Secret Ceremony

From Joseph Losey, the legendary director of The Criminal, The Servant, Accident, Eva, Modesty Blaise and Figures in a Landscape, comes this lurid psychodrama starring the incomparable Elizabeth Taylor (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) as an aging prostitute who befriends a young woman (ethereal, childlike Mia Farrow, Rosemary’s Baby) that reminds her of her long-dead daughter. Equally unnervingly, Farrow sees in Taylor her own late mother. As the bizarre relationship between the two evolves, the appearance of Robert Mitchum (The Night of the Hunter) as Farrow’s lecherous stepfather ignites deep emotions and dark passions. Top-notch cinematography by Gerry Fisher (The Offence) and strong supporting performances by Peggy Ashcroft (A Passage to India) and Pamela Brown (Cleopatra) highlight this highly unusual, highly entertaining film.