Doctor Faustus Movie Review

Christopher Marlowe's 16th-century morality play, brilliantly rendered and filmed. Aged scholar Faustus bargains away his soul to the Devil for youth, adventure, and a meeting with Helen of Troy ("Was this the face that launched a thousand ships…?"). Richard Burton's stentorian tones provide oratorical fireworks, whilst among the spectacle is an enjoyable sequence of invisible Faustus tormenting the Pope and his counselors. All good things must come to an end, and Faustus is dragged off to Hell, with Helen (played by Burton's then-wife Elizabeth Taylor) revealed as an infernal demon from the nether regions, pulling him down. Archetypal fantasy-fable received a very mixed reception from late-'60s critics no doubt due to the famously wedded leads. Now divorced (no pun intended) from tabloid notoriety, it's worth rediscovering on home video.

1968 93m/C Richard Burton, Andreas Teuber, Elizabeth Taylor, Ian Marter; D: Richard Burton, Nevill Coghill. VHS, Beta COL