User reviews

ELEPHANT WALK may not be the acme of literature or of film, but it is great entertainment in the quasi-melodramatic mode. It is the story of love, both genuine and illicit, as well as overweening ambition, devotion, and the arrogance of personal tyranny. A previous reviewer, John Mankin, questions why the central focus of the film, the mansion called Elephant Walk, should have been built by the former owner, the "governor" the late Tom Wiley, right across the elephants' traditional path to the major source of water, the river. To miss this point is to essentially miss the point of the whole center of the film: the hubris of man. That his son, played by Peter Finch, should become enthralled by the super image and enigma of his revered father, is not unexpected, since the son was without a mother growing up in a foreign jungle with only his father and his father's rowdy 'boys' club' as his role models. The point of the father was that he was a self-made man who would tame nature to his liking, and that liking was not just a tea plantation upon the lands the elephants once dominated, but also that he would dominate even the large bull elephant that led the herd, and thus he would dominate his son and all around him, and so we join the tale after the elephants have been denied the crucial dry season access to their pathway to water. Who could know that this dry season would last so long and what the elephants would do in desperation to get water? This is the nexus of the film: what will animals do to get water; what will humans do to get power or love? Ceylon, today's Sri Lanka, is the huge island off the coast of India where the plantation is located and one quickly learns that it is the real scenery of the story, not just the expenses of Miss Taylor. Were it not for this exotic location (much of the film was shot in Ceylon), and the magnificent "bungalow" this would have been just another potboiler. One must recognize the atmosphere created here as integral to the time and place, as it illuminates the latter day wealth and power attained by the English immigrant 'conquerors' that were part and parcel of the British raj. It is only such wealth gained by the use of virtual slave labor that one could build so magnificent a residence of ebony, teak, and marble. Not to be overlooked are the wonderfully carved Jalees (grille work window and doorway borders) evidently specified by art directors J. McMillan Johnson and Hal Pereira and obviously made by the cheaper labor on the island. Such craftsmanship reveals the careful attention to detail that these men sought.

For those immune to the blandishments of time, place, and architecture, there is always the allure of Miss Taylor, as she marries a man she doesn't really know and is tacitly wooed by a another man, against the background described, and under the overarching tyranny of the legacy of a man deceased. As I said, it is not great literature nor even great film, but it is great spectacle long before that term was debased by the special effects extravaganzas of today.

This is one of those films made to be seen on the giant screen of an outdoor drive-in, not on the home TV, so arrange the largest screen to see it on to fully appreciate its fine camera-work and scope.

Corny but fun film of the 50's. Except for her first scene in the bookstore, Liz Taylor looks gorgeous, especially outfitted as she is. Every curve and then some shows. A bit talky at first, but gains momentum as picture goes on. Lush scenery, although some process shots look...well like process. Peter Finch is good as the head of the tea plantation and is a bit ruthless at times. Good guy Dana Andrews shows up as a good romantic interest when needed. Whom will Liz end up with? The elephant stampede at the end is well worth the price of admission. By the way, the DVD transfer is great. Worth a look just to see the 50's style filming..No sex, violence, foul language. OK for the whole family.

... with Abraham Sofaer as a kinder gentler Mrs. Danvers.

John Wiley (Peter Finch), a Ceylon (Sri Lanka today) planter, is in London. While there he meets and marries a bookstore clerk, Ruth (Elizabeth Taylor) and brings her back to his estate - "Elephant Walk". But once home John begins to change. He seems haunted by the specter of his father, Tom Wiley, a harsh man who built Elephant Walk - named such because it is literally in the path of the historic elephant path to water. John drinks heavily, broods, and parties all night with a bunch of fellow planters, barking at Ruth if she complains. The supervisor of all the servants - Appuhamy - gets up every morning and talks to the grave of John's father, Tom, mentioning that he does not like Ruth, and that her ways are cold and distant. Appuhamy should know because he is cold and distant to Ruth, who only wants to take her place as running the household, but between Appuhamy, her distant husband, and the ghost of her father-in-law she is pretty much ganged up on. So let's also throw in that this movie is somewhat like "Giant " too in that regard.

But a ray of sunshine is the presence of an Elephant Walk foreman, Dick Carver (Dana Andrews) who falls in love with Ruth at first sight. Ruth wants her marriage to work, but between a foreman with bedroom eyes, a very haunted and brooding husband, epidemics and elephants, her path is a hard one. How will this work out? I'd say in a visually spectacular way for the time, yet utterly predictable.

