Return Engagement

This made-for-TV showcase for Liz Taylor is worth watching for her poignant performance as a lonely woman almost finding May/December love, but scripter James Prideaux misses the mark with a screenplay that pulls its punches.

She plays a college prof of ancient history who becomes involved with a handsome student played earnestly by Joseph Bottoms. For starters, Bottoms, for all of his good looks, never achieved real stardom, his best work being lead in a fine movie "The Dove" four years earlier. It would take a real star or perhaps an unknown who could achieve popularity in this role, to hold his own on screen opposite Liz in what devolves into a two-hander of a play, with a very minor supporting cast.

Major defect of the rather corny storyline is that ultimately Prideaux paints a picture of Platonic love, not romantic (or sexual) love. Given the sexual freedom of the 1970s, this rather quaint approach comes off as wimpy, as Liz & Bottoms not only have no sex scene but barely any physical contact apart from the central staging of their performing a song and dance act together at a school event. This culminates in a bittrsweet ending that doesn't ring true at all.