BUtterfield 8

Plot synopsis:
The movie opening credits play, while we watch a sleeping Gloria (Elizabeth Taylor) snoozing in the morning. She wakes up, and surveys her surroundings purposefully - in search of a morning cigarette. Making do with a glass of scotch instead, she meanders through the apartment, brushing her teeth, washing her face, going through a closet and trying on a mink coat for size. As she goes to into the living room, she finds her dress torn on the floor. With a sigh, she heads toward her purse on the table, and finds a note for her with some cash. "Gloria - I hope $250.00 is enough. -L"Anger washes over her face, as she reels away from the note. Lipstick in hand, she scrawls "No Sale" on a large mirror in the living room, and leaves the cash on the mantle. She leaves a few dollars next to the scotch bottle to pay for her drink, and leaves the posh apartment in only her slip and the fur coat.After hailing a taxi to a more middle-class area, she knocks on the door of her friend, Steve Carpenter, a composer. At his piano, he makes sarcastic comments as Gloria parades around the apartment. She takes off the coat and teases him - he quietly tenses and commands her to put the coat back on. Gloria persists in teasing him, flirting with him, until she sees that he is being very serious. She puts on the coat, and is about to leave - making sure to proclaim that he is "the only person [she] can be honest with." He replies back that he wishes she wouldn't - he doesn't want to have to see her throw away her life like this. After making to leave - he finally calls her back. Both forgiving, he makes coffee and breakfast for both of them. She coyly says that she'll need something to wear home, and that her mother will be appalled if she goes home dressed - or rather undressed - like that. Steve says that he is sure that her mother will not be surprised - but Gloria insists that though her mother is probably aware of her nightlife, they both quietly ignore it. She finally convinces him to call up his girlfriend Norma to bring over a suit for her.Norma arrives with the suit, but is not too pleased to be seeing Gloria in the morning. The hatred is clear on both parts, but eventually, Gloria leaves while blowing Steve an antagonizing kiss. After she leaves, Norma makes her displeasure known to Steve and after a quick argument, proclaims that she can't be with him while he's in love with Gloria. Though he protests, she leaves, saying that it is her or Gloria.Gloria arrives home in her little red two-seater car, to her mother's extreme delight. The neighbor is over having a cup of tea with Gloria's mom, and doesn't miss an opportunity to direct a sarcastic and biting comment to Gloria when the chance comes. Gloria tells her mother that she spent the night at Norma's apartment, which the neighbor scoffs at. While Gloria goes to shower, she gets a call from Butterfield 8 (the phone code used to call the upper east side in the 1960s), connecting Mr. Ligget to her. He had come home to see the lipstick, and wants to meet up with her tonight if she is able. She says that she'll be in the neighborhood, and hangs up.Meanwhile, Weston Ligget, known as "Wes," travels upstate New York by train with his friend, whom he formerly worked with in a law practice. The friend can tell that Wes is troubled, and after Wes complains about married life, he tells him that he is a first-class heel. He offers him a job at the law firm again, whenever Wes would like, but Wes seems resigned to his job - which soon is revealed to be a leading role in his wife's family chemical company.Wes arrives at his wife's family home, and shoots skeet with his wife Emily. She has been staying with her mother while the mother was ill, but Wes did not join her. As they shoot, it is clear that Wes is determined on self-deprecation, making it clear that he is merely a face, with no power, at the chemical company. Emily, unsure how to react, only tries to cheer him up.That night, Weston Ligget waits at a bar in New York for Gloria to meet him. She arrives, and the chill between them fills the air. Her pride has been hurt by the morning money, but he is persistent in chasing her. After a heated exchange, he grabs her wrist hard. They quietly struggle, him twisting her wrist, while she digs her high heel right into his foot. Both grimacing in pain, he finally relents and lets go. She follows suit, but still stares defiantly at him. She finally says that she has to work - she is being paid to visit three different bars wearing the dress she had on. He agrees to go with