Paramount certainly put energy into designing Liz' fashions. While they were at it they should have maybe put more money into shooting on location. There are shots that are clearly on location in Ceylon. But then they will intersperse those shots with those that are obviously on some Hollywood lot with back projection of the countryside. When Liz and Dana Andrews take a horseback ride through the plantation, the cheesiness of the back projection ventures into Ed Wood territory.

There is an interesting backstory to the making of this film. Apparently Vivien Leigh was originally supposed to have the part of Ruth, but illness prevented it. At age 40 she would have looked almost as odd as the fresh young bride as Liz would have looked in1939 as Scarlet O'Hara given she was seven at the time.

In spite of good performances by the entire cast, the sum of the thing is rather hokey and overwrought. Still, since all but the "tent pole" studio era films made by Paramount are hard to find, I'd say give it a look if it ever comes your way.

Although not nearly as ludicrous, this could be seen as Paramount's companion piece to its 'Naked Jungle' from the same year and instead of hordes of killer ants we have herds of marauding pachyderms. The presence of William Dieterle in the director's chair is a definite plus.

Distinct echoes here of 'Rebecca' with Peter Finch and Elizabeth Taylor as Maxim and Mrs. De Winter and Abraham Sofaer as Mrs. Danvers. Ironic indeed that Mr. Finch was Laurence Olivier's protegé as Olivier was prevented by prior commitments from appearing in this. Miss Taylor was replacing the indisposed Vivien Leigh whose interest in Mr. Finch was more than purely professional.

The film itself boasts the customarily splendid Paramount production values, is beautifully shot by Loyal Griggs with a suitably dramatic score by Franz Waxman. Mr. Finch glowers magnificently, Miss Taylor at twenty-two is in the full bloom of her beauty and the always excellent Dana Andrews has a thankless role as 'the other man'. Following his 'greylisting' William Dieterle was to find worthwhile directorial assignments increasingly elusive but he does his very best here with the material at his disposal.

People see films in surprisingly different ways and an earlier reviewer has suggested that the stampeding elephants represent 'resistance to British colonialism.' Yes, well.....

My parents took me to this movie when I was nine years old. I have never forgotten it. I had never before seen anything as beautiful as Elizabeth Taylor. (She was twenty-two when she made Elephant Walk) Remember, I'm nine, so the feelings aren't sexual, I just couldn't see anything else on the screen. I just wanted to sit at her feet like a puppy and stare up at her. She has begun to show her age, (She's almost seventy-four) but I still believe her to be one of the most beautiful and breathtaking women to ever have lived.

I have seen the movie several times since, and it is a sappy melodrama. What saves it is, of course, Miss Taylor's beauty, magnificent scenery, the very impressive elephant stampede, and a well-made point on human arrogance in the face of nature.

All in all, a well-spent couple of hours watching the movie channel or a rented video.

Elizabeth Taylor's role in Elephant Walk reminds me of her role in Giant. She's married to a very powerful man, but she can't seem to quell her rambunctious nature, often starting fights and dishing out what she takes. So, if you liked Giant, try this one, and vice versa.

In Elephant Walk, Liz is wooed and wed by the wealthy Peter Finch, but when he takes her into his world (much like in Giant), she doesn't quite fit in. She moves to the tropical tea plantation in Ceylon, but the cultural and lifestyle changes are difficult. And when hunky Dana Andrews enters the picture, she just might find a distraction from her new surroundings. . .

With Liz and Dana, there's lots of eye candy in this movie. A few strong-willed speeches and some romantic scenes don't make it the most memorable film to come out of the 50s, but it's worth it if you like good-looking people up on the screen.

The scintillating Elizabeth Taylor stars in this lesser-known classic as a young girl from London who falls in love with a tea plantation owner from British Ceylon (current day Sri Lanka). Upon arrival she instantly feels out of place and is forced to adapt to the new culture as well as be in constant awareness of the angry elephant herd. William Dieterle, who also directed The Life Of Emile Zola and Portrait Of Jennie , does a masterful job of bringing a somewhat dark, and almost eerie, undertone to this romance and the setting is one of the most beautiful I've seen with the black and white themed mansion and the gorgeous island scenery.

