Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967)

Bizarre tale of sex, betrayal, and perversion at a military post.

Director:

John Huston

Writers:

Chapman Mortimer (screenplay), Gladys Hill (screenplay)

Stars:

Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, Brian Keith

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Elizabeth Taylor	...	Leonora Penderton
Marlon Brando	...	Maj. Weldon Penderton
Brian Keith	...	Lt. Col. Morris Langdon
Julie Harris	...	Alison Langdon
Zorro David	...	Anacleto
Gordon Mitchell	...	Stables Sergeant
Irvin Dugan	...	Capt. Murray Weincheck
Fay Sparks	...	Susie
Robert Forster	...	Pvt. L.G. Williams
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ed Metzger	...	Pvt. Frank Brian

Storyline

US Army Major Weldon Penderton is stationed on a base in the American south. He and his wife Leonora Penderton are in an unsatisfying marriage. Weldon is generally a solitary man who in his time alone tries to bolster his self image as he feels less than adequate as a man and a major. He does not want to viewed like Captain Murray Weincheck, who has been bypassed for promotion time and time again solely because he is seen as being too sensitive. Self absorbed Leonora, when not focused on her passion of horses and riding, tries to maintain the facade of being what she sees an officer's wife should be while she carries on an affair with their next door neighbor, married Colonel Morris Langdon. Morris' wife, Alison Langdon, suffered a nervous breakdown three years ago after miscarrying, she still with that nervous constitution. Alison is generally drawn toward sensitive types, such as Captain Weincheck and their faithful flamboyant Filipino houseboy, Anacleto. Peripheral to the ...

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Plot Keywords:

voyeurism | peeping tom | stalking | fetish | gay soldier | 

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Taglines:

leave the children home

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Genres:

Drama | Romance | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 October 1967 (USA)

Also Known As:

Reflejos en tus ojos dorados

Filming Locations:

Long Island, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$4,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Brothers/Seven Arts

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

John Huston offered William Holden and Robert Mitchum the role of Major Weldon Penderton.

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Goofs

The Maj. Penderton's shirt is completely buttoned when he mounts Firebird. Later, when he falls off it, his shirt is unbuttoned.

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Quotes

Maj. Weldon Penderton: I'm sorry, Leonora. It's just all this clutter is...
Leonora: What's the matter with clutter? I like it.
Maj. Weldon Penderton: I'd rather live without it. Bare floors. Plain white walls. No window curtains. Nothing but essentials.
Leonora: If that's the way you feel about it, why don't you resign your commission and start all over again as an enlisted man?
Maj. Weldon Penderton: Of course you're laughing at it, but there's much to be said for the life of men among men... with no... luxuries, no ornamentation. Utter simplicity. It's rough and it's coarse, ...

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Alternate Versions

Most prints currently available are that of the original theatrical version, featuring a heavy golden haze throughout that desaturated most of the color. Warner Bros. put out full Technicolor prints after initial engagements.

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Connections

Referenced in John Huston: The Man, the Movies, the Maverick (1988)

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Soundtracks

Mazurka
(uncredited)
Music by Franz Lehár
Lyrics by Leo Stein

User Reviews

Unusual, surreal, memorable work of art.

This movie isn't for everybody. Huston, Taylor, Brando and the rest of the cast took some serious artistic risks back in 1967, and a lot of people didn't like the product; 50 years on, a lot of people still won't.

If one comes to it cold, hearing only that it is only a movie about "a closeted homosexual in the military", which is true of the Brando character, and expects some kind of serious dramatic narrative experience - like for example in "The Sergeant" which also came out in 1968 - the approach of "Reflections", which I think is not unlike that of a Beckett play, will be a surprise, and one might say, "this is a weird movie - it's not a good drama."

But I believe that would be a mistake. I don't mean that one kind of approach is "better" than the other, only that different kinds of movies with different kinds of artistic excellence as their goals shouldn't be measured by the same yardstick.

The action of this film is pretty much indifferent to place and setting; it doesn't need to be in the South and it doesn't need to be on a military base. It is sometime in the period from 1945-1960 when people of privilege spent their evenings at each other's houses, playing cards and drinking way more hard liquor than today. In fact the time and setting blurred in my view into a sort of dreamlike background, not demanding to be like a real place or time.

There are two military officers. There are their wives, whose thwarted lives are filled by avocations and disorders - sex, alcohol, and horsewomanship, or art, classical music, and depression. Their wives have admirers. One is the enlisted man played by Robert Forster, who elicits and then upsets one category after another. Another is the Filipino servant played by Zorro David (his only movie ever) with flamboyant swishiness, but is he really gay or are we being tempted to overassume? It's only what we see and judge, and neither can be trusted.

All have secrets, concealing who they really are while trying to figure out who the other people are, sometimes successfully, more often not. People read people and situations incorrectly and act upon their bad understanding and send the activity off in another direction. When people think they are unobserved they act much differently, comforting themselves in ways that are not provided for in the conventions that surround them. To borrow the thoughts of a character, they are all square pegs trying to deal with the round holes they have been hammered into by others or themselves.

And if that all reads sort of like the universal experience of people, that's sort of the point, I think.

I don't think it's perfect, but every time I try to pick a flaw I start to wonder if the artists didn't intend it just that way for a reason. Some detractors have noted that the Brando character's accent is just incomprehensible at times - I turned on closed captioning eventually. But then at one of those times he was giving instructions to a subordinate, who then doesn't carry them out properly, so was this on purpose? I didn't understand why the frenzied camera work in the final scene was done that way either. But was it meant to convey something? These people are not easily dismissed.