Watch Elephant Walk
- NR
- 1954
- 1 hr 42 min
-
6.3 (2,774)
In the classic film Elephant Walk, Elizabeth Taylor stars as Ruth Wiley, a young, beautiful bride who travels to her new home in Ceylon, a British colony in present-day Sri Lanka, to join her wealthy and aristocratic husband John Wiley, played by Dana Andrews. Upon arriving at John's tea plantation, Ruth discovers that the plantation's workers are controlled by her husband's domineering mother, played by the legendary Dame Judith Anderson.
The elephant walk, an annual event during which the plantation's elephants are paraded through the village to pay tribute to the temple, serves as a symbol of the dominion that John's mother holds over the land and its people. But when a rogue elephant terrorizes the plantation and threatens the livelihood of the workers, John must confront buried traumas from his past and question the integrity of both his mother and his own moral compass.
Peter Finch delivers a standout performance as Dick Carver, a handsome and charming overseer who becomes a thorn in both John's and Ruth's sides. As tensions mount and secrets are revealed, Ruth must navigate the treacherous terrain of colonial society, a challenge compounded by her growing attraction to Dick and her husband's increasingly erratic behavior.
Director William Dieterle masterfully incorporates exquisite footage of Sri Lankan landscapes and wildlife, creating a lush and captivating visual backdrop that heightens the emotional weight of the film's intense drama. The movie's themes of colonialism, power, and corruption are explored with great sensitivity and nuance in a screenplay by John Lee Mahin, which is based on a novel by Robert Standish.
Elephant Walk is a gripping and thought-provoking drama that deftly balances complex characterizations with sweeping panoramas, tense action sequences, and a poignant love story. Taylor, Andrews, and Anderson all deliver superb performances, and the film's themes continue to resonate with modern audiences more than sixty years after its release.
Elephant Walk is a 1954 drama with a runtime of 1 hour and 42 minutes. It has received moderate reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 6.3.
