Despite its meaningless title, Joseph Losey's SECRET CEREMONY is a first rate drama. Mia Farrow is a deranged girl who latches on to aging hooker Elizabeth Taylor, claiming Taylor's actually her dead mother. Taylor, with nothing to lose, goes along with the charade, having lost her own daughter five years earlier. Robert Mitchum, as Farrow's lecherous stepfather, comes on the scene and throws cold water on the whole thing. Taylor gives one of her best performances and Farrow is great and really creepy, particularly when she's alone on screen acting out her demented fantasies of being taken advantage of by Mitchum. Mitchum is flat-out weird, sporting a beatnik beard and slight English accent. Peggy Ashcroft and Pamela Brown are a hoot as Farrow's money grubbing aunts. SECRET CEREMONY is far more successful than BOOM!, Taylor's previous collaboration with director Losey.
Review of Secret Ceremony
