Elizabeth Taylor in "Elephant Walk" (1954)

Elizabeth Taylor in "Elephant Walk" (image from JSR Pages)

REVIEW:
With a husband without work (M.G.M. could not find any role that Michael Wilding would accept) and with a newborn child (Michael Wilding Jr.), Elizabeth Taylor is forced to act in four movies within one year. M.G.M. was ruthless with the actors who refused to act or were unavailable (as Taylor during pregnancy), so that both Taylor and Wilding were "suspended", put out of salary for almost a year. Thus "the girl who had everything" was more than eager to get back to work. On the production for "Elephant Walk", Paramount Pictures had almost faced a nightmare: the leading actress, famous Vivien Leigh, had a nervous breakdown on set and was hospitalized in psychiatric facilities. She could only be replaced by Elizabeth Taylor due to the striking similarity between the two English stars. At the same time, only Liz Taylor could ensure the commercial success of the film. Paramount turned to M.G.M. to "borrow" Elizabeth Taylor. M.G.M. asked no more and no less than $150,000 (an astronomical sum at the time). "Elephant Walk" would be the most expensive film ever produced by Paramount Pictures until then. The paradox is that Paramount wanted Elizabeth Taylor in the first place, but she had to refuse the role because of her pregnancy...

FILM TITLE
"ELEPHANT WALK" (U.S.A/Paramount/1954)

PROMO
"One man claims the plantation, two men claim the woman who lives on the plantation" (Paramount).

OVERVIEW
Elizabeth Taylor (Ruth), Peter Finch (John Wiley) and Dana Andrews (Dick Carver) star in this action-packed drama that takes place in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Taylor, more beautiful than ever, plays a newly-married, who accompanies Finch to his tea plantation, called "Elephant Walk". Here she will fall in love with Andrews, the supervisor. But this love triangle is overshadowed by other events: a cholera epidemic breaks out, the drought burns the soil and the elephants, crazy with thirst, devastate the plantation. This famous scene is a triumph of the cinema art and industry: the huge bungalow is converted into ruins by the running elephants, crossing the polished floors, destroying the walls and the kerosene lamps, causing a terrible nightmare.

CAST
Elizabeth Taylor (Ruth Wiley), Dana Andrews (Dick Carver), Peter Finch (John Wiley), Abraham Sofaer (Appuhamy), Abner Biberman (Dr. Pereira), Noel Drayton (Atkinson).
DIRECTED BY
William Dieterle.
SCREENPLAY
John Lee Mahin, from the novel by Robert Standish.
PRODUCED BY
Irving Asher.
PRODUCTION DATES
between February to May 1953.
RELEASED
April 1954.
COLOR
Technicolor.
DURATION103 minutes.
GENRE
adventure, drama, romance.

TRIVIA
- during filming, Taylor was hurt by a piece of metal that has reached an eye because of a wind made machine;
- the scenes that had Vivien Leigh in the remote plans remained in the released film;
- Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor had about the same height;
- possessed by anxiety and bouts of depersonalization, Vivien Leigh was fired. The actor who played her husband in the film, Peter Finch, was in fact her lover (at that time she was married to Laurence Olivier).
- there is a great similarity between this film and "Rebecca" by Alfred Hitchcock;
- Katharine Hepburn, Olivia de Havilland, Claire Bloom and Jean Simmons were considered for the role.

Watch TRAILER here.