Admirable film.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Don't ask me about the plot - I couldn't make heads nor tails of it. Rather than trying to decipher what they're saying (a surefire exercise in futility) watch this film only if you're intent on viewing the Burtons' every collaboration. This one competes with "Hammersmith Is Out" and "Boom" as the worst. Sets look recycled from Hammer Studio horror outings. Special effects are primitive and cheesy. Efforts to tie this 16th century gabfest to the swingin' sixties include throwing in some awkward nudity. On the plus side are Richard Burton's mellifluous voice and Elizabeth Taylor's still-beautiful face, captured here prior to the John Warner years, when she let herself go before re-emerging in the 1980s surgically restored to her rightful place as the most beautiful woman ever to grace the silver screen.

I'll never forget the review of this particular movie that I read in the N.Y. Times many years ago: "Ye Gods and little fishes, break out the gin for this one!" Now that I've finally gotten a chance to see it, I know exactly what they meant. I suppose the production of this film was intended to answer a question on the minds of many film-goers and gossip-column readers in the late 1960s; namely, what can the most famous and notorious couple in pictures possibly do to top "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". The answer: "Doctor Faustus". In this film Richard Burton barters away his immortal soul to Lucifer for a roll in the hay with Elizabeth Taylor. Top that for an ego trip!Admittedly, this film also includes a great deal of plummy Elizabethan language, and plenty of lurid, pseudo-psychedelic special effects. However, most of the movie consists of Dick spouting reams of incomprehensible gibberish (in both Latin and English) in that incomparable voice of his, and drooling, literally, over Liz. Liz actually had the much easier role in this movie. She wasn't required to recite a single line of dialog. All she had to do was simply stand there and BE, the effect of which was to seemingly mesmerize every male actor in sight. Come on, what actress wouldn't give anything for a role like that? And for the piece de resistance, at the end of the movie Liz, laughing maniacally, gets to drag Dick, kicking and screaming, down to Hell for his well-deserved reward. What wife wouldn't have a ball playing a scene like that with her husband? By that point in the movie, anyone who isn't rolling in the isles with laughter simply has no sense of humor!

This was a film I saw in my youth on late night television. It made quite an impression on me due to the power of Richard Burton's performance. Looking back after viewing the DVD, it seems like something the Burton's would have cooked up over a long holiday weekend. This was a great film for Richard Burton's ego. After all, he's in most of the scenes. Elizabeth Taylor seems strangely out of place as Helen of Troy and the effects of years of alcohol abuse caused her appearance to be seriously frayed at the edges. Still, this is a fun film that get's a watch from me about every five years. I particularly enjoyed Andres Truber's Portrayal of Mephistopheles. He is quite believable as the somewhat penitent fallen angel. The seven deadly sins sequence always gets a hardy laugh from me. The character of Lechery looks like a poofed up drag queen. The ending is quite dramatic and the delivery o the lines by Burton are indeed quite effective.

I have been intrigue by the legend of Dr. Faustus, the man who sell his very soul to the devil himself for knowledge and lust; after much research on the web. I have watched this film based on the play by Christopher Marlowe (a playwright who lived in the same time as Shakespeare) and it was AWESOME! I love Elizabeth Taylor and I have a few of her films. But I had gotten confuse whether it's a horror film or dramatic film? Of course the film's horrific images of Hell and that gross corpse cover with maggots when Dr. Faustus practiced necromancy (the magical art of bringing the dead to life) makes it a horror film.I was shocked by the negative reviews I would see on the web, I thought it was an excellent horror film. You know on the scene where Dr. Faustus sees the Seven Deadly Sins, I think the guy that played Lechery/Lust is very hot (*drool*). But they left out Gluttony & Sloth, well DUH! the film is 92 minutes.