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 wanted Carson McCullers, the author of "Reflections in a Golden Eye", to write the screenplay for the film version, but she was too ill.

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Goofs

When Leonora is writing invitations to a party in her house, the amount of drink in her glass decreases between shots.

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Quotes

Maj. Weldon Penderton: Now, a man does not flee because... um... he's fighting in an unjust cause. He does not attack because his cause is just. He flees 'cause he's the weaker. And he conquers 'cause he's the stronger. Or more to the point because his leaders made him feel stronger. Rommel... Patton, Marshall, MacArthur. They - they had it. How did they - uh... how did they make their troops believe they were stronger? Leadership is intangible... hard to measure, difficult to describe. Leadership must include a ...

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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 American Beauty (1999)

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Soundtracks

Avalon
(uncredited)
Written by Al Jolson, Buddy G. DeSylva and Vincent Rose

User Reviews

Admirable in many ways, beautifully staged and photographed and splendidly acted…

The time is late 1948 and the setting is a U.S. Army post in Georgia, bordering on a forest preserve…

A Southern amoral wife called Leonora (Elizabeth Taylor) finds a way for her stream desire in an adulterous affair with Lt. Col. Langdon (Brian Keith), carried on almost openly…

Leonora gives aperture to her forcefulness and vigor in a passion for horses and riding… She is attached to a handsome white horse she calls Firebird and she provokes her husband by telling him that the animal is indeed a stallion with the emotional nature of man...

Leonora's husband (Marlon Brando) is a devious, insecure, impotent Army major, a hidden homosexual preoccupied with an unsociable, lonely rider who canters around the field in the nude and whose sexual emotional stress is diminished, secretively, at the bedside of the major's wife holding her clothes and looking fixedly at her marvelous hot body…

Private Williams (Robert Forster) is another lonely man fascinated by the fiery Leonora and her thoughtful and gentle comments to him… He takes to visiting the Penderton house at night looking attentively in the windows, observing with total recall and complete joy Leonora's nakedness, but also watching the Major in his study…

Keith's neurotic wife (Julie Harris) is well aware of her husband's affair with Leonora but she only feels well from her close friendship with her houseboy, Anacleto (Zorro David), an affected companion who shares her penchant for the arts and is in every way the opposite of her abrupt, strong husband…

Flavored with bitter insinuations and insulting sarcasms, Brando and Taylor's few scenes have enough flames to burn the silver screen… He's a tormented human being while she's delicious but shrill and insensitive… Aware of her physical beauty she fights back when she's rejected, instigating him with her impudent, insolent, shameless manner that offend his very being…