The novelty of "Cleopatra's" Rex Harrison and Richard Burton playing British homosexuals may have seemed like an interesting acting exercise, but the result is a depressing and somewhat offensive story. They are a gay version of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf's" George and Martha with Burton cast as "the wife" and Harrison "the husband", both unlikable and stereotypical, making the friends of Mart Crowley's "The Boys in the Band" seem totally real in comparison. Burton spends the entire film wearing a Norma Desmond like turban (actually something that more resembles a large dish cloth), braying like real-life wife Elizabeth Taylor did in "Virginia Woolf" with Harrison giving hateful attacks on Burton every chance he gets.
With Stonewall just around the corner and the fight for gay rights already underway, this is to gay themed films what Stepin Fetchit and Willie Best were to characterizations of black characters in the 1930's. Cathleen Nesbitt, who had earlier played Harrison's mother in "My Fair Lady" on Broadway, gets to do nothing but babble here as his demented mother who is obviously being mistreated in her nursing home. There's nothing to recommend here even as a curiosity piece, the result being more like a gay horror story than a serious drama about two lovers who obviously hate each other but are too miserable to try and find happiness elsewhere.
With Stonewall just around the corner and the fight for gay rights already underway, this is to gay themed films what Stepin Fetchit and Willie Best were to characterizations of black characters in the 1930's. Cathleen Nesbitt, who had earlier played Harrison's mother in "My Fair Lady" on Broadway, gets to do nothing but babble here as his demented mother who is obviously being mistreated in her nursing home. There's nothing to recommend here even as a curiosity piece, the result being more like a gay horror story than a serious drama about two lovers who obviously hate each other but are too miserable to try and find happiness elsewhere.