This dual biography of Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift by Charles Casillo (Marilyn Monroe: The Private Life of a Public Icon) is so jammed packed with sex, pill-popping, alcoholism, affairs, breakdowns, suicide attempts and multiple brushes with death that most readers will want to read it in one greedy, high-caloric gulp. Readers may come for the nonstop scandals but what will keep them reading is Casillo's deeply empathetic and nuanced portrait of two Hollywood stars who forged a loving and loyal friendship.
The two met while filming 1951's A Place in the Sun, and their chemistry was striking. Clift was gay and Taylor was a teenage virgin, but onscreen they generated heat. Off-screen, they formed a strong friendship. "She feels like the other half of me," Clift said. The two were reunited six years later in Raintree Country. Midway through filming, Clift was in a near-fatal car accident. Taylor saved his life by climbing inside the wrecked car and pulled broken teeth from his throat. The accident partially paralyzed his face and left him addicted to alcohol and painkillers. When he made The Misfits in 1960, he was in such bad shape, no film company would insure him. Costar Marilyn Monroe said Clift was "the only person I know who is in worse shape than I am."
Both Taylor and Clift have numerous biographies devoted to them, but Casillo's dual biography admirably laces their dramatic lives together. Much like A Star Is Born, with one star rising as the other declines, these two life stories make riveting reading. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant