TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Develiker terrible... so disappointed.

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Dalbert Pringle The up-side to 1967's Doctor Faustus was that throughout the entire course of the film Elizabeth Taylor didn't utter one, single word. Whew! What a relief that was! In Doctor Faustus, Elizabeth Taylor was strictly there as eye-candy, just an over made-up piece of very pretty decoration. That's all.But, then, on the down-side of Doctor Faustus, actor Richard Burton, that loud, bellowing alcoholic, never shuts his trap for even 5 seconds. Sheesh! You can bet that Burton's incessant yattering all but made up for Taylor's ludicrous silence.I won't tell you why Taylor never talked throughout the entire course of the film. All I'll say is that she played the character of "Helen of Troy" and that apparently had something to do with it. (You go figure)In some ways Doctor Faustus was an interesting enough production. There were certainly plenty of fascinating and bizarre set designs. And the make-up effects were quite impressive. But, all in all, Doctor Faustus was a film that completely lacked any soul, which, is sort of ironic when you consider that its story was all about a man who actually sold his soul to the devil.Set in 16th Century Germany, Doctor Faustus, a brilliant scholar at Wittenberg University, employs the magic of necromancy to conjure up the evil Mephistopheles from the absolute depths of Hell. Through the assistance of this wicked spirit, Faustus bargains away his soul to Lucifer in exchange for 24 years of youth, invincibility, and unlimited power at his complete disposal.Faustus willingly signs this pact (with its exclusive "no-escape" clause) using his own blood and, soon enough, Mephistopheles reveals to him the works of the Devil, otherwise known as "The 7 Deadly Sins".I think that you really need to be a completely devoted, die-hard "Taylor & Burton" fan to actually appreciate Doctor Faustus any more than I did.

sol ***SPOILERS*** A bit hard to follow due to the outdated Elizabethan English in it's screenplay but a joy to watch in Rchard Burton's over the top acting Doctor Faustus is without a doubt the most interesting Burton/Taylor collaboration even suppressing their Academy Award winning soap opera "Who' Afraid of Virginia Wolf" the year before.Wise old Doctor Faustus, Richard Burton, has seen and done it all in the world of academics reaching the very heights of success by being named #1 at the prestigious center of learning the famed Wittengerg University in 16th century Germany. Dabbling in the black arts that could very well have him burnt at the stake for being a witch or warlock by the church the old Doc want's to find out if in fact the Devil who's called Lucifer in the movie, played by Oxford student David McIntosh, is really fact or fiction. Using his knowledge of the occult from a number of forbidden books, by the church, that he secretly obtained Doc. Faustus conjures up Lucifer's right hand man and #1 messenger Mephistophelese, Andreas Teuber, in order to make a deal with him. Faustus Wants Mephistophelese's boss Lucifer make it possible for him to obtain knowledge that he can't get in library or collage books. For all that Faustus is more then willing to sell his soul to the Devil to get it. With Faustus signing away his soul-in blood-to Lucifer he's then given powers to go back and forth in time and do anything he wants, by being invisible, to insult and humiliate those in power without fear of reprisals. As an extra bonus Fasutus has Mephistophelese become his personal gofer or guide to do anything his ask asks no question asked even make a complete fool of himself! The punch-line in all this shenanigans on Fasutus' part is that after a scant 24 years he'll be forced to go down under, to where the sun don't shine, to spend the rest of eternity shoveling coal and God knows what else for his now lord and master Lucifer.Richard Burton really has the run of the place in him not only staring but directing and producing the movie by having all the great lines and acts in it. Letting his hair down Burton as Doc. Faustus does a number of really hilarious wind-breaking or flatulent as well as pie trowing scenes-at the expense of the Pope and Collage of Cardinals no less-that had me, by laughing non-stop, almost go into asthmatic shock! I doubt that even the three stooges Soupy Sales or the Ritz Brothers could top Burton's outrageous antics in the film and he's not even a comedian!We also get to see Burton's gorgeous wife Elizeabth Taylor who looked like she dropped some 20 to 30 pounds, from what she looked like in her previous films, for the part-or parts- she played in "Doctor Faustus" one of them being Helen of Troy. Even though she never uttered a single word Mrs. Taylor/Burton stole every scene she was in just by being in them with her revealing and sexy outfits. One of which she was dressed up to look like the Eiffel Tower with metallic or silver paint covering her entire body except for her heavenly lavender eyes.the very unsurprising ending has the old Doc Faustus descend down to, for use of a better word, the Hot Corner-and it ain't 3rd base- together with his guide Mephistophelese to meet the big man himself Ol' Lucifer and give up his eternal soul for all the fun he provided Faustus over the last 24 years. With nothing but fire and brimstone to look forward to as well as never again seeing and making love to the eye popping beautiful Helen of Troy, whom he fell in love with, Doc Fatstus begins to wonder if, selling his soul to the Devil, was really all that worth it!

smarti21 This was a film I saw in my youth on late night television. It made quite an impression on me due to the power of Richard Burton's performance. Looking back after viewing the DVD, it seems like something the Burton's would have cooked up over a long holiday weekend. This was a great film for Richard Burton's ego. After all, he's in most of the scenes. Elizabeth Taylor seems strangely out of place as Helen of Troy and the effects of years of alcohol abuse caused her appearance to be seriously frayed at the edges. Still, this is a fun film that get's a watch from me about every five years. I particularly enjoyed Andres Truber's Portrayal of Mephistopheles. He is quite believable as the somewhat penitent fallen angel. The seven deadly sins sequence always gets a hardy laugh from me. The character of Lechery looks like a poofed up drag queen. The ending is quite dramatic and the delivery o the lines by Burton are indeed quite effective.

bkoganbing It was an ambitious undertaking for Richard Burton, to film Christopher Marlowe's classic Dr. Faustus with an untried amateur cast. I'd say he got a mixed bag of results.Well, they weren't all that amateur, they were the members of the Oxford Dramatic Society and quite a number of them went on to have substantial careers in film and theater. Fans of the Doctor Who series will recognize Ian Marter who played Harry Sullivan during the Tom Baker reign as the Doctor, he's probably the most well known of the cast.Of course there's Elizabeth Taylor who plays the brief part of Helen of Troy who in legend is ultimate in feminine beauty. She has no dialog, but she makes her presence known.Faustus, a man who devotes his entire life to the pursuit of knowledge and somehow feels he's left a lot out of his life. Piety and service to God ain't cutting it any more. He makes a deal with Lucifer himself and even gets one of the fallen angels, Mephistopheles to act as a personal servant and conveyor of Faustus's wishes to the Prince of Darkness.Of course he gets what he wants, but there's a day of reckoning and Faustus just simply doesn't want to cough up the soul. What do you expect from a guy who constantly refers to himself in the third person? Faustus is rather full of himself.From what little research I did, Richard Burton made a concerted effort in this film to perform it close to Marlowe's own vision. There seems to be a few versions of this out there and it's all open to speculation.It was an ambitious undertaking, not entirely successful, but not a total failure either. And Elizabeth Taylor looks pretty good in it.