i love this sondheim masterpiece and have see what sondheim consider the fine staging ever ( new york city opera ) live and on video many time over and the movie still have significant virtue . it be widely pan and dismiss a if all the film critic secretly meet and take a vote to hate it together . yes and some song have be cut and some theme ( most sadly and mme . armfeldt ) basically eliminate . but there be still some truly definitive performance and beautifully mount scene . and elizabeth taylor be far from terrible in her part . unfortunately the current film on video be in terrible deterioration . this film deserve to be preserve a a rare film adaptation in sondheim library . remember the horrible film version of funny thing happen . and south pacific and other great broadway musical that receive poor screen adaptation . take in context of how seldom movie version successfully transfer to the screen and a little night music be not great but be certainly good and and far good than many other movie musical that seem to be hold in high esteem than they deserve .