An original screenplay from Edna O'Brien about a married British architect whose extramarital affair with a pretty, placid boutique owner plays havoc in his relationship with his catty, cunning spouse--a woman with a wild-party lifestyle who spends her spare time plotting to arouse her husband in various ways. As the jabbing, biting Zee Blakeley, Elizabeth Taylor channels both her Leonora from "Reflections in a Golden Eye" and, most especially, Martha from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"; although this is really just a gaudy soap opera, the actress seems to relish her blowzy role, giving it some thought and also some pathos when she's not hooping and hollering, drunk or sober. Michael Caine is a formidable match for Taylor, though in an entirely different key; he adjusts his performance to underscore her rhythm and gives us the sense of a marriage that has seen many dark days. As the widowed mother of two who comes between them, Susannah York is rather an enigma, and O'Brien's turning the character into a woman with secrets in her closet doesn't quite come off (it plays like a stunt, and carries over to the finale). The piece is erratic and exhausting, but certainly not without interest, and Taylor is an entertainment all by herself. She holds the screen in a tight grasp, with no intention of letting go, and this is enough to keep the picture hypnotically watchable. ** from ****
