taylor/Burton feature films, which peaked with "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966). Many of the couple's subsequent films were so startlingly bad you wonder what was behind their collective thought process. Faust was a favorite topic (especially for Richard) and having smugly humorous Peter Ustinov as director and co-star certainly helps. Today, the tame sex scenes and long segment with the trio out enjoying a topless band called "The Tits" in a topless bar aren't much, but they were not widely distributable in 1972. The film was meant as a comedy for arty urban cinema audiences, apparently...

There were some good reviews and Taylor won a "Best Actress" award at the Berlin Film Festival, but "Hammersmith" didn't exactly set the world on fire. Taylor is typically vulgar - very appealing as the hash-slinging waitress - but the character eventually becomes her standard shrew; this makes its own point, however, in the context of the film. Burton appears pickled but pleased, and Bridges has fun being grungy. Reading "Studies in Anal Retention", Mr. Ustinov keeps his tongues in cheek. Assistant orderly Anthony Holland (as Oldham) secretly enjoys his time in Beau's bed. In a sexy black bathing suit, Taylor splashes water on a perfectly fine copy of "Flash" comics (#205, April/May 1971). The door was left open for a sequel, but got shut up...

******* Hammersmith Is Out (5/12/72) Peter Ustinov ~ Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Beau Bridges, Peter Ustinov

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton made some incredible films in the 1950s and 1960s. Watching their 1970s work is not only a waste but downright painful.

It seems their sense of entitlement, egos and booze and drugs made them feel they could just dial it on. They really thought being onboxious was good acting.

Beau Bridges is adequate as the buffoon.

The film doesn't succeed as a dark comedy. Elizabeth Taylor is too old for her part and she just doesn't comprehend the concept of subtlety. Every aspect of her performance is broad and obvious. Most of the jokes devolve into nose picking. I think most viewers will be reduced to that to stay entertained.

This amazingly bizarre film directed by Peter Ustinov has been largely forgotten.At the time it was released, it made quite a sensation because it featured that 'star couple' known as 'Burtonandtaylor' in it. If Burtonandtaylor agreed to appear in something, money was no object, as they were super-bankable. My wife and I knew Peter Ustinov extremely well about this time. He was one of the wittiest and most amusing men we ever knew, and was never pompous or self-important. It was possible to sit spellbound for hours just listening to his stories and his wonderful jokes, especially in private, as we often did. But Peter had a deeply serious side, and wanted to make serious films, such as for instance BILLY BUDD (1962), from the Hermann Melville story, and this one, which is a version of the Faust theme. Peter was a successful playwright and a highly intellectual, cosmopolitan, and profound person. He did not always pull off his efforts at profundity, however. This film is chilling and fascinating, and of course has moments of exquisite humour and satire, but it does not really work somehow. Richard Burton plays a very calm and quiet madman who sits in a solitary confinement cell in a lunatic asylum wrapped in a straight-jacket. In fact, he himself affects the straight-jacket as a favourite outfit, which he can whip off anytime he pleases because it is never fastened. His steely blue eyes look straight through you as he asks you to 'let me out'. All you have to do is sell your soul to him. So Beau Bridges, who works in the asylum, does just that, because Burton, who is really a Satan figure, promises to 'make you rich and strong, strong and rich'. And he does. Bridges has taken up with a floozy waitress played by Elizabeth Taylor, who is hilarious in such roles, and throws herself about with total abandon, and to great effect. There is no questioning the fact that Burtonandtaylor are such old pros! So Bridges and Taylor get richer and richer and richer with Burton as their financial adviser, they move around the world changing identities, and taking over more and more big corporations. Bridges and Taylor both play total idiots, and Burton puts up with them because he knows he will get their souls, the silly fools. Burton is eerily, almost terrifyingly, convincing. I think perhaps the script was one of the problems. The story just does not really work, despite the hair-raising performances. The music is very bad, which is strange considering that Peter was knowledgeable about classical music and should have had better taste. Peter did have a problem concentrating and focusing, I must say, as it was always tempting for him to stop and tell another funny story. And I think perhaps he knew Burtonandtaylor at the personal level too well. The film is a little bit too much of a 'wouldn't it be fun if we did it?' type of project, and with Burtonandtaylor starring, there was just no struggle involved, and there cannot have been enough rewrites, and probably not many retakes either. Peter was a man of such immense talent and yet he did not always enter top gear, or at least he did always remain there. Too many stoplights, too many jokes. But the film is well worth seeing and is phenomenal in certain ways. Peter himself plays the doctor and is, as usual, very good indeed.

Richard Burton is a straitjacketed lunatic in an asylum run by doctor Peter Ustinov. He tells janitor Beau Bridges that if he gets Burton out, Burton will make him rich and strong. So Bridges does, and Burton does in this variation of the Faust story in which Southern trash Elizabeth Taylor plays the Helen of Troy role.

Burton is compelling at his stagiest in this role, and Miss Taylor is quite believable in hers. In fact, the entire cast, which includes Leon Ames, George Raft, and John Schuck, are all excellent. Yet there is something about this movie that doesn't mesh, something in its timing that is unconvincing.

