Butterfield 8

source: Butterfield 8

The best thing about BUtterfield 8 is the performance of Elizabeth Taylor, it is a superb performance(especially during Gloria's rape revelation) that did deserve the Oscar it got and she to me has only been sexier in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. But that is not to say that she is the only good thing because the locations and costumes are just splendid and the whole film is very good-looking and rich in colour. The showdown between Taylor and Dunnock and especially the rape revelation scene(a very daring theme and scene for the time and still hits hard, the best line of the film is also in this scene) are very vividly done and are the dramatic highlights. Some of the supporting performances are good too, Mildred Dunnock is very touching, Betty Field has a ball and savours the catty dialogue she has and Kay Medford is always good value. BUtterfield 8 is a case however of the lead performance faring far better than the film itself, it's far from a terrible film but what is not so good about it comes across rather weakly. Laurence Harvey looks uncomfortable throughout, as you can see at the end and in the practically non-existent chemistry between him and Taylor, and Eddie Fisher is wasted, going through the motions in a thankless and confusingly-written role. Dina Merrill has next to nothing to do in a performance that manages to be overdone and underplayed. The music score from personal opinion was over-the-top and irritating as well as at times excessive, BUtterfield 8 would have benefited a little more from the score being used sparingly or not having one at all given the nature of the story. The pacing and direction like the film start off well but as the writing weakens the more lethargic both get. And the script and story didn't come off well to me, the controversial, daring aspects come across as tepid and out of date now and the script is as far away from naturally-flowing as you can go, has far too much talk and reeks of melodramatic soap opera complete with some of the catty dialogue sounding ridiculously over-heated. The ending came across as far too moralistic and the dialogue and Harvey's delivery of it in his very tacked-on final speech have to be heard to be believed. Overall, not terrible, not great but worth the viewing for Taylor and the production values. 5/10 Bethany Cox

When I started watching this film, I didn't know what to expect. At first it seemed like a slick, empty showcase for Elizabeth Taylor's beauty. However, it gradually turned into an involving (and extremely good-looking) little drama. You may have heard that it is campy; that's not true, although there is an unnecessary little speech by Harvey at the end. It's slickly produced, well-paced, entertaining and has an excellent cast.

Elizabeth Taylor was one of the most beautiful women in the world back in 1960 and she's always been a very talented actress. As the promiscuous model that finally fell in love, Taylor was the best thing in the dated, overly melodramatic, often ridiculous movie that was adapted from the John O'Hara's novel (written in 1935). I did not read "Butterfield 8" but I can't believe that the author of "Appointment in Samarra, and "The Lockwood Concern" wrote the stuff the cheap soap-operas are made of. Liz was big and she deserved her first Oscar but there are so many bad things about the movie - uninteresting characters, uninspired acting by the male protagonists, horrible irritating musical score - just a few of them. I read that Taylor hated the move when she was making it and she hates it now - I don't blame her. Taylor - Yes, the movie - no

Call girl Elizabeth Taylor (playing Gloria Wandrous-!!) pines for love in this glossy, empty claptrap from John O'Hara's flimsy novel. Lots of bitchy banter, a neon-lit love clinch, but no real characters and not much interest beyond the rather tacky glamor. The movie does begin well, with an elongated opening set-up featuring Liz leaving a married man's apartment, taking a mink and scrawling a missive on the mirror. But the film is so poky and lethargic, and Taylor looks so sleepy, that one waits in vain for the director to shake off the cobwebs. Even sleepier is Eddie Fisher, in a confusingly written role as Liz's...what? guy-pal? For those who stick with it, the ending has to be seen to be believed. Taylor surely didn't buy it, not even when she won the Best Actress Oscar (everyone knew it was because she had been so sick). *1/2 from ****

I just finished watching BUtterfield 8 and feel like I need to take a shower so I won't feel so dirty! What a truly God-awful story, told with truly awful acting. Lawrence Harvey is incredibly repulsive! Are we really supposed to believe that both Elizabeth Taylor and the wonderful Dina Merrill would fall in love with this lunkhead? The final scene, where he comes home and tells his wife what a good person Liz's character was, is stomach-turning. What normal, self-respecting wife would stand there and listen to that kind of pathetic drivel? I'm sorry I wasted my time - those are two hours I'll never get back!! My only consolation is that I didn't pay any money to see it.

