Boom! (1968)

Boom! is a ridiculous exercise in excess, the kind of misfire that destroyed the careers of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton . Taken from a Tennessee Williams play this is definitely one of the playwright's lesser efforts, Boom! is an overblown wallow from start to finish. Mind you, there's definitely some entertainment value in it; if nothing else, the bizarre spikey headpiece that adorns Taylor's cranium at one point and becomes the distracting focal point of every shot in which it appears provides some laughs and inspires a sense of wonder at what costumer Tiziani of Rome could possible have been thinking. Not all of Taylor's get-ups inspire this reaction, but the sheer number of them does give one pause -- or it would, if one were not already pausing constantly to wonder what Williams was thinking as one florid monologue or symbol-drenched passage after another cascades from the mouths of his characters. Taylor and Burton appear as caricatures of themselves, in the kind of performance that makes one rush to re-view Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf just to be reassured that, yes, these two stars do indeed have real talent. Joseph Losey's direction is inconsistent; there are a few nice touches here and there, but they are more than compensated for by some truly dreadful touches and a general air of confusion in his work. The only truly successful part of Boom! is Noel Coward's delightfully bitchy turn as the Witch of Capri. It's not enough to save Boom!, but it's a welcome oasis in a desert of a movie. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide