Butterfield 8
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Movie Reviews of Butterfield 8
Movie Review: Elizabeth Forever
Summary: 4 Stars
I have to admit this, I love Elizabeth Taylor, I do not care what anyone elses views are concerning this wonderful lady, I just know that I love her movies, Elizabeth Taylor herself did not like this film, however I do, Elizabeth gives a moving performance and is wonderful to watch, if you liked Elizabeth Taylor in "The Last Time I Saw Paris, Rhapsody or Elephant Walk, you will like her in this, she is brilliant, although I think Elizabeth Taylor's crowning glory will always be Cat On A Hot Tin Roof with Burl Ives & Paul Newman.Movie Review: Butterfield 8 review
Summary: 4 Stars
Elizabeth Taylor plays Gloria in one of her earlier films. Gloria tries to become respectable but it leads to tragedy when she dies in a car accident. Worth seeing.Also good performances by Laurence Harvey and Eddie FisherMovie Review: "I loved it - every awful moment of it, I loved!"
Summary: 3 Stars
"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 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 onscreen, 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 my sister and I veered off into a conversation about the Austin 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 slut 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!"
Movie Review: "Mama, Let's Face It: I was the Slut of All Time!"
Summary: 3 Stars
When Elizabeth Taylor says that to her mom, she gets a slap in the face. But that's okay: this is one of those "torn from today's headlines" kind of movie where things like that are commonplace. Liz plays Gloria Wandruss, a wild sex kitten who may or may not be a call girl. I mean, why is the movie named after a phone number otherwise? Yet Liz gets steamed when Laurence Harvy leaves her money after their night together, so steamed that she uses her lipstick to scrawl across the living room mirror, "No Sale!" Wow, is this trash or what? Yes, "Butterfield 8" is a type of trash movie, in spite of its garnering Liz an Oscar. Why trash? There's a lot of meaningless sexy talk between everyone imaginable, for one thing. Another thing is the terrible acting of Laurence Harvey--he comes across as a sicko and I'm not sure that's where they were going with this one. He has the requisite long-suffering wife, Dina Merrill; not much to say about her performance--she knows that for some reason he's troubled, but she expects him to find himself one day. Really bad too is Liz's real-life husband of the year, Eddie Fisher, as her childhood friend who may or may not be in love with her. She keeps going over to his apartment and annoying him as he tries to compose music at his piano. From time to time his angry girlfriend Susan Oliver stops in to say jealousy-tinged things to Liz. I couldn't help but notice that Susan Oliver's hair and clothing style are suspiciously familiar--hey, she looks like Debbie Reynolds! I wonder why. I understand the original book by John O'Hara has the sexy Gloria leave her lover's apartment wearing nothing but a mink coat she "borrows" from his wife's closet, because during their wild night he ripped her dress off her body. Well, Hollywood allowed us to see the ripped dress on the floor, but Liz traipses around Laurence Harvey's apartment in her tight tight slip and spike heels before heading out under the mink. What I'd like to know is, If he was so passionate that he ripped her dress, why is this tight slip intact? Seems to me that something that form hugging would have offered more protection than a chastity belt. "Butterfield 8" is not a fine film, but it does offer us much in the way of humor, however inadvertently. If you're the sort of person who likes to talk back to the screen trying to top your friends with additional dialogue, then this is one movie you ought not miss.Movie Review: Liz is awfully good in awfully trashy film
Summary: 3 Stars
Elizabeth Taylor's Oscar-winning turn as a prostitute highlights an otherwise average film about an emotionally troubled prostitute who tries to go straight when she falls in love with a kindred spirit, a boozy lawyer stuck in a miserable marriage. ("Pretty Woman" it ain't). What could have been a crackling adaption of John O'Hara's tragic novel is instead a trashy, dramatically uneven, cliché-riddled film with a tacked-on (and ludicrous) happy ending that completely undermines the source material. Granted, Hollywood's censors would not have allowed a really faithful adaption of O'Hara's sexually charged novel, but even with the necessary trimming it should have been better. Taylor's bittersweet performance as Gloria Wandrous is by far the best thing about the film, though most of the cast acquits themselves well, particularly Lawrence Harvey as her lover, Weston Leggett. Eddie Fisher, cast only because he was Liz`s then-husband, sleepwalks through the film. Even with its flaws, it's worth seeing once, though, because Liz is simply commanding, dominating every scene she's in. Her performance edges alarmingly close to campy overacting at times, but she always knows when to reign it in, and she gives Gloria far more depth than the dreadful script could have hoped for. For those who only know Liz from her frequent tabloid headlines, here is a chance to get to know the versatile and dynamic actress who once took Hollywood by storm (though I recommend starting with "National Velvet"). Ironically, Liz says she hates this film, possibly due to being forced (blackmailed is more like it) into it by her contract at MGM.