Completed in 1950, when Elizabeth Taylor was a thoroughly radiant 18-year-old, Love Is Better Than Ever ended up being one of the actress' lesser-known films, held back from release for two years due to the presence of Larry Parks as the picture's co-star. Parks had run into trouble because of his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee and had been blacklisted from the movie industry after 1950. The delay in the release and the less-than-full measure of publicity and distribution accorded the movie rendered it one of Taylor's most obscure MGM films, which was unfortunate, both for fans of the actress and for filmgoers in general. Love Is Better Than Ever has its flaws, to be sure; placing oneself in the context of the time in which it was made, it seems a little too complex to be the light entertainment vehicle that would have made it an easy sell, but it also lacks the air of self-conscious importance that a "serious" movie was supposed to display. But it also offers Elizabeth Taylor in a role that's years ahead of its time, as an intelligent, sensitive, thoughtful, and talented young woman, with a career in front of her but also a fully, thoroughly romantic side to her being. Director Stanley Donen, who reportedly had a serious romantic involvement with Taylor, gave her every chance to shine onscreen and she does, playing a part that, in some respects, wasn't too far-removed from where she was in her own life -- more downscale, but basically a bright and beautiful young woman with life, career, and marriage (okay, many marriages, as reality worked out) ahead of her. And Larry Parks has great success essaying a very difficult role, somewhere between a good-natured regular guy and a total heel, bringing a palpable, realistic agony to a character who can't make up his mind whether it's better to stay single and free, or take the previously unthinkable plunge into marriage with a woman he can't quite get over -- on whom, in the vernacular of the time, he's "stuck."
What makes this movie so unusual when seen today is that it's the distaff point-of-view about love and romance and career that drives the plot. The screenwriter, Ruth Brooks Flippen, who was later part of the production team behind the Marlo Thomas television series That Girl, makes this a uniquely female-centered non-soap opera feature film, freely mixing comedy and drama in a way that only would have confused audiences in the early '50s. Taylor's Anastacia "Staci" Macaboy is the not-so-distant antecedent to Marlo Thomas' Ann Marie in the later series -- instead of a Brewster, NY-based would-be actress, Taylor is a New Haven, CT-based dance teacher who finds more than an enhancement to her career when she spends some time in New York City. And Donen doesn't neglect the actress' physical appeal -- there's a scene in her family's living room in which she massages Parks' strained shoulder and the camera lingers on her fully clothed body about as closely, and lovingly, and quietly erotically as any shot in a mainstream movie of the era. Her and Parks' subsequent love scene is as sweetly romantic and erotic as anything ever seen in a non-musical MGM movie; Donen obviously adored the actress and makes that adoration the center of that sequence. He also leaves plenty of room for Parks' character to shine, providing much of the comedy in his harried reaction to Taylor's serious feelings about their attraction. The two leads get lots of help in some fine supporting performances, by Tom Tully as Taylor's unexpectedly understanding father; Josephine Hutchinson as her very protective mother; Kathleen Freeman (who steals every shot she's in) as a helpful seamstress; and Dick Wessel, Dave Willock, and Alex Gerry as the Broadway denizens who comprise Parks' coterie of friends. It's still sometimes an awkward mix in the transitions, between the Broadway scenes and the New Haven sequences, and the overcoming of Parks' character's cynicism is a little too sketchy -- at times, one feels this is a Damon Runyon story laced with a very big dose of estrogen, and fighting its effects. But overall Love Is Better Than Ever is a diverting little jewel of a romance, more advanced than it had a right to be in 1950 (or 1952), and a lot of fun today.