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Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Review: Seething with acidic ill will and unmitigated vitriol, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? remains one of the cinema's most honest, affecting trips down the corpse-strewn path of marital dysfunction. Adapted for the screen from Edward Albee's play (deemed the "best American play of the last decade" by The New York Times), it was a scathing, uncompromising drama that on its release earned almost as much controversy as kudos. Much of this controversy emanated from the filmmakers' refusal to delete the expletives--scatalogical and otherwise--that marked the original play. Controversy aside, Who's Afraid represented the remarkably accomplished movie directing debut of Mike Nichols and featured spectacular performances. The only film at that point in history to have its entire main cast nominated for Academy Awards, Who's Afraid elicited Oscar-winning turns from Elizabeth Taylor and Sandy Dennis. Taylor in particular did some of the best work of her career, screaming, bullying, and scheming her way across the screen with raw, full-bodied anger. Both imposing and pathetic, her Martha remains one of the more astonishing examples of an avenging harpy that the screen has to offer. Aside from boasting such fine work from its leads, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? became known as one of the most successful examples of stage-to-screen adaptation. Much of this was due to Ernest Lehman's script, which remained scrupulously faithful to the original material, and the legendary Haskell Wexler's gorgeous black-and-white cinematography. Above all, Who's Afraid owed its success to Nichols' direction, here comprising one of the screen's most self-assured and controlled debuts. Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

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