DOCTOR FAUSTUS (1967) **1/2 Oh the unfairness of being a raving genius. If most anyone else had made this film I would have been impressed with the radical visual approach, fine acting, keen sense of moral tension, etc. Coming from Richard Burton, I'm disappointed. The film looks cool, no matter who did it, but the main thing he adds is that he somehow, impossibly, appears to speak naturally in the phrasing of Christopher Marlowe. Wow, no small feat there, but while it would be a spectacular and unnatural feat for anyone else it's obviously child's play for Dick. And he never moves past that, never moves us past admiring him as an actor and into the character. I don't know why they insist on calling this an Elizabeth Taylor movie. Well, I do, but it's a small though not insignificant part and she really doesn't do it well. It's bizarre sitting there watching her-Elizabeth Taylor one of the very most beautiful of all God's creations-trying to be sexy. I sound like an idiot, but she doesn't do it. She does it by merely breathing and existing, yes, but when she pouts and tries to emote and get all sultry the effect really isn't. Maybe in the final scene when she gets to laugh at him. No one ever acts Burton out of a picture (well, maybe Liz on other occasions) but Andreas Teuber gets more chills as Mephistopheles. Now that I think on it, actually what Burton never gets past is appearing to be just another academic who did too much homework too well and is now wondering what happened and reaching desperate conclusions. Got 'em at every decent school, and most indecent ones.
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