Boom! (1968)
"Boom" (original title)

Explores the confrontation between the woman who has everything, including emptiness, and a penniless poet who has nothing but the ability to fill a wealthy woman's needs.

Director:

Joseph Losey

Writers:

Tennessee Williams (play), Tennessee Williams (screenplay)

Stars:

Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Noel Coward

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Elizabeth Taylor	...	Flora 'Sissy' Goforth
Richard Burton	...	Chris Flanders
Noel Coward	...	The Witch of Capri
Joanna Shimkus	...	Miss Black
Michael Dunn	...	Rudi
Romolo Valli	...	Doctor Luilo
Fernando Piazza	...	Etti
Veronica Wells	...	Simonetta
Howard Taylor	...	Journalist

Storyline

Film version of playwright Tennessee Williams' "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore" involves very wealthy Flora 'Sissy' Goforth, supposedly dying, and living in a large mansion on a secluded island with her servants and nurses; into her life comes a mysterious man, Angelo Del Morte and "the Witch of Capri." The mysterious man may or may not be "The Angel of Death".

---

Plot Keywords:

mysterious man | servant | nurse | island | death | 

---

Taglines:

Together they devour life!

---

Genres:

Drama | Thriller

---

Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English Italian

Release Date:

26 May 1968 (USA)

Also Known As:

Goforth

Filming Locations:

Capo Caccia, Sardinia, Italy

Box Office

Budget:

$10,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

John Heyman Productions, Moon Lake, Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Chris as envisioned was a young poet, and Richard Burton was considered by most to be terribly miscast as well as too old for the part. The bust of "Boom!" seriously damaged Elizabeth Taylor's standing at the box office, though Burton had another major hit with Where Eagles Dare after the fiasco of its drubbing by both the critics and movie audiences.

---

Goofs

(At 47.20) Elizabeth Taylor's character mentions that the hot sun is giving her a "big shot of vitamin B". Incorrect: vitamin D is the only vitamin that comes from the sun.

---

Quotes

Flora 'Sissy' Goforth: Did somebody tell you I was dying this summer? Did somebody tip you off that Sissy Goforth was about to go forth this summer?
Chris Flanders: Yes. That's why I came.
Flora 'Sissy' Goforth: Well, well. I've escorted six husbands to the eternal threshold and come back alone without them. Now it's my turn. I've no choice but to do it, but I want to do it alone. I don't want to be escorted. I want to go forth alone. And you... you counted on touching my heart because you knew I was dying. Well, you miscalculated with this one. The milk ...

---

Connections

Featured in A Dirty Shame (2004)

---

Soundtracks

"Hideaway"
Music by John Dankworth
Lyrics by Don Black
Performed by Georgie Fame

User Reviews

The road of excess

How can a film be a 10 and a 1 at the same time? As serious art, Boom is a bomb. Yet, as a testimony, a very camp testimony, to the lives of Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Noel Coward, and Tennessee Williams, it is literally hysterical. As the Age of Aquarius was dawning on America, what were these pioneers of love, lust, decadence, and existential meaning to do? What is there to say, to do, to perform, two years after Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1968. the play Hair is delighting Broadway. The hippies have overtaken the Beats. Where can the stars go? To the Old World, Europe, Italy, Capris... The movie reveals their state of mind: preoccupation with death, the emptiness of wealth, sex, and luxury. As we watch this undeniably amusing costume melodrama, we can't help wondering just what Taylor and Burton's "real" life there in Sardinia must have been like. Did they throw tantrums when their whims went unsatisfied, or was it the opposite? I'll have to leave the answer to the biographers. But this film makes it impossible not to imagine them all there in Italy, trying with desperation NOT to be what they were portraying. That is what makes the film intriguing.