General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Boom!

Boom! is a 1968 drama film directed by Joseph Losey, written by Tennessee Williams from his own play The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore and his 1959 short story "Man Bring This Up Road", and starring Elizabeth Taylor as the dying millionairess Flora "Sissy" Goforth and Richard Burton as the poet Chris Flanders, a figure rumored to appear at the deathbeds of wealthy women¹. A commercial and critical failure on release, it later gained a camp (deliberately exaggerated, absurdly theatrical style appreciated ironically) reputation and a cult following, championed most prominently by filmmaker John Waters².

Key fact	Detail
Director / writer	Joseph Losey; screenplay by Tennessee Williams¹
Source	Williams's 1963 play The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore and his 1959 short story "Man Bring This Up Road"¹
Lead cast	Elizabeth Taylor (Flora "Sissy" Goforth), Richard Burton (Chris Flanders), Noël Coward (The Witch of Capri)²
Release	26 May 1968, New York City; Los Angeles three days later¹
Budget and result	Estimated cost $5 million; "a disappointment in the U.S. though okay in Britain"¹
Ratings	IMDb 5.5/10; Rotten Tomatoes 20%³
Music and photography	Score composed and conducted by John Barry; cinematography by Douglas Slocombe¹

Spoilers

Plot

Flora Goforth, a millionairess widowed six times, retires each summer to her private island in the Mediterranean. This summer she learns that she is going to die and begins dictating her memoirs to her secretary Blackie (Joanna Shimkus)¹. An aging poet, Chris Flanders, arrives on the island and is attacked by her dwarf bodyguard Rudi (Michael Dunn) and his pack of dogs¹. Her friend, an epicene bachelor known as the Witch of Capri (Noël Coward), tells her that Chris has been called the "Angel of Death" because of his frequent association with dying wealthy women¹. Alternately repelled and attracted by the poet, Goforth comes to rely on his presence as her health wanes; in the final scene, after her death, Flanders drops a huge diamond into a snifter of brandy and lets the glass fall to the sea¹.

Production

The project was announced in June 1967 as an upcoming Universal Pictures release with the then-married Taylor and Burton, who had recently appeared together in The Taming of the Shrew (1967) and Doctor Faustus (1968); the New York Times reported that Boom! would be the first project under their newly formed Taybur Productions¹. The title changed twice during production, to Sunburst by mid-August 1967 and then to Goforth, before reverting to Boom! by the spring of 1968¹.

Shooting. Principal photography began on 14 August 1967 in Alghero, Sardinia, where exteriors were scheduled, before production moved to Dino De Laurentiis Studios in Rome; filming was completed by early November 1967 and editing was done in London¹. The mansion of Flora Goforth was built for the film high on the limestone cliffs of Isola de Presa off Sardinia, with six replicas of Easter Island moai heads standing along the bluffs². Flora Goforth's gem collection was provided by the Italian jeweler Bulgari, and the jeweler loaned $2 million worth of jewels for the film¹^•².

The film received a Production Code Seal from the Motion Picture Association of America despite including a "four-letter vulgarism for defecation"; contemporary reports said Boom! and Rosemary's Baby (1968) marked the first time the word had been used in a film under the parent banner of MPAA companies. Advertisements bore the tag "Suggested for Mature Audiences"¹.

Reception

Critical reception was largely poor, although Losey's direction was lauded¹. Williams, who wrote the screenplay, was quoted in June 1968 saying, "It's a beautiful picture, the best ever made of one of my plays", though he later objected to Losey's choice to show Flanders dropping "a jewel of fabulous worth into the sea", saying of the character, "He didn't seem to me to be that kind of person"¹. Commercially, the estimated $5 million production was "a disappointment in the U.S. though okay in Britain"¹.

Roger Ebert, the Chicago Sun-Times critic from 1967 until his death in 2013 and winner of the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for criticism, reviewed it in September 1968 as a bad film but a fascinating one: "It isn't successful, it doesn't work, but so much money and brute energy were lavished on the production that it's fun to sit there and watch." He noted that the story's broad outlines seemed to resemble the Burtons' private lives, and that Taylor's Goforth had survived five husbands, four rich and one poetic⁴.

Cult standing. Though a critical and financial failure, Boom! gained a camp reputation and a cult following². John Waters, who calls it "a perfect movie", has said, "I show this movie on first dates. If they don't like it, I can never go out with them again"⁵; the BFI notes his blunter formulation, "If you don't like this film, I hate you"⁶. Waters picked the film to present at the first Maryland Film Festival in 1999². BFI Southbank's program notes describe it as "this exquisite box office bomb turned cult favourite" and "a visually stunning, alcohol-drenched adaptation of a minor Tennessee Williams play"⁶. The Ultimate Picture Palace in Oxford, screening it in 2025, called it "a notorious flop on release" that "endures as a flamboyant and fascinating camp 'disaster-piece'"⁷.

Later releases

The Numbers records a video release on 10 September 2018 by Universal Home Entertainment, and limited international theatrical re-releases in New Zealand (2021 and 2025), Portugal (1970, as Choque), and Australia (2023); its tracked international box office total is $414⁸. Shout! Factory issued the film on Blu-ray under its Shout Select line on 28 May 2019, with a runtime listed at 113 minutes⁹. As of late 2026, the film is not available on any streaming service tracked by JustWatch, which monitors 376 services³.

Versions and runtime

Reported runtimes differ by source: the AFI Catalog lists 110 minutes¹, BFI Southbank lists 112 minutes⁶, and several home-video and streaming listings give 113 minutes²^•⁹. The AFI records the film as Technicolor and Panavision, with RCA sound¹.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1960s › Released 1966 to 1969

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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