Seeing "The Only Game In Town" for the first time forty odd years after it was made is a very special treat for anyone who loves film and film history. This was going to be George Steven's last film. A great director, a pioneer. Here he's directing Elizabeth Taylor for the third time, after "A Place In The Sun" and "Giant". That alone makes "The Only Game In Town" a collector's piece. Elizabeth Taylor clearly trusted George Stevens completely and for good reason. She is spectacular. Every close up is like a personal, private experience. Warren Beatty is perfect here and he turned down "Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid" to work with George Stevens. Good for him. A delicious treat.

Within the first 5 - 10 minutes I felt that this film was a waste of the talents of Elizabeth Taylor and Warren Beatty. Both are miscast as there is little 'energy' between them throughout the entire film. A great film starts out with a great story. This story is from duds-ville. Taylor, as an adult, is best in dramas, intense dramas, where the story allows her to be in conflict with the male paramour. That's why Burton-Taylor's rendition in Wm, Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" is so great. Anybody could have done Beatty's role in this film. He is lackluster, to be fair. I guess the players did it for the money and not for the art for there is no real art in the story or the setting or the movie itself. Sorry, George Stevens. Not a film to be proud of.

Dreary, poky, talky and practically non-existent as drama, The Only Game in Town features Liz Taylor, looking like a mature Millie Perkins(see Wild in the Streets), ridiculously cast as a Vegas showgirl. Taylor's pretty, but vacuous, and she and the boring, mumbling Beatty don't compel and they are an odd, uninteresting and unconvincing pairing. Neither one could be accused of acting, and their characters were intended for less stellar types. George Stevens who directed Taylor in A Place in the Sun and Giant brings only his name to this film, his last, and Frank Gilroy, who received a Pulitzer Prize for his play The Subject Was Roses, and whose film From Noon Till Three is a gem, hasn't written anything that seems worth putting on the screen. The audience, wisely, never showed.

I recorded this off of the TV years ago & I must say I really like it more as the years go by.When I first saw it about 25 years ago I didn't get it at all & was very disappointed by the cheap setting etc...it felt very much like a filmed play.But now I really appreciate it as very sensitive film about two lost people who find each other at lonely points in their lives & hook up to conquer the boredom and loneliness, take each other for granted and then realise they actually love each other.Liz could be a very sensitive, emotional & witty performer. She's often at her best in little movies and I think this is one of her most touching and emotional performances. She gives this picture wit and soul which make up for the cheaply put together locations.Warren Beatty, who I usually find quite 'blah,' is also good as the guy with a gambling habit who falls for a lonely dancer.