Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Warner Bros. employed considerable clout to bring Edward Albee's scathing satirical play to the big screen in 1966 with its off-color verbiage virtually intact. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor play George and Martha, a middle-aged married couple who have just returned home from a party at the late hour of 2 a.m. Martha immediately begins to rake George over the coals—and we quickly learn the nature of their relationship: George is a history professor who will never be head of the department, while Martha is none other than the dean's daughter. The pair have invited another couple over for drinks that night (morning?), Nick (George Segal) and Honey (Sandy Dennis). Over the course of the next few hours, dirty little secrets will be exposed with shameful regularity, as everyone engages in a vicious one-upmanship that ultimately has no real winners. Throughout, the mysterious subject of George and Martha's "son" hangs over the conversation like a loaded gun, and—in true dramatic fashion—explodes in the final act. Director Mike Nichols's debut feature film scored 13 Oscar nominations, and walked away with five statues, including Best Actress (for Taylor, who bravely played the role with a few extra pounds, messy hair, and truly tacky clothes) and Best Supporting Actress for Dennis. Bowing on Blu-ray, extras include two audio commentaries (one by Nichols and filmmaker Steven Soderbergh; the other by cinematographer Haskell Wexler), a 1966 interview with Nichols, retrospective featurettes, the 1975 documentary Elizabeth Taylor: An Intimate Portrait, and Dennis's screen tests. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (R. Pitman)