NutzieFagin you'll love this movie. Actually it was written by Christopher Marlowe a rival/friend of William Shakesphere. I first saw this film in English lit class when my teacher used this as an entertaining visual aid. I had always loved the Shakesphere plays...the lyrical poetry, the thoughtful plots and imagery. SPOILER---Richard Burton, who is an accomplished Shakespherian actor plays the role of Faustus with a moody, thoughtful & devilish character. Faust is a man who wants to reach heights above God and have "his cake and eat it too" In the end, due to his ignorance,sloth and pride he pays the supreme price by selling his soul by thinking he can outwit the devil. Liz Taylor, who oddly has no spoken lines in the movie,and parades around in various body paint at certain parts is STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL!! and is the most remembered character. The budget of the film is low, but it still gives off a nightmarish, dark moody atmosphere. Except for Burton and Taylor, it is a cast of unknowns and I find it a crying shame that most did not pursue future movie careers! I recommend this movie to lovers of the Elizabethean Theatre--two thumbs up!

bkoganbing It was an ambitious undertaking for Richard Burton, to film Christopher Marlowe's classic Dr. Faustus with an untried amateur cast. I'd say he got a mixed bag of results.Well, they weren't all that amateur, they were the members of the Oxford Dramatic Society and quite a number of them went on to have substantial careers in film and theater. Fans of the Doctor Who series will recognize Ian Marter who played Harry Sullivan during the Tom Baker reign as the Doctor, he's probably the most well known of the cast.Of course there's Elizabeth Taylor who plays the brief part of Helen of Troy who in legend is ultimate in feminine beauty. She has no dialog, but she makes her presence known.Faustus, a man who devotes his entire life to the pursuit of knowledge and somehow feels he's left a lot out of his life. Piety and service to God ain't cutting it any more. He makes a deal with Lucifer himself and even gets one of the fallen angels, Mephistopheles to act as a personal servant and conveyor of Faustus's wishes to the Prince of Darkness.Of course he gets what he wants, but there's a day of reckoning and Faustus just simply doesn't want to cough up the soul. What do you expect from a guy who constantly refers to himself in the third person? Faustus is rather full of himself.From what little research I did, Richard Burton made a concerted effort in this film to perform it close to Marlowe's own vision. There seems to be a few versions of this out there and it's all open to speculation.It was an ambitious undertaking, not entirely successful, but not a total failure either. And Elizabeth Taylor looks pretty good in it.

elblanco1947 I'll admit from the beginning that Marlowe's Tragical History of Doctor Faustus is one of my alltime favorite plays, and that I used to have it virtually memorized. The play is itself so good that any relatively true adaptation to the screen would make a thoughtful and enjoyable film.I am old enough to remember the tabloid brouhaha about Burton and Taylor, but even that unpleasantness is insufficient to intrude upon my complete enjoyment of this film. The dialogue is over 400 years old, requiring careful listening by the viewer who is unfamiliar with the play, but that viewer will be well rewarded for his attention. The dialogue is so rich with meaning, with philosophical nuance, with the heights and depths of human emotion that the attentive viewer cannot help but think about the meaning of his actions and the consequences of them, as well. This Doctor Faustus is a fleshed out (and fleshly) genius not unlike some of those we might encounter today. The scene in which Faustus knows for certain that all that, for which he has sold his soul, is illusion; yet he still cannot bring himself to renounce it all, and redeem himself, strikes at the souls of all of us. As Don Blanding wrote about his imagined painting entitled "Sin!" I love while I loathe the beastly thing. I guess that's the way one feels about sin."

Deusvolt The movie did draw in sizeable audiences in the Philippines although most of those who saw it were disappointed including the critics. I remember one shallow critic lamenting the baring of Elizabeth Taylor in one fleeting scene (rear view). He wished she had done it in her earlier years when she would have been more attractive. I must admit that at my age then of 17, she did look a bit too mature for me. But seeing her again on video with me pushing 50, I found that she looks great.I not only saw the movie, I acted in our school play albeit in a small role as one of the scholars who spoke with Faustus. Alas! the play did not open as our director resigned after he couldn't pull off the open arena presentation he envisioned. Blocking was such a problem.Seriously, the cinematic effects achieved by Burton who was both actor and director, deserve kudos considering the technical limitations of special effects at the time (1967). A striking scene was when he and Mephistopheles were walking in the night heavens discussing hell. They didn't look superimposed at all and on the full screen, with the two figures seeming to walk on the bottom of the frame across the blue black firmament among the stars, it gave one a feeling of both wonder and terror of being lost in the heavens. Looking back, it seems that Burton pioneered in achieving a surreal LSD effect which later became quite common. The lines of Mephistopheles describing the nature of hell is memorable. I quote him freely: "Think you not that I who had experienced the Beatific Presence am not constantly tortured since I have been deprived of it? Hell is where we (the devils) are and where hell is, there we are, for each of us carry our own hell." This would apply to humans and not only to devils. The Oxford players were great especially the actor who played Mephistopheles who was portrayed sympathetically in that he seemed to regret the Faust's loss of his immortal soul. The devil was shown weeping.