[3] It starred Burton as the title character Faustus, with Elizabeth Taylor appearing in a silent role as Helen of Troy.

Burton would not appear on stage again until he took over the role of Martin Dysart in Equus on Broadway ten years later.

Signing the pact in his own blood, Faustus bargains his soul to Lucifer in exchange for 24 living years with Mephistopheles as his slave.

Of the Oxford University Dramatic Society, Queen's College, Oxford, England: With: Reviews of the staged version in the British press were "less than enthusiastic", with critics commenting "a sad example of university drama at its worst", with an uninspired Burton "walking through the part".

[4] The movie received a terribly negative review in The New York Times, Renata Adler criticizing the adaptation of the text ("the play has been quite badly cut"), Burton's performance ("he seems happiest shouting in Latin, or in Ms. Taylor's ear"), the score ("some horrible electronic Wagnerian theme music"), and Taylor's role ("in this last role [Alexander's paramour], she is, for some reason, frosted all over with silver—like a pastry, or a devaluated refugee from Goldfinger[5]"), reserving praise only for Teuber's performance ("one fine, very pious performance").