"She's catnip to every cat in town," a bartender says of Gloria Wandrous, call girl and Party Girl #1, who is boozing it up, surrounded by a dozen men. Waking up in Wes Liggett's (Harvey) Fifth Avenue penthouse, she discovers he's left her a wad of money and a note saying, "Is $250 enough?" She hurls the money away, scrawling "No Sale" on the mirror with her lipstick. But she seems to forget that she is a call girl, and call girls accept money for services rendered. Unfortunately, Gloria is in love with Liggett, her "john", but he is married to someone else – a society matron poorly played by the cold, patrician beauty, Dina Merrill. As Gloria is leaving, she steals Ligget's wife's $7000 fur coat and starts all kinds of trouble. It certainly would have caused trouble today – the entire film is a PETA nightmare, as Gloria can be clocked wearing suede, lynx, coyote, mink, sable, beaver, and something that looks like skunk. The whole movie has Liz in her last fading bloom of youth, girded-to-the-gills and at the peak of her "eyebrows-of-death" period. Her Gloria-ously voluptuous figure is beginning to bulge and sag, but she is decked out to the nines in drop-dead stylish early-60s glamour. At the time, Liz and Jackie Kennedy were neck-and-neck in the glamour department, and the Jackie look is unmistakably present in Liz's styling. Though Jackie's never would be, Liz's cleavage is on abundant display. Cleavage was such a powerful metaphor for sex, then – a set-piece whose effectiveness would be impossible now (you practically have to show actors rutting on the floor to satisfy the modern taste). Liz was also at the peak of her Eddie Fisher period - playing a harlot on screen after stealing Fisher away from his real-life wife, Debbie Reynolds, only added to Liz's plummeting reputation. Fisher plays Gloria's friend who loves her but is not taken seriously by her. He's such a drip on screen, that you can't help wondering how in real life this guy managed to attract one of the most glamorous women in the world. The suave and very continental Harvey is equally dull, especially as he commandeers that last 20 minutes of the film. The part of Gloria won an Oscar for Liz Taylor – mysteriously, since the work is far inferior to many of Liz's previous films. Liz has proclaimed that this is the least favorite film she ever made – she was simply fulfilling the requirements of her contract. But when Liz is good, she's very, very good, but when she's bad, she gives it all she's got. Director Daniel Mann definitely had a way with leading-ladies. In addition to guiding Liz towards her Oscar, he did the same for Shirley Booth in *Come Back, Little Sheba* and Anna Magnani in *The Rose Tattoo*. Also directing Susan Hayward in *I'll Cry Tomorrow*, Mann certainly excels in these heavy-handed soapers. Based on the racy John O'Hara novel, the dialogue is dreadful. At one point Gloria tells her shrink, "I don't need you any more. I have no problems. I'm in love," as well as, "Someday Wes is going to find himself, and I want to be there." The script was so bad we veered off into a conversation about the yogurt shop murders, and missed a scene full of lots of drinking, ultimatums and arched eyebrows, but we were riveted to the screen as Gloria is screaming, "Mama, face it! I was the * of all time!" But even when shrieking, Liz is irresistible. And like Gloria says in the movie, "I loved it – every awful moment of it, I loved!"

This is a very great film because Elizabeth Taylor,(Gloria Wandrous),"Night Watch",'73, played her role as a * to perfection. Gloria was an abused child who had to over come the mental pain that she carried around in her mind. Eddie Fisher, "Nothing Lasts Forever",'84,was a very very close friend who allowed Gloria to crash at his pad and was like a brother to her and listened to her darkest secrets and fears! Laurence Harvey,"Life At the Top",65 was a playboy who was married to a very rich woman that seemed to tolerate his playing around with other women. There are a great deal of twists and turns as to just where Gloria is going to wind up! Elizabeth Taylor was very beautiful and at the height of her career. ENJOY!

John O'Hara's novel was way ahead of its time. Daniel Mann's "Butterfield 8" was a film that capitalized on the lurid aspects of the book, but actually was turned into a soap opera. By today's standards it looks kind of ridiculous, but of course, it was meant to reflect the period of the late fifties in which the action is set. Elizabeth Taylor was at the height of her beauty when the movie was shot. She comes out as the gorgeous creature she was in this vehicle that won her the Oscar that she should have received for other films, notably "Suddenly, Last Summer". The film will entertain whoever hasn't seen it before. It's obvious Ms. Taylor and her co-star, Lawrence Harvey, had no chemistry whatsoever, as it shows in the film. What was shocking then wouldn't raise an eyebrow now. In the supporting cast, Mildred Dunnock, Betty Field, Dina Merrill give good performances. Watch this film as curiosity piece to see some of the New York of that era.

Elizabeth Taylor hated making this movie (forced on her by MGM to fulfill the last part of her contract with the studio dating back to her days as a child star), and she hates it still. But whereas a lesser performer would have channeled that hatred into not trying at all on screen, La Liz instead channeled her hatred of the project by playing her part of call-girl Gloria Wandrous to the hilt, and in the process richly earned her first Academy Award (it is a far better performance than Shirley MacLaine's in "The Apartment", her chief competition that year). The story is cheap soap opera that really makes one snicker today when you see how they had to dance around the Production Code restraints of the day like never before, but watching La Liz in action is spellbinding. No other part reveals how in her prime she was the total picture of stunning beauty *and* a talented, gifted actress to boot.