A beautiful shopgirl in London is swept off her feet by a millionaire tea plantation owner and soon finds herself married and living with him at his villa in British Ceylon. Although based upon the book by Robert Standish, this initial set-up is highly reminiscent of Hitchock's "Rebecca", with leading lady Elizabeth Taylor clashing with the imposing chief of staff at the mansion and (almost immediately) her own husband, who is still under the thumb of his deceased-but-dominant father. Taylor, a last-minute substitute for an ailing Vivien Leigh, looks creamy-smooth in her high fashion wardrobe, and her performance is quite strong; however, once husband Peter Finch starts drinking heavily and barking orders at her, one might think her dedication to him rather masochistic (this feeling hampers the ending as well). Still, the film offers a heady lot for soap buffs: romantic drama, a bit of travelogue, interpretive dance, an elephant stampede, and a perfectly-timed outbreak of cholera! **1/2 from ****

Elizabeth Taylor, fresh from Chillingford-on-the-Thames, has just married Ceylonese tea planter Peter Finch and he's taken her back home. He's got quite a place over in what is now Sri Lanka, a 'bungalow' big enough to have a polo field. And that's exactly what they do there. He and his father's friends get on bicycles and play polo in the living room.

It's all tradition you know started by Finch's dad who is known to one and all as 'the Guv'nor.' He must have been something else, in everyone's memory he becomes almost a caricature of the colonial Briton.

The man must truly have been nuts or else he was one of those colonials who Noel Coward warned went out in the noon day sun a little too long. He built this palatial estate right on a well worn path that the elephants use to get to fresh water when the streams dry up in their neck of the woods. The local natives have to periodically ward them off with noise. They can't kill them because of the strict conservation laws and the Buddhist tradition.

Maybe I missed something here, but did he have to build the house right there? Does make for a spectacular climax though.

Peter Finch feels the need to keep traditions up and all the friends come over every week, get stinking drunk, and play bicycle polo in the living room. Not exactly the home Liz had in mind. She seeks some solace with overseer Dana Andrews who being American is not into all the colonial British traditions.

Elephant Walk, which is also the name of the Finch estate, has the advantage of some really beautiful cinematography in Sri Lanka. Lends an air of realism to a rather unreal plot.

Check out Abraham Sofaer who plays the major domo of Elephant Walk with the biggest handlebar mustache on record. One that Terry-Thomas would have envied.

Vivien Leigh was supposed to do Elephant Walk, but she bowed out do to health issues. That tuberculosis did flare up at the right time though.

Agreeable romance/adventure film in which a British gorgeous woman marries a wealthy colonial owner and go to live in his huge plantation but it happens to be on the path where elephants roam. This romantic adventure movie in soap opera style was lavishly produced by Paramount Pictures with all-star-cast , glimmer cinematography and luxurious scenarios . As the young bride named Ruth Wiley (Elizabeth Taylor) of a rich planter (Peter Finch) finds herself the only white woman at Elephant Walk tea plantation, British Ceylon . In the plantation Dick Carver (Dana Andrews), works as a right-hand man and she finds certain protection , thanks to Dick the tough foreman , then a mutual attraction emerges each other , soon makes him indispensable . The jungle , of course, is endangered by some kind of wild life and some dangerous elephants , for this reason she finds herself in a strange atmosphere . Furthermore , a cholera epidemic outbursts , followed by elephants destroying the plantation . There takes places a searing story of sudden love and sudden death in the hot green hell of the Ceylon jungle , being threatened by the hovering , ominous appearance of the hostile elephants . One man and several elephants claimed the land , two men claimed the woman who lived there .

This exciting film has emotion , romance , intrigue , exotic landscapes , colonial settings and results to be pretty entertaining . Ceylon's balmy jungles provide the backstage for a triangular torrid love between Elizabeth Taylor , Peter Finch and Dana Andrews , in this post-prime William Dieterle effort . Intelligent and engaging script which uses intriguing situations to give us an acceptable movie in a high sense and intimate sensitivity and that kept me entertained for the almost 100 minutes of duration . ¨Elephant walk¨ is an enjoyable adventure movie , a menace melodrama with a wide view of a huge tropical bungalow , exotic scenarios with rage excessively colorful , big bull elephants , an amazing mansion , a love story , drama and many other things . The movie is very persuasively made , usually rise to a crescendo of emotion and had at the time a remarkable success. Entertaining romance/adventure is visually striking with a spectacular final . I liked everyone in the excellent cast, and the male and female actors , especially Elizabeth Taylor , were all very attractive . The hit of the show is undoubtedly for the fetching and attractive Elizabeth Taylor who gives one of her best screen acting . Elizabeth wears lush gowns splendidly designed by expert costume designer Edith Head . Although Vivien Leigh was originally cast, but her mental illness begun affecting things during filming, and so she was replaced by Elizabeth Taylor ; many long shots and shots from behind are still of Leigh . Furthermore, a thrilling as well as breathtaking climax at the mansion in which the protagonist are besieged by a herd of elephants . This picture bears remarkable resemblance to ¨Escape to Burma¨ (1954) by Allan Dwan that contains a similar jungle scenario (Sri Lanka) , elephants and known actors as Barbara Stanwyck , Robert Ryan and David Farrar . It also has several points in common with ¨The naked jungle¨ by Byron Haskin regarding a woman , Eleanor Parker , who marries a planter , Charlton Heston , living in jungle until a final tragedy takes place . ¨Elephant walk¨ packs a colorful cinematography print in Technicolor 1.37:1 and composed for Widescreen presentation, by Loyal Griggs considered to be one of the best cameramen of the 40s and 50s . Sensitive as well as evocative musical score by the classic Franz Waxman .

