Elephant Walk (1953)

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.