Conspirator (1949)
6/10
For the first time since "Cynthia," Liz is queen of her own harem
5 June 2005
Warning: Spoilers
The film demonstrates that her acting was fresher, more spontaneous, and more compelling…

"Conspirator" was designed to guide Liz from young girl to woman in much the same way that "Cynthia" moved her from child to young girl… As the movie opens, she's the young American in London, worrying over being asked for a dance at a ball, and preoccupied with shopping sprees…

Like many of the parts she's played, her young lady here is a woman with nothing on her mind… Superficial, devil-may-care, Liz is yet a beguiling flirt; there's a particularly charming scene early in the film in which she chatters foolishly and at length in order to make less her fears of the dark…

The plot of the movie is to take her from frivolous girl to bruised but knowing young woman, and the change is effected, of course, by her relations with an attractive man…

After a whirlwind courtship, she marries a handsome British army major who's the answer to her schoolgirl notions of romance… With typical Taylor luck, her husband turns out to be a spy for the Russians… When she finally discovers his double life, she decides to turn him in… Her scene of momentous moral decision is unique: it's the only time in her career that romance is mixed with politics…

In its own simplistic way, "Conspirator" is a message movie (with excellent use of London's streets and parks…), and Liz, for a change, is a reasonable person, expressing dismay at her husband's duplicity and urging him to the greater rewards of loyalty to country… Liz is a patriot; as she says, she doesn't know much about politics, but, instinctively, she knows right from wrong and what her husband is doing is wrong…

As storm warning or political statement, "Conspirator" was Fifties naive… It was also, of course, Hollywood's response to the early Fifties Communist scare… The film was a firm warning that Communist sympathizers will end unhappily
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