This adventure yarn from the golden age of Hollywood was well directed by William Dieterle as a classic example of drama/romance/adventure of the fifties . Dieterle is a German director who was in Hollywood by 1930s and directing dramas (Scarlet down, Fog over Frisco, Fashions) , costumer (Hunchback of Notre Dame,Kismet,Omar Khayyan) and biopics (Life of Emile Zola, Dr Ehrlich, Juarez, Madame Curie, Reuter) that were a revelation at the box-office. Rating : 6,5/10 , better than average . Well worth watching . The picture will appeal to Elizabeth Taylor fans .

Essentially a story of man versus nature, this film has beautiful cinematography, the lush jungles of Ceylon and the presence of Elizabeth Taylor but the film really never gets going. Newlwed Taylor is ignored and neglected by her husband and later is drawn to the plantation's foreman, played by Dana Andrews. The plantation is under the spell of owner Peter Finch's late father whose ghost casts a pall over Elephant Walk that becomes a major point of contention between Taylor and Finch. The elephants are determined to reclaim their traditional path to water that was blocked when the mansion was built across their right-of-way. The beasts go on a rampage and provides the best moments of action in the picture. Taylor and Andrews have some good moments as she struggles to remain a faithful wife in spite of he marital difficulties with Finch.

The story is set in the years immediately after the end of World War II. John Wiley, a tea planter from Ceylon, as Sri Lanka was then called, meets a young woman named Ruth on visit England. The two fall in love, marry and move back to John's plantation, Elephant Walk, so named because it was built across a migration route used by a local herd of wild elephants to get to water. The elephants, in fact, still try to use the route, and have to be kept out by a wall or frightened away by occasional gunshots.

Ruth and John face several problems in their marriage. She feels lonely because she is the only white woman in the district. John's elderly Ceylonese servant Appuhamy takes a dislike to her, which matters because John often takes the experienced older man's advice. She in turn takes a dislike a group of white men, all of them bachelors, who regularly call at John's bungalow where their main occupations are getting drunk and playing rowdy games of indoor bicycle polo. (In Britain itself, the word "bungalow" has come to mean a modest single-storey dwelling, but in colonial usage it could also be used to mean a plantation owner's mansion, which might have two storeys, as John's indeed does). John calls these men his friends, but Ruth believes that they are parasites who are exploiting his hospitality for the sake of the alcohol he gives them.

Worst of all, John refuses to countenance any changes in the running of the plantation; he is dominated by the memory of his late father Tom, who died several years earlier, and believes that everything must be done as it was in the old man's day. Tom's study is preserved as a shrine which Ruth is forbidden to enter. Ruth feels that she is falling out of love with John, and finds herself attracted to his American manager Dick Carver.

The original intention was to have the roles of John and Ruth played by Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, who were of course husband and wife in real life. Olivier was committed to other projects, but Leigh was cast opposite Peter Finch. She began filming in on location in Ceylon but had to withdraw for health reasons, being replaced by Elizabeth Taylor. I cannot help thinking that the film would have been very different had it been completed with Leigh. Finch was sixteen years older than Taylor, and the film that we have is in many ways a standard older man/younger woman romance of the sort that was so popular in the fifties. Leigh, however, was actually four years older than Finch, and had Ruth been played as a middle-aged woman rather than a young girl the relationship between the two main characters would have been altered.

There are obvious similarities between "Elephant Walk" and the Charlton Heston/Eleanor Parker vehicle "The Naked Jungle", also from 1954. Both films have at their centre a plantation owner who marries a wife who finds it difficult to fit into plantation life, leading to tensions in their marriage. (In "The Naked Jungle" the main character is American and owns a rubber plantation in South America). In both films the plantation is threatened by a seemingly unstoppable force of nature, the elephants here and an army of ants in the other movie. And the two films are similar in terms of quality. In neither case is the film its stars' greatest triumph; Heston and Parker made many films that were better than "The Naked Jungle", just as Finch and Taylor appeared in many better than this one. This does not mean, however, that either film is a bad one. Like "The Naked Jungle", "Elephant Walk" was popular with audiences in its day, and continues to be watchable today, at least by anyone with a taste for fifties melodrama. 6/10.