Bridges gets Burton out, and boom! Bridges is the CEO of a pharmaceuticals company writing illiterate letters to buyers. Burton enters, tells him it's time to move on, and then we see Burton, Bridges, and Miss Taylor at the next stage of their ramblings. We know things have been going on in between, but we don't need to see them because they're irrelevant, but the abruptness, repeated again and again, is disconcerting. Yes, we'd have scene changes like that on the stage, but they would not be performed instantaneously, and we would feel that the short time was representative of the longer time; alternatively, the transformations are magical or demonic, but there is nothing to show that more than Burton's glowering.

At first the abruptness is disconcerting, then it is disturbing. Yet it is not disturbing in the manner of the Faust story. Faust is a figure of tragedy because he confuses knowledge for wisdom. Bridges is not wise. He's crude, cruel, almost actively stupid. The abruptness of the transitions is not telling because he is incapable of understanding them. There is no reason to feel sorry for him, and so the audience doesn't. So it is not a tragedy, it is simply an endless cycle of the self-destructiveness of stupidity. That's tiresome.

I must admit that I did not see this film until around 1995, when the film was already 23 years old.

I have never read Faust, or even had an understanding of his works, but that did not lessen the pure escapist joy I had watching this film. The theme music stays with me to this day, and I have only seen the film ONCE! That's right, saw the film ONCE 15 years ago, and I can still hum the theme song, even with the campy 70's chorus...

Burton is solid as always - not quite up there with "Where Eagles Dare", but certainly watchable. Ustinov and Bridges (and Taylor) do a decent enough job in keeping up.

This film is a (very) rare gem, I have only seen it on television ONCE, and I have never seen it on VHS or disc. This film has achieved cult status with myself, mainly due to the fact that I saw it once only, and watched it with my wise-cracking comedian brother. Whenever we need to make a hippie in-joke, we'll start singing the theme tune.

A film so strange (not Eraserhead strange, but odd and out-of-place) that it rightly deserves a cult-film status. I gave it a 7 rating, but this may have been as low as 4 if I had been subjected to repeated viewings... like "It's a Beautiful Life"! Enjoy it if you can ever find it...

By the time Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton made this film in 1972, they were the most famous stars in the world as well as the richest. In short, they could do anything they wanted and at this point in their career they did one odd thing after another and this film may well be the oddest. There may be a parallel for it, but I cannot think of any. As the film progressed I kept thinking how odd the story was and also how original. I cannot think of a single film before it that comes as close to how original this film is. I can certainly understand why Taylor and Burton decided to do it. It simply was unlike anything they had ever done before. Telling the story in a review is pointless because it is virtually impossible to actually tell it, there are so many twists and turns and I think this is the one thing that is compelling about the film is the fact you just do not know what happens next and when it does happen you are always surprised. And it definitely keeps you at the edge of your seat but at the same time it is also very funny so I think it can at least be called a black comedy.

Peter Ustinov's unjustly obscure Burton-Taylor vehicle. A black comedy updating of Faust to 1970s America, in which obnoxious, nose picking hick Billy Breedlove (Beau Bridges) who works at an insane asylum is taken in by the literally devilish inmate Hammersmith (Richard Burton) who promises to make Breedlove "rich and strong, strong and rich" if he releases him from his cell. Now on the run from the law, the pair are joined by a white trash waitress (Liz Taylor) for a satirical road trip across America, where Hammersmith's ability to make good on his promise sees Breedlove transported from stripclub owner, to big business tycoon to political office. As tends to be the case in Burton-Taylor vehicles though, its not long before everyone is miserable, drunk and yelling insults at each other. Being accused by Taylor's character of having a "monkey penis...peanut balls" is but one of many indignities to befall Breedlove as his pursuit of money, lust and power turns sour. Dare you turn Mr Hammersmith loose?

I saw this film years ago and it is one of the insecurities I remember best along with "The Man w/ the Balloons" and "Always Leave Em Laughing". Tho not an especially good movie (way over the top to be "good") it is memorable! Some scenes stick in my head 40 yrs after seeing it! If you get a chance to see it, take the dive. It's fun, just don't take it seriously.

This very silly movie is one of the only ones where you can catch Richard Burton playing comedy. He's more of the "straight man", leaving Elizabeth Taylor and Beau Bridges to get all the laughs, but it's still a rarity.

I absolutely love Liz in this movie. She's adorable and hilarious. Had she made more comedies in her career, she might have been one of my favorite actresses. She has a bright, shining face, a mischievous smile, and that famous cackle. In this odd flick, she's a low-class, bleach blonde diner waitress who gets seduced by cutie pie Beau Bridges, a night guard at an insane asylum. Beau gives her promises of wealth and an easy life, which are, in turn promised to him by a dangerous prisoner (Richard Burton). It's supposedly a take on Faust, but Peter Ustinov's screenplay is so loosely based, if you watch the whole movie and don't figure it out, don't feel bad.

