When beauty and film merged

Elizabeth Taylor is dead at 79. She ranked among Hollywood’s great Dames. As New York Times obit writer Mel Gussow put it, "In a world of flickering images, Elizabeth Taylor was a constant star." Critical reaction to her acting talents has always been mixed. But agreement is universal with regard to her once jaw-dropping beauty. She is that rare specimen whose physical exquisiteness defies description. Overused adjectives like striking, breathtaking, arresting or stunning don’t begin to capture the scope of Taylor’s sublime loveliness. Neither do the sundry photos that litter the Internet. One has to see Taylor on film to experience the ravishing art that is her face. For me, her Nova shone brightest when she emerged from the Rubicon of adolescence into the embrace of young womanhood. I recall watching Taylor as she then appeared in the 1951 film “A Place in the Sun.” Of her beauty in its full flower, I still have but a single word: wow. Simply, wow.