Product Details

• Actors: Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Mitchum, Mia Farrow, Peggy Ashcroft, Pamela Brown
• Directors: Joseph Losey
• Writers: Marco Denevi, George Tabori
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Pictures
• VHS Release Date: October 31, 2000
• Run Time: 110 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004W46K
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,486 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating teaming of Elizabeth Taylor and Mia Farrow, December 17, 2002

By 

Simon Davis (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secret Ceremony [VHS] (VHS Tape)

There is something quite fascinating that continues to draw me back to repeated screenings of "Secret Ceremony". Whether it is the interesting and highly successful teaming of Elizabeth Taylor and Mia farrow, the almost surreal settings of the story or its very unusual storyline I'm not sure, perhaps it's a combination of all those things. Without a doubt it contains one of Elizabeth Taylor's finest, most underrated late 1960's performances just at the time when her Box Office standing was beginning to slip. She had only recently completed "Boom" with Richard Burton which was not successful and I feel as a result this film also suffered even though it is a far better production.

"Secret Ceremony" is set in London and tells the strange story of an wealthy but abandoned young girl Cenci (Farrow) who one day on a bus sees a woman who resembles her dead mother. Cenci in her disturbed mind feels it is her mother and "adapts" the middle aged prostitute Leonora as a replacement mother and takes her back to her strange home to play at being her daughter. Leonora has recently suffered through the lose of her own young daughter and sensing the girl's loneliness and her own unstable situation decides to play along with it and becomes actually attached to the girl in the process. Things become more complicated with the arrival first of Cenci's grasping aunts Hannah and Hilda (played by veteran actresses Peggy Ashcroft and Pamela Brown) who regularly come to the house to harrass Cenci and steal valuable items to resell in their run down antique shop, and secondly by the appearance of Cenci's unwelcome step father Albert (played by Robert Mitcham). As pyschological dramas go this is a winner and hints at many things in its story line such as lesbianism, child abuse and mother complexes. It certainly is not for all tastes which probably explains why rather sadly the film was not a success when released in 1968. What it does boast though are some excellent acting performances with great work from Elizabeth Taylor and Mia Farrow in particular. They have a wonderful screen chemistry together and indeed despite being savaged by the critics at the time I feel Robert Mitcham in his small role portraying a highly unlikeable character delivers great work and his confrontation scenes with Elizabeth have a real electricity about them.

Directed with flair by the famed Joseph losey, he enhanced the eerie atmosphere of this story with one of the great house sets that have ever been used in such a drama. Located in a leafy London suburb it is quite bizzare in its interior decoration and design and fits perfectly into the story. All Byzantine arches and coloured tiles and filled with macarbe dolls and music boxes it is both majestic and overdone which fits in perfectly with the bizzare storyline. Joseph Losey in all his productions always placed great emphasis on the settings of his stories to build the correct atmosphere and here he has excelled. It is hard to really fathom what time this story is set in so detached it seems to be from any sort of outside reality. Even the scenes shot at the beach resort in the off-season period have a strange almost funeral quality to them with misty seascapes and a general lack of people present.

Certainly like alot of Joseph Losey productions "Secret Ceremony" is an acquired taste. I can appreciate the fine acting by the leads and the strange offbeat story has alot to hold your interest. If you are interested in a compelling Elizabeth Taylor film from after her main period of Box Office stardom then "Secret Ceremony" is highly recommended.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bizarre, lurid, voyeuristic psychodrama (and campy, too), June 11, 2001

By 

C. Heinrich "wsidechris" (Oyster Bay, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Secret Ceremony [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I first heard about this film on a radio call-in show in 1985, when I was 14 and *obsessed* with movies. Although I was in Illinois, the show was broadcast out of Philadelphia (WCAU-AM). The show was on from midnight to 5 am (CST), and it was hosted by a guy named Stephen Friedman. It was a call-in show where the subject was nothing but movies--and I swear this guy had seen ALL of them! Does anybody recall this show?? I just loved it!

Anyway, I was intrigued by a conversation he had with a caller on this film. They were talking about what a wild psychological drama it was, and that (at the time) there was basically no way to see the film in its original state. The film had not been released on video yet, and the TV print had been notoriously butchered to make it more "acceptable" for TV. The network (ABC?) even went so far as to shoot additional footage with psychiatrists explaining the sordid details of the story (a la "Psycho", perhaps). Well, I finally tracked it down. So after all these years, the wonder is over...

I can only imagine what I would have made of this film as a naive teenager. Even now I find myself creeped out by the horrible secrets of Mia's character, and by the painful emptiness of the soul of Liz's (this film would be considered bold even today; it's not tame by any standards). Mia's character seems a bit over the top, but I do believe there are people like that in the world. Her past traumas seemed to have led her to have a total lack of physical boundaries with people. As for Liz, she was moving at times, rather unpleasant at times (like in the all-too-real breakfast scene), and practically another character in others (like the fake British accent she adopts on occasion).

There is certainly an element of camp in this film. It doesn't dominate the film, so I wouldn't call it camp. But some of the dialog and sets are not to be believed. Liz croaks out some pretty bad lines, with my favorite being "that's too drab for a spring day--that should be worn on a day when it rains like p*ss!". Robert Mitchum, thoroughly repulsive as Mia's stepfather, gets some of the best (worst) lines, like his line to an overweight Liz, "I'm very fond of cows. Moooooo!".

I don't want to give away the plot, because the film is worth the time just to watch the story unravel and to enjoy the creepy atmosphere (full of baroque-y music, Mia's bizarre mansion, and constant dread). If you put the lapses into camp aside, you'll find it's not a bad psychological drama. You won't regret spending the time to check this unique film out.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Underrated Psychological Drama, October 26, 2000

By 

Henry Baker (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Secret Ceremony [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"Secret Ceremony" is, I think, a fascinating psychological drama that was unjustly savaged by most critics upon it's initial release in 1968. That the film's release came on the heels of another Taylor/Losey project - the awful "Boom" - probably didn't help.

The film chronicles the strange, co-dependent relationship between a childlike young woman suffering from arrested development (Farrow) and a prostitute (Taylor) whose child has died, and who bears a striking resemblance to Farrow's dead mother. Taylor moves into the house and takes on a mothering role to Farrow, thus both women play off each other's needs.

Enter two meddling, thieving aunts (Peggy Ashcroft, Pamela Brown) and Farrow's unscrupulous stepfather (Robert Mitchum, miscast, and the one jarring performance in this film), and the stage is set for tragedy.

I'll be the first to say that "Secret Ceremony" isn't for all tastes. But it does improve with age. Taylor gives, I think, one of her best, most understated performances. Her scene at the very end is excellent. I recommend this film for those with adverturous, eclectic tastes in film.

Hope this comes out on DVD.