The Blue Bird

(US - USSR)

20th Century-Fox. Director George Cukor; Producer Paul Maslansky, Lee Savin, Paul Radnia; Screenplay Hugh Whitemore, Alfred Hayes, Alexei Kapler; Camera Freddie Young, Ionas Gritzus; Editor Ernest Walter, Tatyana Shaprio, Stanford C. Allen; Music Irwin Kostal; Art Director Brian Wildsmith

Elizabeth Taylor
Jane Fonda
Ava Gardner
Cicely Tyson
Robert Morley
Harry Andrews

Third film version of the Maurice Maeterlinck novel (after 1918 and 1939) takes spoiled peasant children Todd Lookinland (excellent, by the way) and Patsy Kensit on a dream trip from their humble abode through a fantasy world in search of the bluebird of happiness.

Elizabeth Taylor's four roles include the dominant (and dazzling) one as (a) Light; as mother (b) she's uncomfortable; as witch (c) she's fun to guess at; as maternal love (d) she's elegantly simple and believable.

Jane Fonda does Night, the princess of darkness, with a flair, while Ava Gardner is extremely effective as Luxury.

Nobody's going to laugh in ridicule at any of it (it's that good) but nobody's going to be strongly moved (it's that bad).

(Color) Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1976. Running time: 100 MIN.

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