[7]

Director John Huston unites Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor for their only screen pairing in this adaptation of the perverse Carson McCullers novel. Brando plays a sexually repressed Army major who turns a blind eye to his wife's (Taylor) extramarital affair while simultaneously finding himself drawn to a mysterious young cadet who spends his days running naked through the woods and his nights as a peeping tom. The provocative subject matter is well handled by Huston, whose only missteps are bathing the entire film in a piss-yellow hue and whiplash-inducing camera movement in the film's final, climactic shot. Good performances from Brando, Taylor, and supporting stars Julie Harris and Robert Forster.

The best scene is one after Taylor learns Brando has brutally beaten her favorite horse. She marches home to him and, surrounded by party goers, lashes him repeatedly across the face with a jockey whip. Brando takes it like a man in a moment so protracted that Huston is able to slow-dissolve to the next scene.