Secret Ceremony

I love Elizabeth Taylor. Young, skinny, fat, old. I like every version through the ages. But this is an unmitigated pile of pretentious garbage that eve she can't rescue. Robert Mitchum surely was doing satire of himself. And Mia Farrow, my goodness, she is terrible. She made one good movie her entire career - Rosemary's Baby - and everything else she was ever in she partly or entirely ruined. I'm going to try to forget I ever heard of this movie.

source: Secret Ceremony

This is a must see movie. Any film lover cannot miss Elizabeth Taylor's performance. Her portrayal of Leonora is the deepest soul searching look into a mother's love. The added twist of Mia Farrow, before Rosemary's Baby, as her daughter, searching for her mother's love. Each in such desperate need of what the other has, and has lost. If that doesn't wet your appetite, you have no taste buds. This story has stayed with me these many, many years. My favorite line of Ms. Taylor is when she is imitating Robert Mitchum saying, "you could have killed yourself, honey". Mitchum is the perfect male to fear and despise. The delivery is unforgettably a Taylor original! If you appreciate a movie that accentuates a couple of great actors, in an unusual, intense story, this hits it like no other film. I'm only sorry I haven't seen it on TV in I cannot remember how many years, and it is not readily available in my local video stores. If you can find it, you will treasure it as an unheralded gem.

Of all the directors who earned names for themselves in the last century, Joe Losey took disagreeable pretentiousness to levels that made root canal (no, water boarding) look preferable in comparison. Even those closest to him have confessed not to know - short of a monstrous ego - what made him tick. My take is that all the hugger-bugger and obscure pooh-faced pretentiousness was covering over a fundamentally gay outlook (but a MORBIDLY gay outlook) that he believed needed to be wrapped in layers and layers of ornate obfuscation to pass muster as meaningful art. If you think about it, a preponderance of Losey deals with characters who carry dark secrets around with them until an inevitable implosion occurs. The two best are, THE PROWLER (1951), and, surprisingly, MR.KLEIN(1976), with Alain Delon - coming near the end of Losey's run. In these two films, the secrets, the dual identities, are clear enough so that the patented menace and stealthy suggestiveness provide a tone of added interest to the melodramatic proceedings. The converse of this brooding portentousness is MODESTY BLAISE (1966), which, contrary to the world,I believe to be the TRUE Losey, the scared, pretentious man-child finally coming out of the closet - full bore - and making violent sport of secrets and double agents, using the full panoply bag of tricks to express his discontent in the form of liberating high (very high) camp. (Bogarde(as alter-ego) was the director in a refreshingly comic, self-mocking mode.) But the masterful farce atmosphere was a one-term holiday. In retrospect, his greatest critical success, THE SERVANT (1963), made him think that a load of unresolved bad conscience could lure art-house patrons to a life time of devotion to his curious, cork-screw angst. Pinter granted him this. But SECRET CEREMONY (1968) is Pinter without Pinter, closer to trash can Edward Albee, (why did Losey never direct Albee? The two seemed to be made for each other.) This Liz Taylor-Mia Farrow chamber pot play is so bad that even the most dedicated Losey adherents need be restrained from jumping the aisles. NOTE OF PERSONAL PRIVILEGE: Later on in life, I met John Farrow, Jr.. He told me that his one responsibility on the set of the film, SECRET CEREMONY, was keeping the badly bearded Robert Mitchum from disappearing off the premises into one of the thousand and two pubs existing in London at the time. One would BUY the man his own bar to hear from the horse's mouth candid commentary on the shooting of SECRET CEREMONY. Rating: Below a 6 doesn't make the cut in my books. I give it a 5 but really - rating wise - no rating for this sad sack picture is warranted: minus 5. Was this review helpful to you?

