Liberace: Behind the Music (1988) Online

Too much is attempted to be told in 1 hour and 36 minutes.

Victor Garber does turn in a convincing performance as the flamboyant Lee. Maureen Stapleton is his doting mother who appeared on the way to another wonderful performance when the writing for her part did her in. As is the case with all those who orbited around his life, she was there to take full advantage even if it meant attempting to sabotage his one brief stab at a female romance. That being said, even the female took advantage of Lee as well.

The music is nicely staged. There is an all too brief scene with his father, the latter having abandoned the family years before. Years later, the father, an apparent Alzheimer's victim, doesn't even remember his son.

The film tries to convey that Liberace was virtually trapped by his homosexual tendencies. The film begins to fail as the men in his life begin to come and go. The most tragic of his guys was the 18 year old that he took in to make his chauffeur, only to see him become a cocaine addicted victim who is thrown out by Liberace. He retaliates by filing a palimony suit for millions.

Just picked up this DVD in a bin at WalMart. I had never heard of the film, but glad I've added it to my collection. Although it does touch on Lee's homosexuality and the palimony suit of one of his many boyfriends, it also touches, lightly, on what actually made him the famous man he was. In a time when being gay was not accepted openly by anyone in show biz, he tried to keep things quiet - but the love of his mother and his obviously flamboyant way on stage kept the tongues wagging. After awhile people didn't care one way or another, they just loved his music and his show biz style. Classic Maureen Stapleton plays his mother and Saul Rubinek is interesting as his last manager. If you kind of flip through the soap opera script, you can still sit back and enjoy the music, which I believe is actually him playing.