Oct 27, 2026 · 1 hr 14 min · 14 segments
Monty’s cataclysmic car accident throws a wrench in his stardom, his mental and physical health, and his relationship with Libby, who begins to see Monty’s other beloved female friend, Elizabeth…
Karina LongworthHost
One of the first things Monty did after arriving in Los Angeles for the Raintree County shoot was to visit makeup master William Tuttle, who needed to make a cast of Monty's head so that they could create a period-appropriate glue-on beard.
Another thing that happened early in the process of making this film was that MGM exec Dory Sherry decided to take out an insurance policy worth half a million dollars to protect the studio in case the production shut down.
Sherry said he took this unusual measure because he had heard stories, including from Elizabeth, about Monty's problematic drinking.
As Sherry later put it, it had never been done before, but I had a funny premonition that we should.
He was out of practice when it came to the pace of shooting films, and he was in nearly every scene of Rain Tree County.
Plus, as Liz Taylor's marriage to Michael Wilding deteriorated, Clift had somehow become a sounding board not just for Liz, but also Wilding, who would drive over to Monty's rental house late at night to seek his advice as to how to retain Elizabeth's love.
Monty had spent so much time with the Wildings since their marriage in 1952 that there were rumors around town that they must be a throuple, which was not true, at least not sexually.
It was always Liz, begging Monty to agree to come over to her place for dinner that night.
Here, I'm going to cut to an excerpt from the previous You Must Remember This episode on Liz and Monty from 2015.
He had been so determined to not go out that night that he had given his chauffeur the night off.
So he drove his own rented car to the Wilding Mansion in Benedict Canyon, several corkscrew turns off of Mulholland.
The guests included Monty's best friend Kevin McCarthy, who was then starring in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Rock Hudson and Roddy McDowell, two of Liz's gay best friends, and her husband Wilding, who spent the whole night laying on the couch to soothe his bad back.
He excused himself to leave early and asked McCarthy to drive in front of him down the hill so Monty wouldn't get lost.
He pounded on the front door of Liz's house, screaming, Monty's been in an accident.
A few minutes earlier, Kevin had been driving down the canyon, ahead of Monty.
McCarthy first noticed that the lights from Monty's car were no longer in his rear view, and then he heard a crash.
One of the first things Monty did after arriving in Los Angeles for the Raintree County shoot was to visit makeup master William Tuttle, who needed to make a cast of Monty's head so that they could create a period-appropriate glue-on beard.
Another thing that happened early in the process of making this film was that MGM exec Dory Sherry decided to take out an insurance policy worth half a million dollars to protect the studio in case the production shut down.
Sherry said he took this unusual measure because he had heard stories, including from Elizabeth, about Monty's problematic drinking.
As Sherry later put it, it had never been done before, but I had a funny premonition that we should.
He was out of practice when it came to the pace of shooting films, and he was in nearly every scene of Rain Tree County.
Plus, as Liz Taylor's marriage to Michael Wilding deteriorated, Clift had somehow become a sounding board not just for Liz, but also Wilding, who would drive over to Monty's rental house late at night to seek his advice as to how to retain Elizabeth's love.
Monty had spent so much time with the Wildings since their marriage in 1952 that there were rumors around town that they must be a throuple, which was not true, at least not sexually.
It was always Liz, begging Monty to agree to come over to her place for dinner that night.
Here, I'm going to cut to an excerpt from the previous You Must Remember This episode on Liz and Monty from 2015.
He had been so determined to not go out that night that he had given his chauffeur the night off.
So he drove his own rented car to the Wilding Mansion in Benedict Canyon, several corkscrew turns off of Mulholland.
The guests included Monty's best friend Kevin McCarthy, who was then starring in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Rock Hudson and Roddy McDowell, two of Liz's gay best friends, and her husband Wilding, who spent the whole night laying on the couch to soothe his bad back.
He excused himself to leave early and asked McCarthy to drive in front of him down the hill so Monty wouldn't get lost.
He pounded on the front door of Liz's house, screaming, Monty's been in an accident.
A few minutes earlier, Kevin had been driving down the canyon, ahead of Monty.
McCarthy first noticed that the lights from Monty's car were no longer in his rear view, and then he heard a crash.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.