Elizabeth Taylor: The Collection - Mike Nichols [DVD]

Collection of four classic film dramas starring Elizabeth Taylor. In 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' (1966), adapted from Edward Albee's controversial stage play, George (Richard Burton) is a foul-mouthed, drunken university professor married for two decades to the equally foul-mouthed, drunken Martha (Taylor), whose father is the president of George's college. When younger married couple Nick (George Segal) and Honey (Sandy Dennis) are invited round for a nightcap, they witness a marathon of bickering and verbal abuse. The film won five Oscars, including Best Actress for Elizabeth Taylor and Best Supporting Actress for Sandy Dennis. 'Cat On a Hot Tin Roof' (1958), based on the Tennesse Williams play, follows the events which transpire one long, hot Southern evening when the family of plantation patriarch Big Daddy (Burl Ives) gathers to celebrate his birthday. Both of the big man's sons are there for the party, but only one of them - Gooper (Jack Carson) - is keen to inherit the family fortune; the other, Brick (Paul Newman), a former high school athlete who now drinks constantly and refuses to sleep with his wife, Maggie (Taylor), couldn't care less. Nevertheless, Maggie would like to see some of the money, believing that it might offer some recompense for the coldness of her marriage, and Big Mama (Judith Anderson), the boys' mother, has always favoured Brick out of the two. As the night wears on, the temperature rises, skeletons emerge from closets, and the family tensions get closer and closer to breaking point. 'Giant' (1956) follows Bick Benedict (Rock Hudson), a Texas cattle baron who takes a non-Texan wife, Leslie (Taylor). The story traces two generations of his family, alongside the life of disreputable ranch-hand Jett Rink (James Dean), who strikes it rich on an oil well and falls in love with Leslie. Director George Stevens won an Oscar for his work, and the film garnered nine more nominations, including one for James Dean, who was killed in a car crash soon after filming. In 'Lassie Come Home' (1943) the Carraclough family are struggling financially and have no choice but to sell their pet collie, Lassie. Her new owner's granddaughter, Priscilla (Taylor), realises how unhappy Lassie is away from her family and helps her to escape so she can begin her long journey home.