Disque Butterfield 8

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.

Two beautiful unhappy people from opposite ends of Eisenhower era America are drawn together by an obsessive love that ends in tragic consequences. Elizabeth Taylor won a Best Actress Oscar (after much better performances in earlier pictures such as `Cat On A Hot Tin Roof') for her portrayal of (shock!) call-girl Gloria Wandrous. Laurence Harvey plays the john, Weston Liggett, trapped in a stale marriage with his stoic wife Emily (Dina Merrill, perfect as a blue-blooded blonde heiress).

Complementing the moody performances of Liz and Laurence Harvey are an excellent Eddie Fisher as Gloria's long-suffering best friend and greatest admirer Steve, Mildred Dunnock as poor Mrs. Wandrous, in complete denial of her daughter's easy virtue, Betty Field as nosy neighbor Mrs. Fanny Barber, and many others including Kay Medford as tragicomic motel matron, Happy.

Lurking behind the scenes of `Butterfield 8' are some very grown up issues (particularly for its day) about infidelity, high class prostitution, childhood sexual abuse, and the meaning of true commitment. The dialogue by John Michael Hayes (`Peyton Place,' `To Catch A Thief,' and `Rear Window", among many credits) and Charles Schnee, is punchy and quick, and the movie glows with luscious cinematography from Hollywood veteran Joseph Ruttenberg, who got an Academy Award nomination for his efforts (he had previously won four Oscars dating back to 1938).

Although somewhat dated, it remains a thoughtful film (if you pay attention) and a visual treat for any Liz fan. Worth watching!

In the normal scheme of things, lofty MGM wouldn't have touched John O'Hara's novel with a ten foot pole--but shortly before her contract was to end, MGM star Elizabeth Taylor besmirched her image by running off with Debbie Reynolds' husband Eddie Fisher. With her reputation in shreds and one foot outside the studio gate any way, MGM decided to capitalize on the bad press by casting Taylor as BUTTERFIELD 8's bad-girl-from-hell... and then, to add insult to injury, tucked Eddie Fisher into a supporting role and cast Debbie Reynolds look-alike Susan Oliver in the role of Eddie's girl friend, who feels threatened by Liz's manhungry ways. Liz fought the project tooth and nail, but MGM was adamant: she owed them another film, and she wasn't leaving until she made it.

BUTTERFIELD 8 is the story of Gloria Wandrous (Taylor), a hard-drinking, sexed-up, bed-hopping dress model who gets her kicks by seducing and then dumping men according to whim--until she encounters an unhappily married man just as hard and disillusioned as she in Weston Liggett (Laurence Harvey.) Although the production code was still somewhat in force, it had loosened up quite a bit since the days of NATIONAL VELVET, and while scenes stop short at the bedroom door they have plenty of sizzle while they walk up to it; moreover, every one in the film talks about sex so much you'd think it had just been invented. Taylor is on record saying that she considers the film a piece of trash, and she swears she has never actually seen it, that she would rather die than ever see it.

But something weird happened as the camera rolled. Taylor, doubtlessly driven by her fury at having to do the movie, gives a throw-away, over-the-top performance--but perversely, this is precisely what the role requires, and her performance was successful enough to earn her an Oscar. The supporting cast follows her lead, all of them performing in broad colors and bigger-than-life emotions, and again they too are quite successful, with Laurence Harvey and Dina Merrill (as his long suffering wife) particularly effective. Ultimately, of course, Elizabeth Taylor is quite right when she says the film is a piece of trash. But it is the best kind of trash because it is so completely trashy: BUTTERFIELD 8 doesn't just dive into the trash pile, it wallows in it with considerable conviction. Modern films of the same type may show more skin and more sex, but for sheer authority BUTTERFIELD 8 remains a standard against which most of them pale. Not every one will like it, but I recommend it all the same.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

On the surface, Taylor was all sex and devil-may-care… Everything in her was struggling toward respectability… She never gave up trying…The film concerns her fashionable life which is part model, part call-girl—and all man-trap… Her performance is one of her best and was nominated for her third Academy Award…

Her remarkable scene is her confession to Eddie Fisher about how she got started in the life: she was seduced by a house guest when she was thirteen, and she liked it! She has always 'liked' it! Emotionally, she dominates the screen at this moment and her serious attitude simply fills it up…

Filmed in and around New York, "Butterfield 8" is an intimate portrait of a tormented woman daringly beautiful and sexy

... and just a few years away from the production code being dumped altogether it seems like a demonstration of what was the worst about the code years combined with films in the 60s trying to use what shock value they could get away with, and today , overall, it just looks cheesy.

In most summaries of this film I see Elizabeth Taylor's character, Gloria, described as a call girl. I never really see that happening. Instead Gloria just seems to like sex a lot. As in lots of sex with lots of men. Maybe to come out and say that when the goal of all women was still supposed to be having dishpan hands was going too far.

Gloria wakes up one morning in the apartment of wealthy but married playboy Weston Liggitt (Laurence Harvey), with him having left behind a note with $250 asking "Is this enough". She writes "no sale" in the mirror and takes a mink coat she finds in the closet - only to teach the guy a lesson for assuming she is for sale, but as they get more involved and do so immediately, she forgets all about that coat, and that causes a huge misunderstanding down the line.

The title comes from Gloria's answering service which is "Butterfield 8", and it is the subject of some - today - howlingly unintentionally funny scenes as Liggitt pleads with these people to find Gloria, curses at these people because they don't know where Gloria is, thanks them when they do find her. Gee, fellow, these are just operators eking out a living. They don't know their clients and they don't know you!

With Liz' husband at the time, Eddie Fisher, as a musician who has been Gloria's platonic friend since childhood and who also has a jealous girlfriend who oddly enough looks like Debbie Reynolds. There are some great location shots on the road between New York and Boston with the little independent diners and hotels that once dotted that landscape. I'd mildly recommend it.

An aside - Jeffrey Lynn, once strangely promoted as a romantic leading man over at Warner Brothers just before WWII, does a good job in a small role as Liggitt's friend.