her.They manage to visit two of the bars, with Wes sitting and scowling at Gloria, chatting with the men at the bar, and being photographed with them. As they leave the second, he tells her that he is "no chauffeur," but she reminds him that he called for her, and not the other way around. Anger turns to passion, and they decide to go to a motel, "Happy's Motel," that is owned by an older vaudeville starlet.Back at Steve's apartment, a man is picking up the newly written sheet music for a play. Norma enters as the man leaves - she is hopeful that it is because Steve has given up on Gloria. When she opens up the closet to leave her coat, she sees that the mink coat Gloria had "borrowed" from Emily is still hanging there. Knowing that Steve is still friends with Gloria, she goes to leave. Steve insists on explaining his relationship with Gloria once and for all -- they had been kids growing up together. Gloria's father died when she was really young, and Steve felt like it was his duty to look after her, and take care of her. If he didn't, who would - Norma seemed to understand, but still couldn't handle it being three in the relationship, instead of two.The next day, Gloria and Wes breakfast at a nearby diner, and they decide to spend the week together, exploring. After this, they travel to the place where Wes was born, spending a day on his old boat, acting as if he wasn't married, and she wasn't a tramp. On the final day, they are walking down Fifth Avenue, and Gloria has them stop in a men's shop. She buys an attache case, and has the clerk monogram it with the initials "S.C." for Steve Carpenter. Clearly jealous, Wes snubs Gloria, until Gloria reveals that she had also bought a present for him earlier, and it was waiting at the shop -- a gold lighter engraved with "BU8" They kiss, and then Wes confesses that he has to leave her to see his wife, who was returning that night. Gloria said that she always knew this would happen, and said that she had to see her friend Steve for his birthday - and to give him the case. When he goes to hang her coat, she gasps when she sees the mink still hanging in the closet. She explains "She's coming home today!" as she runs out of the apartment, determined to return the mink before she comes back.As Gloria pulls up in her car to Wes's apartment, she walks up to the door as Emily arrives. The doorman greets Emily as Mrs. Ligget, and Gloria looks astonished at her. She quickly loses her nerve, and runs back to her car, and speeds off.Wes arrives home later, and greets his wife. Emily mentions that her mink is missing - Wes had not known that the coat was gone. At first he doesn't know how - but then he realizes that it had to have been Gloria. He quickly turns into a rage - refuses to allow Emily to call the police, and says that he will hire a private investigator to find the coat. Emily - confused and worried about his behavior - tries to reassure him that she will do whatever he wants, as his wife. He leaves in a hurry, to go out and find Gloria. He searches all of her favorite haunts, the bars, the clubs. He calls her, but no answer. While at one of the last bars he checks, some friends greet him. They see that he is troubled, and they confess that they know he has been with Gloria. High-fiving him, and cheering him on, they say "Welcome to the club!" - it quickly becomes clear to Wes that she has had a wide variety of men in her lifetime. He leaves angry, and drunk.Gloria, upset and unsure as to what to do, speeds along a dark highway. She is stopped for speeding by a police officer, who warns her about driving angry. She decides to stay at Happy's Motel to clear her head. The next morning, having a cup of coffee with Happy, Happy warns her of her story. The one who at first wanted to make it in the film industry, and then quickly found herself in more "little black books" than film credits. With that advice, Gloria goes home. Her mother gives her the note that Wes wanted to meet her at a restaurant, and Gloria quickly changes and leaves with the mink.Arriving at the restaurant, Wes is clearly drunk and angry. Gloria gives him the coat, and he quickly turns into a rage, yelling at her and calling her a prostitute, making a huge scene. The manager and waiters try to get him to leave, but he fights them - and is finally punched by another restaurant patron. Gloria chases after him, and drives him home. As he struggles to get out of the car, she goes to hand him the coat. He takes it, and then throws it at her, saying "how could he give his wife that coat, now that something like [her] has