Doctor Faustus 1967 Full Movie

[Adrienne Borgman]

DoctorFaustus is a 1967 British horror film adaptation of the 1588 Christopher Marlowe play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus directed by Richard Burton and Nevill Coghill. The first theatrical film version of a Marlowe play, it was the only film directed by Burton or Coghill, Burton's Oxford University mentor.[2] It starred Burton as the title character Faustus, with Elizabeth Taylor appearing in a silent role as Helen of Troy. The film is a permanent record of a stage production that Burton starred in and staged with Coghill at the Oxford University Dramatic Society in 1966. Burton would not appear on stage again until he took over the role of Martin Dysart in Equus on Broadway ten years later.

University of Wittenberg scholar Faustus earns his doctorate, but his insatiable craving for knowledge and power leads Faustus to try his hand at necromancy in an attempt to conjure Mephistopheles out of hell. Signing the pact in his own blood, Faustus bargains his soul to Lucifer in exchange for 24 living years with Mephistopheles as his slave. Mephistopheles proceeds to reveal to Faustus the works and doings of the Devil.

Faustus is a scholar at the University of Wittenberg when he earns his doctorate degree. His insatiable appetite for knowledge and power leads him to employ necromancy to conjure Mephistopheles out of hell. He bargains away his soul to Lucifer in exchange for living 24 years during which Mephistopheles will be his slave. Faustus signs the pact in his own blood and Mephistopheles reveals the works of the devil to Faustus.

Ohmygoodness!!! I wanted to hump every room in this film! This is one of the most stunningly beautiful looking films I've ever seen. I just want to roll along its skull riddled walls foreverrrrr!! Where has this soul selling weirdness been all my life?! And I never noticed how beautiful Richard Burton was before. The plot was all over the place in a good way and produced many a wtf face. And the out of nowhere fart jokes scene with the monks was like whaaa lol. The only reason I don't give this full marks is the proper medieval parts, while I enjoyed, went a bit too fantasy for my tastes. So I was glad when it went all hellish again. Amazing, what a treat

I tried to approach this with the kindest eyes possible but it is what it is: a filmed version of a student drama production. Richard Burton's voice is endlessly listenable but I can't say that he is good here, producing an uninspired, laboured performance. He is surrounded by young male students, none of them destined to become known actors, who declaim their parts and fail to breathe life into them. Elizabeth Taylor appears throughout wordlessly as a representation of the epitome of beauty, which she admittedly manages well.

Pretty much Richard Burton sleepwalking through Marlowe's Faustus. Couldn't find a pulse in a single actor in this, even the ones that weren't meant to be un-dead. For a veteran stage actor like Burton you'd expect better, but maybe he was too busy producing and co-directing to actually direct himself as the star..... or maybe it's just that straight reading a play from the 1500s just kind of doesn't translate to film very well. It's all just so..............static.

If you want to see Elizabeth Taylor made up as a beautiful Star Trek alien then this is the film for you. If you want to see her actually speak then it's best to avoid. She's allowed to laugh late on but otherwise this is all about Richard Burton listening to himself recite line after line after line. Visually this is very good and is at its best when letting the visuals do the talking. Sadly, this isn't very often. I was probably expecting too much because of Murnau's silent version of Goethe's Faust which is far superior.

Clearly a passion project for Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, there's an ambition and earnestness behind this 1967 theatrical adaptation of the 16th century play (and Burton's directorial debut) that I couldn't help but find a little endearing. But even the best of artistic intentions and Christopher Marlowe's lofty, poetic language can't save this from devolving into an unintentionally campy, pretentious spoof of terrible stage dramas.

The costumes and props look like cheap weekend rentals from Party City, the special effects are more comedic than foreboding (including a recklessly over-indulgent use of blur effects), and there's a really strange and sudden tonal shift in the middle of the film that turns this into a Monty Python sketch for about twenty hysterical minutes. Too bad there wasn't more of that, honestly, as the rest of this dreary, pompous film takes itself way too seriously and leaves us laughing AT, rather than WITH, its well-intentioned creators.

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