The Sandpiper

A hot-blooded woman meets a repressed and married Episcopalian minister. Take the premise, give it to Somerset Maugham, and you have RAIN. Give it to the wrong people, and you have this picture, which was named for the wrong bird. As dreary and dull and contrived as this was, it still managed to earn well over $7 million the first time around, a tribute to the drawing power of Taylor and Burton because it couldn't have had anything to do with the quality of their performances, the dismal script, or the tiresome direction. Taylor is a bohemian artist living with her out-of-wedlock son, Mason, in a fabulous house in Big Sur, one of the most spectacular areas along th...