ELEPHANT WALK's plot is essentially that of Daphne Du Maurier's REBECCA. Elizabeth Taylor plays a new bride, plucked from London to be the mistress of an enormous tea plantation in Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka). Her husband, Peter Finch, blends into his old role as plantation Governor, in thrall to his dead father and the influence of his colonialist friends. The nights are spent drinking to excess as Taylor simmers in the bedroom, wearing a series of alluring nightgowns to be appreciated by nobody... Nobody, that is, apart from Dana Andrews's jaded plantation manager, destined to be the third point in the film's love triangle.

Taylor is a fish out of water in her massive new home, the palatial Elephant Walk, so called because it was built by Finch's father right in the path of the route the elephants took to reach water. The symbolism here should be clear enough. The elephants want their path back and are stopped in their attempts by Finch's army of retainers, until a bout of cholera cuts down their numbers... Finch has a Mrs Danvers style manservant, who worships the old Governor as though he's still alive, not remembered a little too closely via his ostentatious mausoleum in the garden and his old study, which is locked at all times.

Finch is fine as the boozy, weak willed lead, trapped by memories of his father and drinking to forget. Andrews plays the traditionally stolid American male presence, but it's Taylor's vehicle and despite being a little miscast (she's a bit too forthright to play a demure bride) stands out through sheer force of personality. The role was initially Vivien Leigh's, and some footage of her can still be seen in several long shots; sadly ill health removed her from the project.

The film is essentially a pot-boiler, elevated by the Sri Lankan photography, the set built for the Elephant Walk 'bungalow' and a good cast, also the fact that any movie directed by William Dieterle can never really be boring. But it would have been better with Vivien Leigh, the star whose mental health problems removed her from a project that was made to fit around her. In her hands it would have been quite a different and potentially more interesting and definitely more complicated film, whereas with Ms Taylor its female presence is played straight and the script's sympathies - which really should lie with Finch's tragic daddy's boy - get lost.

In Elephant Walk,directed by William Dieterle and set in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), the elephants symbolically represent resistance to British colonialism. Viewed from an anti-colonial perspective the film becomes a highly charged, beautifully made pamphlet against colonial grabbing as practiced by the masters of Elephant Walk, British Empire profiteers. To build his fortune, Tom Wiley, the dead, arrogant, greedy tyrant colonizer stopped at nothing, including cutting off the water supply of the Elephants and, collaterally, of the native Ceylonese. However, usurping wealth (tea) and using people as virtual slaves resulted, as usual, in knee-jerk resistance to an unjust economic order, to environmental spoilage, to the rule over the many by a few, to a system formatted to make sure the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This resistance is what the elephants represented. Instead of the ignored elephant in the room, this picture is about resistance symbolized by elephants that won't be ignored. Elizabeth Taylor portrayed a person born and raised in England who remained oblivious to the true nature of the colonial system. She was like 99% of Brits who, like most of us, were and remain victims of the class who has declared it has a right to possess the world and its people. Today we call this class Wall Street, The Banks, The 1%. Fortunately, in 1972, Ceylon became Sri Lanka and the natives recuperated their land. They may not be any richer today but anything beats being a virtual slave at the hands of British colonial masters, one of the greediest, most arrogant and dehumanizing groups ever to infest the planet. The movie masterfully depicts the true nature of the money-hungry economic parasites who were interested in only one thing – making $$$$££££ - and willing to do anything to get it. John Wiley the character so excellently portrayed by Peter Finch, is more true to life than say, The Great Gatsby, a romanticized version of a 1 percenter. The more I watch this film, the better it gets. Elisabeth Taylor is stunning. Peter Finch is captivating. Dana Andrews is, as always, excellent. The supporting cast is superb. The direction is masterful. The natural decor is hauntingly luxuriant and the interior sets are memorable. So is there anything wrong with this picture? Only that it remains underrated.

Fabulous costumes by Edith Head who painted them on Liz Taylor at her finest!

The SFX are very good for a movie of its age, and the stunt doubles actually looked like the actors, even down to body type, a rarity in movies of this vintage.

A cozy movie, with splendid panoramas -- even when chopped down to pan and scan.

Early on I noted that the plot was reminiscent of the Hitchcock film (and du Maurier novel) "Rebecca". I see that many others thought so as well. It seems a little bit picky to point out when an old film does something like having the actors obviously in front of a projection. We are spoiled by unlimited location budgets and/or CGI. Anyway, the location shots on Ceylon are beautiful, as was Elizabeth Taylor. Overall, it is a fairly standard mid-Fifties melodrama.