touched it." Emily, worried about Wes, observes the whole scene from the apartment window. Wes enters the apartment, and tells Emily to leave him alone.Gloria, beside herself in grief, goes to Steve's apartment, and tells him what happened. She blames herself for all of the problems, and cries hard. Steve tries to calm her down, when she says that she needs to tell him something. When she was thirteen, her mother was seeing a Major after her father died. The major picked her up from the train station after summer camp, and stayed with her the week while the mother was away. During that week, the major raped her repeatedly - Gloria allowed it, since she was looking for a father figure in her life. She says that the worst part is, she liked it - she loved every minute of it. It is clear that Gloria was looking for a male figure in her life, and confused sex for love. She stays the night, because Steve was afraid what she would do if she left.The next morning, Norma comes to find Gloria sleeping on the couch, and Steve curled up on the Murphy bed. She wakes up Steve and he hugs her. He tells her that he wants to marry her that day - with a smile, she tells him that she didn't have anything else to do that day. Gloria, waking up, smiles at the proposal.Wes is sleeping in his bed, while his wife comes in to look in on him. He tells her that they need to get a divorce - that he is in love with another woman. Emily says that she saw her last night when Wes came home - and asked if he really loved her. Wes said that he was angry with Gloria, but it was only because he loved her so much, and was afraid of losing her. He leaves, while Emily sinks to the bed in tears.Gloria is back at her mother's apartment, saying goodbyes to the mother and the neighbor before leaving with her suitcases. She is leaving for Boston - a fresh start. Wes, at the same time, tries to call Gloria, but the number has been disconnected. Butterfield 8 tells him that she has moved on to Boston - and Wes quickly sets off to chase after her. Awhile down the thruway, he sees her car parked at a roadside diner. He goes and apologizes to Gloria, begs her to come back with him. He says that he wants to get married, try again. Gloria cries, saying that it will never work, because her past will always be on his mind, and the hateful words he said to her yesterday will never leave hers. After begging, she finally agrees to go to Happy's Motel to talk. When they both arrive, Gloria has a change of heart, and squeals back onto the road. Wes gets into his car, and chases her.They speed down the thruway, until Gloria notices that he is chasing her. She speeds up, and it quickly turns into a deadly high-speed chase. While looking in the rear-view mirror, Gloria doesn't see that the road is closed up ahead, and drives off of a large embankment, to her death. Wes runs to see if he can save her, but she is clearly dead in the wreck. When the coroner and police arrive on the scene, the police officer is the same officer that had pulled her over earlier. He says that he wished he had put her in jail that night instead.Wes arrives at home, and tells the story to Emily. Emily is very upset for him. Wes tells her that he will be leaving, to find his pride again, and that he will return to see if they will be of any use to each other in the future. As he leaves the door, the movie ends.

Tags: tragedy, romantic, melodrama

Review:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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).
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..
Add Laurence Harvey's womanizing alcoholic, Dina Merrill as the waspy compliant wife, Eddie Fisher (La Taylor's current hubby at the time) in the non-essential role as Liz's pal, and Mildred Dunnock as Liz's annoying mother in denial, and you'll be hard pressed to find a likable character.
Call girl Elizabeth Taylor (playing Gloria Wandrous-!!) pines for love in this glossy, empty claptrap from John O'Hara's flimsy novel.
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).
This is a very great film because Elizabeth Taylor,(Gloria Wandrous),"Night Watch",'73, played her role as a whore to perfection.
Every emotion is expressed in perfect sentences, leaving nothing for the actors to do except act along with the dialogue.At the very end Harvey says something like "...everything in her yearned for respectability." Respectability????????This movie and "The Apartment" were both released in 1960 and are both about good girls going to the bad in New York, but "The Apartment" is a much better picture..
