drystyx I hate the word "dated", because it can only sensibly apply to a work in which the characters or plot don't reflect the era.So, actually, what most of the internet educated IMDb users claim to be "dated" are often the only films not "dated". "Dated" means watching a movie about Wyatt Earp, and getting the feeling he has played video games instead of thinking about local events.Here, we have a film that is definitely not dated. It deals with a handsome Communist spy who has to work his dealings around his personal life.Robert Taylor's character is very credible, and multi dimensional. If this movie was made by one of the beavis and buttheads of today, he'd simply kill everyone who coughed when he told a lie. Yes, you're right. This would mean the world population would be zero humans within a month, and it makes no sense.Here, in "Conspirator", he is a real person, and so is his wife, who is onto him. In dramatic style, they still want to work their relationship, and honestly, this is what people do, when they find something out about each other. Real people don't murder each other each time they find out a secret about each other.We're shown early that the pace of the film skips over minor details, which modern writers deem so important. In one sense, some would say that "dates" this film, since it is more plot oriented, more Shakespeare than Tennessee Williams. Intricacies aren't explored as much. We're given the story line and the story, and the length of the movie allows for that.Is it completely perfect? I don't think so. However, the characters are more credible for the time than people today can handle, so it probably isn't safe to show friends. People will have a problem with the iconoclastic attitude towards today's "everyone is a psychotic killer" philosophy.

edwagreen Robert and Elizabeth Taylor star in this weak film dealing with a woman discovering that her husband is a spy for the Soviet Union. I guess they were thinking of these things in 1949, at the height of the cold war.Elizabeth Taylor is absolutely churlish at the beginning of this film. She talks like an 8 year old and only shows some maturity required for the part when she discovers that her husband is a traitor.Bob Taylor seems uncomfortable in the role mainly because he was such a right-wing individual in real life.The picture probably would have been somewhat better had they showed some of his escapades in spying. How she discovers his infidelity is so predictable at best.The ending is pure soap opera.

bkoganbing In her first adult role Elizabeth Taylor was all of 17 years old, but her co-star Robert Taylor who was a most discreet man when talking about his leading ladies, couldn't help but remark about how mature Liz was when they made this first of two films together. Her youthfulness helped because in Conspirator the part called for Liz to be young and somewhat naive. She's not too much older in the film than her real age. And the role calls for the young American visitor to London, staying with Lord Wilfrid Hyde-White, Marie Ney, and their daughter Honor Blackman. At a ball Liz can't take her eyes off officer Robert Taylor as neither could half the American female population. In a whirlwind courtship they're married. Taylor is identified as 31 in the film and in fact he wasn't too much older, being 38 when he was making Conspirator.Taylor had played British before, no one minded his distinct American speech pattern in Waterloo Bridge. And it's not a hindrance in Conspirator either.Not long after they're married Liz discovers her husband has been a Communist agent for years. As for Bob his marriage did not meet with party approval and he takes heat for it. And when she threatens to turn him in, Bob's given a choice, it's Liz or the party.Conspirator is a sincere anti-Communist film, not a piece of Cold War junk like some of what was coming out of studios like RKO. The film itself was prophetic because a few years later Donald MacLean and Guy Burgess would be caught and exposed, after that Kim Philby and long after he was dead Sir Anthony Blunt, the famous fourth man in that subversive ring. The problem with Conspirator is the lack of definition of Robert Taylor's character, we get bits and pieces about an Irish mother, a forbidding English father stuff that might make him question loyalty to king and country. But it's never really fleshed out in the script and Taylor never got a handle on his character.Liz however really shows the promise she had as an adult actress. Two years later she was in A Place In The Sun and after that her career was assured.Honor Blackman, the future Pussy Galore, was five years older than Elizabeth Taylor, but had made far fewer films. She was only in the third year of a career that's still going strong. She also does a very good job as Liz's wise young friend who just happens to be keeping company with one of Taylor mess-mates Robert Flemyng.Conspirator was shot over in MGM's British studio with its two American stars and a cast of players from the UK's cinema. A little more development on Robert Taylor's character and Conspirator could have been far better than it was.

blanche-2 Elizabeth Taylor is a lovely, vibrant American woman who falls in love with older Communist spy Robert Taylor in "Conspirator," a British film that was Elizabeth Taylor's entry into adult stardom. She received her first screen kiss, in fact, from co-star Robert Taylor - not bad, but then, this is Elizabeth Taylor we're talking about.The stars and supporting players (including a very young Honor Blackman) aren't the problem. For me the script and therefore the character actions are questionable. Elizabeth is supposed to be passionately in love with her new husband, as well as insecure and naive. On learning Taylor, a British officer, is a Communist, she grows up fast. We're told. We really don't see it, nor are we given an idea of how much time has passed to give her an opportunity to reach this new maturity. We're supposed to believe he was unable to stave her off with some tall story? Also, for a superficial young woman interested in redecorating her house, she certainly is suddenly a very committed patriot. As for Robert Taylor, a man who's been involved with the party for so many years would certainly have known the trouble he'd be in for failing to carry out orders and how bad it would look to beg for help and make excuses. Come on.There's nothing wrong with the acting, and Elizabeth Taylor is dazzlingly beautiful, though in my opinion, it will be a couple of more years before her beauty truly is at its height. But she certainly performs her adult role well. Robert Taylor is appropriately dashing and menacing, with his widow's peak, something my mother always mentioned about him, in full prominence. They certainly made a beautiful couple. But in "Conspirator," alas, they're not meant to be.