Zee and Co. (1972)

Wonderful character development!

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

For anyone who ever hankered to see what a collaboration between the novelist Edna O'Brien and the director of 'Where Eagles Dare' would have looked like, look no further! After two war movies in a row, Brian G. Hutton obviously felt the need to try his hand at something a bit more dangerous; and Elizabeth Taylor in all her big-haired, loud-mouthed and even more loudly dressed glory dominates this delirious spectacle in a way little seen since the heyday of Bette Davis.Taylor and Caine give their all as a self-absorbed pair who make George & Martha from 'Virginia Woolf' look like The Brady Bunch. In reality Caine would probably have abandoned or murdered Taylor long ago; but she's entertaining to watch and listen to at least for the duration of the movie, and shows a delightful flair for mimicry mocking some of her co-stars. (I thought she jumped the shark, however, with her suicide attempt.)Susannah York understandably seems more than a little overwhelmed by the madhouse she's wandered into. A few spoilsports have already revealed the twist at the end of this tale. As a bloke I was as surprised and delighted as I was relieved that a woman wrote it; so it absolved me of feeling guilty at being served up with one of my favourite male fantasies about two women.Whatever happened to these three after the closing credits is anybody's guess; but the audience I watched it with at the Barbican tonight laughed appreciatively all the way through and gave it an enthusiastic round of applause as the lights went up.

X, Y and Zee is one of those rare films that can be perceived differently now than when it was originally released and be more enjoyable. However, one has to be in the right frame of mind. As a straight drama, it can be trite, uneven and a bit preposterous. But viewed as a kind of fascinating cultural time capsule with an over-the-top performance by Elizabeth Taylor as the scorned wife of a philandering Michael Caine, it can actually be quite entertaining and even hilarious. Never has any woman tried so hard to keep her man in the face of dire circumstances while simultaneously wreaking havoc on just about everyone. X, Y and Zee is a strange little film, but if you're a Taylor fan and don't mind overlooking a few flaws, you might find it quite entertaining and amusing. One thing for sure...this film belongs to Taylor; without her, it would be nothing.

Susannah York is Stella, a prominent London fashion designer who gets the wrath of she-devil Elizabeth Taylor when she begins an affair with her architect husband, Michael Caine. Liz, even more of a harpy than her Oscar Winning role of Martha in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", runs around London in colorfully made clothes that look like "Laugh-In" backdrops. Liz is not content enough to stalk her prey-she reveals vital information of her marriage's intimacy to York, harasses her on the phone, stalks her with a gay confidante, and ultimately uses a suicide attempt to extract info about York's past from the unsuspecting woman. The revelation is a doozy, and what Liz does with it has to be seen to be believed!Liz's Zee is a dangerous woman who would rather see herself and Caine endure a miserable marriage than to let York's good girl have him. Poor Liz screeches her way through another performance, sometimes seeming older than her 40 years, all the while acting like a grown-up Rhoda from "The Bad Seed". "I don't bray!", Liz cried in "Virginia Woolf", but here she does. It's such a shame that Liz and Michael Caine's only film together was this delightfully awful movie, because they truly compliment each other. If you want to see how real bitchery can be art, however, watch Michael Caine exchange barbs with Maggie Smith in "California Suite". Fortunately, this was the end of Liz's cycle of screeching is acting films, and she took time off for another Richard Burton marriage, her fling as a politician's wife, and thankfully, her magnificently brief career on stage. When she came back to films (on television), she had a somewhat softer image, but in "The Flinstones" and "These Old Broads", this brassy side was out again. York is lovely and manages to come off a bit more dignified than Taylor, while Michael Caine is a true pro. Margaret Courtney in a cameo looks like Vincent Price getting ready to fry Coral Browne in "Theatre of Blood".

"X, Y & Zee" is a timepiece from that awkward, transitional period in Elizabeth Taylor's career when her legendary Hollywood glamour began to give way to a more earthy blowsiness. Unfortunately, her film choices during this phase suggest a disinterest in doing any actual acting and more of a penchant for taking on roles that suited her personal needs (exotic locations, proximity to husband and family, size of paycheck, etc.)If the title "X, Y & Zee" suggests a love triangle, then you'll know all there is to know about this colorful but airless game of sexual one-upmanship where the clothes and decor are more interesting than the people inhabiting them. Two years later Hal Ashby's "Shampoo" would skewer these amoral, directionless types more entertainingly.Perhaps thinking she had a mod, swinging London update of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" on her hands, Taylor as Zee once again allows herself to be cast as the braying, shrill harpy to a weak, watery-eyed husband (the always charming Michael Caine). Taylor and Caine have one of those functional dysfunctional marriages that are probably an accurate representation of what comprise many so-called happy marriages. Regrettably neither performer is able to make me believe that they were ever a couple in the first place. They just don't fit. That wounded hound dog Richard Burton would have been much better.Anyhow, things get shaken up pretty quickly once Caine sets eyes on pretty, husky-voiced boutique owner, Susannah York and starts romancing her right under Taylor's heavily made-up nose.As the trio uncomfortably navigate the decidedly choppy waters of love and sex, the film struggles mightily to be bitchy and witty and NOW but never heats up much and has nothing up its sleeve but a pretty nice final act (it probably was a good deal more daring back in 1972). York, as always is an exceptionally interesting actress, but her character sometimes makes even less sense than Taylor's and Caine's. For me, the single most fascinating element of the film was Susannah York's shag haircut. What a weird hairstyle. Glistening, shining, intricately layered and geometrically perfect, it is the one image that has stayed with me long after the film had ended.