Very few people will probably actually like this movie, but if you loved Liz in The Flintstones, you'll want to watch her in this. She's so funny! In one scene, she's in bed with an oil tycoon, hoping to get all his money, and he requests dirty talk. She thinks about it for a minute, then tentatively tries out, "Pee-pee." In another, after a raunchy quickie with Beau in the diner, he admits to her that he's had gonorrhea twice. She gives him a flat look and asks, "Well, how's it now?" Her comic timing is fantastic, and after seeing her in this silly '72 movie, I know you'll wish she used it more often.

"Hammersmith Is Out" (1972)a hilarious take on "Faust" has stayed with me all these years. I hadn't seen it in almost 50 years, but when it came out on DVD, I had to buy it!

This movie is a scream!

Why it's so rarely on TV, cable or otherwise, is beyond me. I've only seen it listed twice in 40 years. It's directed with decidedly politically incorrect tongue-in-cheek satirical panache by none other than Peter Ustinov, letting down his stiff British upper lip.

Richard Burton as Hammersmith was in full-blown "have fun living life with a nod, a wink and a fifth of Scotch" phase, this coming at the phase-out of the Swingin' Sixties and four years after the masterfully, purposefully over-the-top glory of his poet, Macphisto, in the cinematic wonder that is "Candy" (1968).

Through a manner I'll never explain (my lips are sealed), complete psycho Svengali Hammersmith is able to turn the absolute dumbest hayseed the world has ever known, Billy Breedlove (Beau Bridges, who's a riot) into the world's richest man.

Along the way, they pick up the dame, an almost equally dumb and hilarious Elizabeth Taylor, who is such a knockout that words defy description. Zonga!

One pretty good example of Ustinov's ribald, blue-collar Southern type of comedy this is, is demonstrated by the band playing onstage at a club the trio check out: it's an all-girl topless band called the Tits.

Let's hope some enterprising programmer digs this one out. The world must see "Hammersmith Is Out"!.

I just watched 8/8 episodes on YT. I can't say for sure if the latest digital release. Looks about the same -- even though I had to learn more about Faust later, I can't say for sure about what Lloyd thinks about his sons' weird choice of scripts. But he was in Airplane! I liked both films for different reasons. Burton is at his creepy best and Liz faked Texan as good as anybody. And I'm also a sucker for any Texas movie. Watch Roadie.

I Think Rex Reed wrote this review: Like biblical lepers, the people responsible for an atrocity called "Hammersmith Is Out" should be forced by law to carry a warning bell and cry, "Unclean, unclean!" I used to think Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor had no taste. Now I'm convinced they'll do anything for money. I shudder to think what they were paid for this insult to the intelligence of sane moviegoers everywhere, or that they were indeed paid at all to turn out such trash, but "Hammersmith Is Out" is one more nail in their coffin. In this feeble and demented attempt to retell the Faust legend, the devil (Burton) is locked in an insane asylum disguised as a maniac called Hammersmith. With the aid of a retarded orderly (Beau Bridge«) and an illiterate waitress (Taylor), he escapes, breeds crime and pestilence, corrupts the world, launches wars, and litters the scenery with discarded corpses along the way. It must have seemed like a fine idea in the humorous head of Peter Ustinov, who directed it, but did anybody ever bother to read the script? On film, it looks like the hysterical ravings of undisciplined, self-indulgent narcissists who babble incoherently in a d i r e c t descent toward self destruction. They should have taken one hard look at the end result and set t^e negative on "Self-Destruct." Beau Bridges rises up in bed, picks his nose and mumbles about venereal disease. Elizabeth Taylor, as a platinum blonde hash slinger called Jimmie Jean Jackson, rises up behind her greasy counter covered with ketchup (or is it real bloodstains? This is the kind of home movie where it wouldn't seem to matter since they leave all the mistakes in as "camp") and drawls "What'll ya have?" in an Ozark accent that sounds like Judy Canova on a binge. People are always rising up into the frame and leaning on things with no movie to support them. A short cut later, they are both rutting like hogs on top of a garbage sack while a Coca- Cola sign flashes on and off with mutton-headed symbolism. After selling their souls to the devil, he tells them "One of the first things I remember is a lady with a snake," as he munches a shiny apple. The jokes are about that obvious, the desperate attempts at wit are vulgar and cheap. The dialogue is downright filthy, and the performances are obnoxious. Richard Burton walks through the movie in a curious trance, as though in some advanced state of self-hypnosis. Elizabeth Taylor clumps through each scene in a screeching display of self parody, allowing everyone around her to massacre her talent and accent her numerous physical and intellectual handicaps. I didn't think she could sink any lower after X, Y and Zee, but an all- time bottom is reached (even for her) as she ; writhes on a valentine-shaped^ bed with a pig person like two hippos in heat, spouting obscene toilet talk in some kind of orgasmic stupor. Waddling her enormous derriere across the screen in a manner so offensive it would bring litigation from any dignified, self- respecting performer, and saying lines like "I'm the biggest mother of them all," she inspires pity instead of laughs.