This movie was to me surprisingly good. I have read the Ralph Benner review and many other user comments, which have been very negative. Given that Maltin has given very positive reviews, I realise that this film is an acquired taste of a movie. You have to be a certain type of person to really like it. As a Liz Taylor fan I do it by default, however, I was not prepared for how good Mia Farrow was here, neither for how effective Mithcum was, and how wonderfully the all interact with other. In all its dark tragic topic, it has a certain absurd humor that completely took me. Some scenes are comically genius, Monty Python couldn't have topped the absurdity of the restaurant scene where Mia Farrow's Cenci enters in an unexpected state with Liz's Leonora swiftly adjusting to Cencis madness. The DVD-copy of the film I recently purchased, has excellent colour and image quality, which gave justice to Loseys very detailed work with the environment and sceneries. The claustrophobic but yet shielding Victorian house is a secret hideaway for the women who have been deeply hit by tragic events. In their recluse they can revive and live out the relationship they have been deprived of in reality. I don't find their relationship necessarily lesbian, although it is hinted that there are tendencies of sexual role playing of the two (escepically when the "man" arrives in the form of a poignantly seedy and sexually beastly Mitchum). Mia Farrows Cenci is a seductive tease in spite of her absurd black long hair and pale white face. Liz Taylors Leonora is a washed-up prostitute, and I agree with some reviewers that it is a shock to see Liz so plump and bloated, she is actually fatter than in Who's Afraid of Virgina Wolf. But I disagree with for instance Ralph Benner that Liz doesn't convey the role of Leonara convincingly, actually she does a good job in spite of her diffuse accents (Liz penchant for using different accents is a long story probably stemming from the fact that she's been raised in England until eight years old, and often sways from British to American accents in an unpredictable fashion). and when the interaction with Mia Farrow starts, they are both heavenly to watch. And let's not forget the two kleptomaniac sister-in-laws, vultures of the worst sort and a direct menace to the secret ceremonies of Leonara and Cenci. Pamela Brown and Peggy Ashcroft are deliver two scary old spinsters with no shame. What is the story all about then; we cope with our tragedies and losses differently, some even drown in the process, some survive but as the other mouse left in the milk bowl, standing on a pile of butter - lonely. To sum up, a true Gothic feast, mystic, beautiful photography, Hollywood legends and British professionals giving very good performances, haunting scores, and beneath the surface a dark absurd humor.

Unejoyable thriller totally devoid of any mystery with very unappealing characters through out. There is no one to care for. The ones that come off best are the two aunts because their acting is the sharpest. Mia Farrow is ok as a child, she certainly looks like one but is left stranded by the embarrasing script. Elizabeth Taylor should not have nade anymore films after "Virginia Woolf". She does not fit into the 60s and 70s, looking very bloated and dated, a leftover from old Hollywood. She and otherwise great Robert Mitchum seem to read their lines as if it were the first rehearsal, as if not believing anything of it. It IS unbelievable, and pointless. The only standout is the magnifcent house with its´ blue tiles. Otherwise the photography and lighting are incredibly dull, not adding any atmosphere to what could have been a descent nutty mystery. A really bad movie from a respected director with red hot 60s stars, especially Mia Farrow, her first role after "Rosemarys Baby".

I have liked this film since first seeing it upon its original release. It seems a little slow at times now and I'm really not sure I think very much of any of Robert Mitchum's, for me, lazy performance. In part, I feel this is not just his fault, as I understand that in the original story, some street kids (this was in Mexico) broke in and raped the Farrow character. So in the original her fear and excitement/obsession over sex is caused by this and not by any suggestion of impropriety on the part of Mitchum, playing her step-father. Seems to me this would have worked much better had the original scenario been retained. But never mind, we have what we have and we still have a most spooky and atmospheric movie, with Farrow and Taylor at their maddest, baddest and very best. Eerie location shooting in the art nouveaux decorated mansion and plenty happening to keep the hairs raised at the back of the neck. Unpredictable, worrying and well worth catching

