Plot summary

Psychological realism and foul language: George (Richard Burton) and Martha (Dame Elizabeth Taylor) are as far from the bourgeois 1950s perfect married couple as you can get, alternatively badgering, berating, abusing, and loving each other, both alone and accompanied by the naïve young married couple that have come over for a nightcap. The fun and games in which George and Martha involve Nick (George Segal) and Honey (Sandy Dennis) are a lacerating look at the older couple's existence, where the emotional brutalizing fill an unspeakable void at their center, and a troubling preview of what the younger couple's life could become. Combines the banal, the vulgar, and the poetic.—Russ W.