Elizabeth and Monty: The Untold Story of Their Intimate Relationship

 

Elizabeth and Monty
Charles Casillo
Kensington Books
May 25, 2021

Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift were two sensational deep dimensional actors! This book by Charles Casillo is about not only about their acting careers together and separate, but also the foibles and trauma of having substance abuse illnesses. Elizabeth and Monty is filled with many stories of their love affair which Elizabeth wished would happen, unfortunately, Monty as much as he loved Elizabeth and found her his equal and sexy, he was attracted to men, even though he could never come out in the world of Hollywood during his career. If he had, there would be no career, even though it was not a secret, they pretended he wasn't attracted to men and would patch him to his women friends.

Elizabeth and Monty is written like Hedda Hopper's gossip column. I love Montgomery Clift, I haven't watched all his movies, but as a child, I fell in love with him and Elizabeth's movie -- Raintree County. I know it isn't their best movie but as a kid, I was just fascinated by this aloof teacher and his desperate and haunted wife, Susanna. It was good to learn the background of each person's life while filming Raintree County. Such sad stuff.

My only complaint about this book is that I feel that the gossip of Monty's same-sex attraction was repeated ad nauseam, not that I have a problem with him being gay, it just felt like Monty was marginalized down to a gay man with a drinking problem as if that was all that he was. He was a gay man, yes, and he had qualities that truly made him , he was brilliant, soft-hearted, a lover of people, and a teacher to those who were just starting out in Hollywood. I would have loved to have that celebrated more even with the heartache and struggles that he lived through until his dying day.

Elizabeth struggled with acceptance, love, and needed to have someone constantly around her, Monty was her person, the one that she could talk to, the one she wanted the most in her life, and he was there for her, until the day he died, even when they were across the nation from each other. Elizabeth and Monty did a good job of telling Elizabeth's story, her relationship with her mother, her relationship with her 7 husbands (some of which were remarriages), and her relationship with the love of her life -- Monty.

I give this book 3.5 stars as I don't think I would read it again.