After sleeping through the opening credits, which are superimposed over her in bed, Liz wakes up alone in a penthouse following a one-night stand with rich stiff Laurence Harvey, wanders around wrapped in a sheet, has a drink, nabs a mink, and cabs it to the apartment of Eddie Fisher, for whom Liz secured a role as Gloria's childhood best friend and the first of many doormats she will trample in this film.
As the married lawyer who falls for mantrap Liz, he spends the movie looking slightly less dazed than he would two years later throughout "The Manchurian Candidate" and has to deliver all the dumbest lines - when he escorts Liz onto his yacht, she asks "where are you sailing, Captain?" to which he responds "Out of frustration and into ecstasy!" There's no reason, except script contrivance, that a babe of Liz's caliber should ever fall for a rude, ugly, self-loathing dullard like Laurence (a meta-mockery of Fisher?).
However, he has plenty of reason to fall for her -- despite the movie depicting her as damaged goods, Liz is actually fun, witty, sexy and roughly a 1000% improvement on Laurence's on screen wife, the blonde, bland and blank-faced Dina Merrill, who can't decide if she's playing a willfully or genuinely naive woman and splits the difference by acting really, really stupid.
For any movie fan who loves Elizabeth Taylor, a slick, glossy movie with high 50's-early 60's production values, sharp writing, dramatic moments, and a superb supporting cast of wonderful characters, Butterfield 8 is the movie to watch.
In spite of Ms. Taylor's negative feelings regarding this film, and even her own performance, she is marvelous because her acting makes her character a three dimentional, highly believeable, and ulimately tragical woman.Simply stated, the movie is fun.
***SPOILERS*** At first the movie "Butterfield 8" skirts around the very obvious fact that it's leading character the drop dead gorgeous Gloria Wandrous, Elizabeth Taylor,is actually a high paid call-girl.
It's the missing fur coat that in the end leads to both Gloria's demise, in a fatal car accident, and the by now mentally destroyed Weston leaving his faithful wife Emily, Dina Merrill, so he can spend some time, as possibly a Monk in a Buddhist Monastery, to get his head together as well as his pride and dignity back.Gloria for her part isn't the bad, or immoral, young woman as were at first made to believe that she is.
She was quoted as saying that while she could think of good qualities in most of the men she was involved with, she couldn't for the life of her understand why she married Eddie Fisher.But more than that, to me it was obvious that Fisher's character is gay, despite him having a girl friend played by Susan Oliver.
All sharp suits and brylcreamed hair.Eddie Fisher just looks like a fish out of water, which I guess he was.As a film that reflects its time and place, it just about entertains, but the real reason to watch it is Liz Taylor at her most alluring.Eyes flashing at Laurence Harvey, when her real life husband Eddie Fisher, is an on looker, gives it a little curiosity interest.Not the best film in the world, nor the worst..
I love this movie for many reasons - the trashy dialogue, the great supporting cast like Betty Field and Dina Merrill, but most of all, for Liz. She owns the screen and gives it everything she's got.
ELIZABETH TAYLOR has never liked BUTTERFIELD 8 and indeed had to be talked into doing it, a steamy tale based on an old John O'Hara novel in which the girl was a prostitute who was unhappy with her self-awareness and wanted to settle down with someone she could really love.Taylor is at her most beautiful and gives a persuasive performance as Gloria, although there are others around her who are even more vivid.
The showdown scene between Taylor and Dunnock is a highlight in an otherwise tedious film to watch.There's plenty of eye appeal in all the luxurious Park Avenue settings and DINA MERRILL is lovely as Harvey's patient wife, but none of it seems any more important than it did on the pages of O'Hara's novel.
While Dunnock refused to believe the kind of girl her daughter was, she sounded like Elsie Thornton from "Peyton Place." A sickly looking Betty Field, who also starred in "Peyton Place" plays Dunnock's neighbor who knows what Gloria (Taylor) is all about.The film should boast another fine performance by Laurence Harvey.
