The built-in curiosity interest in this TV movie version of Tennessee Williams' classic play lies in seeing Elizabeth Taylor in a rare film appearance, as an ageing, desperate actress whose career is on the skids. With dialogue such as 'Legends don't die easily. They hang on long, awfully long. And their vanity is infinite,' the part could have been tailor-made for her. But the novelty soon wears thin, and Taylor is further hampered in her performance by the clunking modernised screenplay by writer Gavin Lambert, who has deleted much of Williams' most beautiful prose and best exchanges. Mark Harmon steps nimbly enough into the shoes worn by Paul Newman in MGM's classic 1962 version of the play, as the hustler who sees the former movie queen as his meal ticket to fame. Rip Torn, who exuded evil from every pore in the Newman version, here plays that character's redneck, bigoted father, the Big Daddyish Boss Finley. While no turkey, this bird fails to fly.

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