MGM's The Sandpiper (1965)

Artist Laura Reynolds (Elizabeth Taylor) prefers to home-school her son, Danny (Morgan Mason), but when the child welfare department intervenes and demands that the boy attend a proper educational institution, Laura bypasses public school in favor of an Episcopal boarding school run by minister Dr. Edward Hewitt (Richard Burton). Although married with kids, Hewitt develops an attraction to Laura, and the two begin an affair, but they're soon discovered by Hewitt's wife, Claire (Eva Marie Saint).

Initial release: 23 June 1965 (USA)

Director: Vincente Minnelli

Featured song: The Shadow of Your Smile

Music composed by: Johnny Mandel

Screenplay: Dalton Trumbo, Michael Wilson, Louis Kamp, Irene Kamp

This movie is set in a place where I have fond memories:  Monterey, California.  The Big Sur is the witness to their love, wrong or not.  

It stars former husband and wife team of Burton and Taylor.  They were married from 1964 to 1974.  When they were past the seven year itch maybe they thought it was forever, but... wait, let's not go there.  Besides, even if it's public knowledge and a 2013 movie starring Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West to boot, I am not at the best source of information about the two of them.  All I know is that they got married again the following year, but they divorced again the year after that.  In 1983 they were in a play together called Private Lives and that's the extend of my knowledge even if I did watch Sherilyn Fenn play Taylor opposite Angus MacFayden as Burton in 1995.

THE SANDPIPER (1965) story by the producer named Martin Ransohoff loosely based on W. Somerset Maugham's Miss Thompsona.k.a.Rain,

Sandpipers are a large family, Scolopacidae, of waders or shorebirds. They include many species called sandpipers, as well as those called by names such as curlew and snipe. Wikipedia This sandpiper is used as a central symbol in the movie, illustrating the themes of growth and freedom.

The movie is about justifying loose morals by focusing on the love between the very much HAPPILY married to Claire(Eva Marie Saint) Headmaster(Richard Burton), REVEREND Edward Hewitt of the Episcopalian Boarding school our main protagonist Laura Reynolds( Elizabeth Taylor)'s disturbed young son named Danny(Morgan Mason) started attending, and Laura herself, a free-spirited artist(see the contrast between the two protagonists in the story).

During the course of the movie you would be moved, unless you are too uptight or something, and understand their plight, but when in the middle of the movie, someone would splash cold water on your face and you wake up to say, "Poor Claire...it's just so wrong."

Would they keep on loving or would they do the right thing?

An Andy Williams classic that became a Tony Bennett hit then later on became a Barbra Streisand tune.  

Lyrics

One day we walked along the sand
One day in early spring
You held a piper in your hand
To mend its broken wing
Now I'll remember many a day
And many a lonely mile
The echo of a piper's song
The shadow of a smile

The shadow of your smile
When you are gone
Will color all my dreams
And light the dawn
Look into my eyes
My love and see
All the lovely things
You are to me

Our wistful little star
Was far too high
A teardrop kissed your lips
And so did I
Now when I remember spring
All the joy that love can bring
I will be remembering
The shadow of your smile

Songwriters: Paul Webster / Johnny Mardel

The Shadow of Your Smile lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

CAST:

Elizabeth Taylor as Laura Reynolds

Richard Burton as Dr. Edward Hewitt

Eva Marie Saint as Claire Hewitt

Charles Bronson as Cos Erickson

Robert Webber as Ward Hendricks

James Edwards as Larry Brant

Torin Thatcher as Judge Thompson

Tom Drake as Walter Robinson

Douglas Henderson as Paul Sutcliff

Morgan Mason as Danny Reynolds

The Sandpiper with a broken wing 

The character Laura Reynolds nurses a sandpiper with a broken wing, as Edward Hewitt looks on. The bird lives in her home until it is healed and then flies free, though it comes back occasionally. This sandpiper is used as a central symbol in the movie, illustrating the themes of growth and freedom. -Wikipedia