Even though this film has such actors as Laurence Harvey and Eddie Fisher, forget it, this film belongs to La la Liz Taylor, Dina Merrill and all the other females who can't insulting Liz but can's help wish they were like her, a model who's job is to "model fancy dresses at nightclubs"(??).
"Butterfield 8" is a rather unimpressive film about a call girl (Elizbeth Taylor in her first Oscar-winning role) and her love for a snobby aristocrat (Laurence Harvey).
The beautiful Elizabeth Taylor plays Gloria, a high-dollar prostitute that comes to grips with the possibility of finding 'Mr. Right'...a wealthy married man(Laurence Harvey).
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.
I also believe Taylor very much deserved her Oscar for this, even if she didn't think so (and her bitterness stems from the fact MGM forced her to do the movie after telling Mike Todd she wouldn't have to make anymore pictures she didn't like before her contract expired in 1960).
Liz gives a pretty good performance, but the best acting in the movie was done by Miss Merrill who plays the wife.
As the classy-looking call girl who falls in love with a client(Laurence Harvey) and wants to go straight, Taylor gives a performance that  complements her stunning beauty.
The romantic life of a fashionable Manhattan beauty (Elizabeth Taylor) who is part model, part call-girl, and all man-trap.According to MGM records, the film made $6.8 million in the US and Canada and $3.2 million in other countries, resulting in a profit to the studio of $1,857,000 - making it MGM's biggest hit of the year.
In retrospect, while such glossy melodramas seem so unenticing on paper, actually experiencing them can prove highly entertaining (if not always for the expected reasons) – and this was certainly the case here!The Academy Award bestowed upon Taylor was famously a note of appreciation from her colleagues for having pulled out of a life- threatening illness shortly before; that said, her having stolen co-star Eddie Fisher from his wife Debbie Reynolds was considered water under the bridge by this time – of course, a couple of years down the line, Richard Burton would come into her lifeand the rest, as they say, is history; in fact, this was her very last film role before attaining superstardom with the long-running Burton association!
{1966}): here, she plays a high class call-girl (the film's title being her professional number) who principally juggles relations with businessman Laurence Harvey and musician Fisher (a singer in real life, this was the last of only two movie roles of any consequence) among many others.
As I said, this looks good (receiving its sole other Oscar nod for Best Color Cinematography) – given the expected MGM polish – and, while the subject matter (adapted from a John O'Hara novel inspired by true events) is understandably toned-down in view of the Production Code being still in force, the script proves so hilariously overwritten (especially the quips Betty Field – best friend to the star's mother, played by Mildred Dunnock – makes with respect to Taylorwho, incidentally, describes herself to the latter as "the slut of all time") that one cannot help but have a field (no pun intended) day with it!
Unlike the actress herself, there is no happy ending for the film's heroine; curiously enough, the same year also saw the release of another O'Hara soaper i.e. FROM THE TERRACE (itself yet another teaming of another famous Hollywood couple: Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward)while Taylor and Harvey would themselves be reunited much later for his penultimate effort, the psychological thriller NIGHT WATCH (1973)..
If you have to watch one old movie make sure you see from 1960 Elizabeth Taylor's "Butterfield 8" finally after many years I viewed this legendary classic of the screen queen, I must say it's near excellent work despite it's tragic end.
Elizabeth Taylor stars as Gloria a young beautiful woman in Manhattan who moonlights secretly as a high class call girl and the agency she works for is "Butterfield 8".
Her husband at the time, Eddie Fisher, plays Gloria's best friend, a guy who acts thoroughly gay but who actually has a girlfriend made to look exactly like his ex, Debbie Reynolds.
Elizabeth Taylor stars as Gloria, a model/slut who sleeps around and keeps up the good girl illusion with her mother (Mildred Dunnock).
Her long-awaited next outing, "Cleopatra" (1963), initiated a series of ups and downs.******* Butterfield 8 (11/4/60) Daniel Mann ~ Elizabeth Taylor, Laurence Harvey, Eddie Fisher, Dina Merrill.
