Cinema: Ballad of Big Sur

The Sandpiper is a multimillion-dollar drama adapted from a penny-dreadful idea by Producer Martin Ransohoff. Filmed in the declivitous Big Sur country on the California coast, the movie offers mountains, sky, surf, birds and Elizabeth Taylor as an irresistible bohemian painter who lures an upright schoolmaster (Richard Burton) away from his loyal blonde wife. When Star Burton first read the script, he remarked that "it hits pretty close to home." Director Vincente Minnelli exploits this possibility with unctuous professionalism, fielding his glamorous duo in a romance à clef that they appear to...