Interesting film about two women who use each other to concoct a fantasy world of instability that ends in tragedy. Mia Farrow is an unstable young heiress whose mother has died. Elizabeth Taylor is a middle aged hooker whose daughter died in childhood. Farrow spies Taylor on a bus and is struck by her physical similarity to her mother. Farrow, in a long brown wig, resembles Taylors daughter. Taylor reluctantly allows Farrow to take her home, feed her tea and sausages, and slowly comes to fill the role of the dead mother, even dressing in the woman's clothes and confronting some thieving elderly aunts. The psychological charade is complicated when the two go on holiday as mother and daughter and happen to encounter Farrow's stepfather, played by Robert Mitchum. A fascinating psychological study of two damaged women and their own disturbed inner worlds, SECRET CEREMONY is a great movie for anyone looking for something different. Elizabeth Taylor gives a nuanced performance in this film, despite having chomped scenery unchecked in some other films from this era(BOOM, X Y AND ZEE). Highly recommended.

...this film is dirty. I would think someone would have pointed that out by now, but no. The movie goes along with its tag bearing the words "psychological thriller." I wasn't thrilled, but I was appalled at certain things. I haven't seen anything this kooky since "Psychotic," and that put me off also. I watched this film very recently, and I have yet to figure out what was happening. I think Elizabeth Taylor was crazy, and I'm sure Mia Farrow was crazy, and Robert Mitchum was just a jerk. I'm sure that there's more to it than that, but I just missed it, I guess. The gist of this movie is there are two lonely women (one is more of a child, really) that fate slams together. They're forced to endure each other, and at times they seem to care for one another, but how could they? This movie features the worst bunch of people. Mia Farrow is an incestuous lunatic who pretends to be a little girl because her stepfather likes it (apparently), Elizabeth Taylor is a lonely prostitute (a point which was never made clear) who is racked with guilt, and then Robert Mitchum comes in first in this hate-fest as a statutory rapist. Maybe this is one of those art films I've heard so much about. They can be absolute crap, but since they're art it's okay. I have yet to understand all that nonsense. Basically, to sum up, if you want to see Mia Farrow try to make love to Elizabeth Taylor, then this is your movie. If that's something you find unappealing, then skip this one.

This movie is a tad pretentious and muddled, but it'll get under your skin. All the characters are either so deluded (crazy rich girl Mia Farrow), desperate (middle-aged hooker Liz Taylor) or demonic (scummy pedophile Robert Mitchum) that watching it is like spending two hours in a psych ward with no attendants on duty. Also gripping is the atmosphere created by director Joseph Losey, who was considered as a genius in the 60s and is pretty much forgotten today. With wide-angle shots and a minimum of noise, Losey reinforces his characters' isolation and solipsism by making London, one of the most crowded cities in the Western world, seem as empty and quiet as a tomb. The plot is a psychological inversion of the classic haunted house story -- Liz and Mia take shelter from an outside world that threatens their relationship. And that relationship is, to put it mildly, weird. Mia lures Liz into her huge, empty home because she resembles her late mother. Liz indulges Mia's fantasy because as a homeless prostitute she's in need of shelter, plus, she lost a daughter who looked a lot like Mia. This arrangement could be sweet to the point of treacly if these two grown women didn't enjoy doing things like bathing together and discussing ex-lovers. And Mia has a particularly repulsive ex-lover in Mitchum, her former stepfather who started molesting the girl in her early teens. Though the experience clearly ripped Mia to shreds, the creep still has some power over her and the film becomes a battle of wills between Taylor and Mitchum. Along the way there's a fake pregnancy, a nightmarish seaside holiday and a visit to Mia's two horrid old-maid aunts. The movie isn't particularly pleasant or coherent, but it does pull off the impressive feat of telling its story the way its characters are experiencing it, and that's pretty damn disturbing when you're dealing with a bunch of warped people. See it, then watch a romantic comedy or something so you're able to sleep that night.