Elizabeth and Monty The untold story of their intimate friendship

In Hollywood during the 1940s and '50s, there were no more physically beautiful stars than Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, and when the two appeared onscreen together, the effect was electrifying. A potential comeliness competition could have torpedoed lesser relationships, but Clift and Taylor established a friendship that defied expectations. For the oft-married Taylor, their friendship could have, should have, gone beyond such platonic confines. Clift, however, was gay, one of Hollywood's less-well-kept secrets at a time when homosexuality was anathema. A combination of alcohol and drug addictions and the stress of sexual secrecy eventually led to a life of dissipation for Clift, while Taylor's predatory romantic escapades only enhanced her mystique. Film industry biographer and novelist Casillo (Marilyn Monroe, 2018) traces the professional and personal triumphs and tragedies of two Hollywood icons, focusing as much on their private peccadilloes as on their career-defining and, in Clift's case, career-destroying roles. Tinseltown was a different sort of town when Elizabeth and Monty were making their marks, and the pressures they felt to conform to society's image of stardom exacted devastating tolls.