I have always thought that Elizabeth Taylor won her award by default.In 1959,she lost her Oscar to Simone Signoret ,which was unfair for her portrayal of Catherine Venable in "Suddenly Last Summer" was far more stronger than this luxury broad .Her second AA,Martha ,in "who's afraid of Virginia Woolf" was well deserved .But her part in "butterfield 8" the screenplay of which is more or less a rehash of "backstreet " (Fannie Hurst's tear-jerker filmed by John M.Stahl ,a classy melodrama) .To give the movie a more "sixties" side,they add a shrink to help the sensitive courtesan cope with her problems (I want to settle down,I want a home and a family ,I do not want to spend my life playing around),but this doctor has nothing (or almost nothing ) to do.Ditto for Eddie Fisher and his girlfriend whose parts are almost pointless -except for reminding us of Taylor's ill-fated racy past.Laurence Harvey (a good luck charm;he played opposite Signoret who also won the AA)would meet again Elizabeth Taylor shortly before he died in the thriller " night watch" which featured a curious ending..
Harvey is married to a wealthy woman so he is basically a kept man.Whenever Taylor becomes distraught, she visits her longtime friend played by Eddie Fisher (her real-life husband at the time) who is an awful actor (he basically never worked again in film, thankfully.) Their relationship is odd.
It would be hard to pick out the worst Liz Taylor film but this silly,overproduced epic is in the running.Not as angst ridden as Suddenly Last Summer or overblown as Cleopactra,it contains the ultimate Liz performance.She play a NY model (hooker?) who enjoys the party life with an assortment of men.Lawrence Harvey plays a wealthy paramour who hates her life but ultimately falls for her.Dina Merrill plays the long suffering society wife who puts up with him.Almost everyone in the cast puts down Gloria Wandrous' sex life,including her mother's friend played by Betty Field.Liz is a bit long in the tooth and slightly dumpy to be playing a sexy young model but she makes it work.The men in the cast are dull,especially Eddie Fisher as her asexual friend where Gloria goes after an all nighter.Lawrence Harvey is dreadfully wooden as Wilson Pickett, (although I loved the pain scene,where he twists her arm and she drives her stiletto heel into his instep!) For fans of bad,good movies,definitely worth a look-see..
Despite her indifference to this movie, I think she gives one her greatest performances as Gloria Wandrous, the prostitute who falls for one of her clients, played by Laurence Harvey.
But as much as the audience would like to believe that this is a fairy tale, it sadly isn't, and ends with tragic results.Elizabeth Taylor, one of the greatest stars every to grace the screen, won her first Best Actress Academy Award for her brilliant performance, and Laurence Harvey turns out a great performance too.
She takes lovers (many if briefly), but her only pal is songwriter Eddie Fisher (the star's then-husband), a relationship that might make sense if he were presented as gay; instead, he's saddled with jealous girlfriend Susan Oliver (a saucy little thing).Harder to fathom than Taylor's source of income is her attraction to the perpetually scowling and sulking Harvey (whatever his talents, he was always disastrously miscast in his American movies).
BUtterfield 8 (1960) * 1/2 (out of 4) Elizabeth Taylor won her first of two Oscars for this melodrama where she plays a prostitute who begins to fall in love with a rich client (Laurence Harvey) who just happens to be married.
In 1960 the performance of Elizabeth Taylor as Gloria Wondrous was considered a fine one for that up and coming actress, but despite her acting performance most people then (and since) have believed that it was not her sad portrayal of the self-destruction of a beautiful call girl that merited the award, but that she was recovering from a near fatal illness at the time.
Eddie Fisher was no thespian and Susan Oliver isn't given much of a part but Laurence Harvey, Liz Taylor and Dina Merrill bring this "old chestnut" to life..
Elizabeth Taylor may have won an Oscar for her performance as an out-of-control B-girl, but BUTTERFIELD 8 is still ridiculously, utterly bad.