June 22
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof
It's the 65th birthday of wealthy southern patriarch “Big Daddy”. His sons Gooper and Brick (Paul Newman) have returned to the family’s sprawling Mississippi plantation, not to celebrate the day, but to learn the news surrounding the old man’s medical condition and protect their share of the family fortune. Gooper is a family man and father to a brood of "no-neck monsters"; Brick is the favorite who has yet to sire progeny with his hot-blooded wife, Maggie (Taylor). Maggie attempts to remedy the situation wearing in a slinky white slip while prowling around their bedroom to attract the attention of her dispassionate husband, who lives in an alcoholic stupor to forget the past. Hollywood’s adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ hit Broadway play crackles with tension and double entendre, and garnered Oscar nominations for Taylor and Newman. Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Judith Anderson, Jack Carson. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; directed by Richard Brooks; screenplay by Richard Brooks and James Poe. Not rated, 108 minutes, Color, 1958. Nominated for six Academy Awards.

June 29
National Velvet
Twelve-year-old Elizabeth Taylor stars as Velvet Brown, a strong-willed English girl with a passion for horses. After winning a wild, yet gifted, steed in the local village lottery, she determines to enter him in the Grand National Steeplechase – England’s greatest equestrian sporting event. A vagabond teenager (Mickey Rooney) is enlisted to help train the high-spirited horse for the big race, where Velvet unexpectedly cuts her hair to pass as the jockey in one of the most dramatic races ever filmed for the silver screen. Supported by a cavalcade of MGM’s greatest character actors, National Velvet is a film brimming with optimism, courage and endurance which critic Pauline Kael described as “One of the most likeable movies of all time.” Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Rooney, Angela Lansbury, Anne Revere, Donald Crisp. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; directed by Clarence Brown; screenplay by Theodore Reeves and Helen Deutsch; based on the novel by Enid Bagnold. Not rated, 123 minutes, color, 1944. Nominated for five Academy Awards.

July 13
BUtterfield 8
"I was the slut of all time!" declares Elizabeth Taylor in the role for which she won her first Oscar. Taylor plays Gloria, a hard-drinking, bed-hopping dress model who discovers a last chance at love and redemption when she spends a week with Weston Ligget (Laurence Harvey), a man who married into money and hates himself for it. They fall in love, but before they can find happiness they have to overcome their own worst natures. BUtterfield 8 (named after Gloria’s answering service) is a big boozy melodrama, full of gorgeous clothes, catty comments, and emotional showdowns—and Taylor’s unnerving interpretation makes Gloria's mixture of grief and anger immediate and genuine. Elizabeth Taylor, Lawrence Harvey, Eddie Fisher, Dina Merrill, Mildred Dunnock. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; directed by Daniel Mann; screenplay by Charles Schnee and John Michael Hayes; based on the novel by John O’Hara. Not rated – contains sexual situations and strong language, 109 minutes, color, 1960. Nominated for two Academy Awards

July 20
Giant

Based on Edna Ferber’s sprawling novel, George Stevens’ meticulously crafted Oscar-winning epic traces the rise and fall of two generations of Texans. Bick Benedict (Hudson), a confident yet stubborn Texas cattle baron woes and wins the heart of the seemingly demure Leslie (Taylor) a Virginia belle who proves to be his match after settling into the family’s garish windswept mansion on a dusty Texas plain. Wildcatter Jett Rink (Dean) confronts the authority of the Benedict family when he strikes oil on a neighboring ranch, transforming himself from a dirt poor hard scrabble farmer into a flamboyant playboy, and challenging long held beliefs concerning the oppression of women, miscegenation, racism, and society. Giant captured the imagination of 1950’s America with its all-star cast and garnered 10 Academy Award nominations. Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, Dennis Hopper, Carroll Baker, Mercedes McCambridge. Warner Brothers; directed by George Stevens; screenplay by Fred Guiol and Ivan Moffat. Not rated, 201 minutes, Color, 1956.

July 27
A Place In the Sun
Modest, unassuming George Eastman (Montgomery Clift) leaves his strict, religious mother and heads for the big city to work in a menial job in his rich uncle's factory. There, despite a rule which forbids relationships between employees, he falls into a dalliance with dowdy factory girl Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters). But when George is suddenly promoted he enters the world of his dreams--and it includes glamorous young socialite Angela Vickers (Taylor), who offers George the social status and family approval he craves. Only Alice stands in his way with a dark secret that threatens to derail his lofty ambition resulting in a tragic resolution to a desperate love triangle. Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, Shelley Winters, Anne Revere, Raymond Burr. Paramount Pictures; directed by George Stevens; screenplay by Michael Wilson and Harry Brown; based on the novel An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser. Not rated, 122 minutes, B&W, 1951. Winner of six Academy Awards