Rating: 
Summary: The Best Kind of Trash
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. 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Butterfield 8 Even Liz Taylor thought it was bad
Review: Liz Taylor was forced into making this picture. She even wrote in lipstick what she thought of this movie on the bathroom mirror (saw all this in a PBS interview) this is [poop]. And I agree. This is one of my least favorite films of her's. I saw it for the first time only recently (2002), and wanted to lie it despite her bad remarks about it. I thought... awww she is being to hard on it, but no. It was a very forgettable film. Watch it once to satisfy your curiousity, it is not a rewatchable film. Shame.
Rating: 
Summary: BAD GIRLS & MARRIED MEN.....
Review: No, Liz did not deserve the Oscar for this in 1960. But she deserves credit for delivering a campy performance of rare distinction. Based on a trashy novel of the same name, this is a cleaned up screen version that's still trashy enough to wallow in as a guilty pleasure. It's not even a good movie. But Liz makes it watchable anyway. She plays Gloria Wondrous (that NAME!) a "model" (i.e call girl) who lives a depraved life of booze, money and men until she falls for a "trick" (Laurence Harvey) who's married. She tries to make it work but he won't give her the respectability she craves so she drives her hot little red sports car off a cliff. Mildred Dunnock is her denial-ridden mother and Betty Field wraps it up as a wise-cracking neighbor who knows what Gloria is and won't give it a rest. "How's church?" she deadpans at Gloria. Gloria's response? "Why don't you go sometime and find out!" I can't recommend this for serious movie lovers but for lovers of glossy trashy camp this is a must.
Rating:
Summary: Decent film with a few shortcomings
Review: Of course Elizabeth Taylor delivers a stellar performance in this film, one of the best in her career. The viewer feels that she IS Gloria, not merely portraying the part. However, I was sorely disappointed in the acting by Laurence Harvey. I found his performance to be sorely lacking, his emotions forced and faked, and his overall acting style stiff and unbelievable. Sounds harsh, I know, but I wish the producer/director had found a better actor to fill this role, and then the film would have been much better. On a final note, this is one of the best films I've ever seen about a prostitute. We can't mince words; that's exactly what Gloria is, although she tries to gloss it over. In addition, the final scene between Liggett and his wife is fairly decent, leaving the viewers to surmise the outcome of their marriage with their own imaginations, even though his wife is EXTREMELY underdeveloped and has a too-good-to-be-true attitude about the entire situation.
Rating:
Summary: Naughty girl!
Review: Pretty good soaper with Liz Taylor, who trollops about town and trades barbs with Laurence Harvey--including a stiletto heel ground into his foot. Oh, behave!
Rating:
Summary: Tragic
Review: This is a tale of a good girl gone bad. Men are *toys* to her until she meets Weston Ligette (Laurence Harvey). Falling in love, she is determined to turn her life around. A compulsive decision she makes early in the relationship results in tragic consequences. Never dull and the dialogue is brilliant. Elizabeth Taylor is at her best in this film.
Rating:
Summary: Tragic
Review: This is a tale of a good girl gone bad. Men are *toys* to her until she meets Weston Ligette (Laurence Harvey). Falling in love, she is determined to turn her life around. A compulsive decision she makes early in the relationship results in tragic consequences. Never dull and the dialogue is brilliant. Elizabeth Taylor is at her best in this film.
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly Bad!
Review: This movie plays like a skit on Saturday Night Live, when they do those private eyes with the music. You have to see this with other people so they can point out the hilariously bad stuff you missed. This is one for the library. Also, a lot of kinky fetish stuff going on here - almost an Ed Wood flick!
Rating:
Summary: Elizabeth Taylor saves this mediocre film
Review: Two desperate but independent minded proud people, a lawyer who marries into a wealthy family and a beautiful model who sleeps with men for affection, find in each other a diversion from wretched feelings of self-loathing. This diversion soon becomes an obsession, and then something more. But as their guarded exteriors become somewhat less so, they fall prey to the passionate, but often violent emotions they've inherited from their circumstances. Elizabeth Taylor's acting is superb and raw with emotion and mostly makes up for the incredulous, moralizing Hollywood ending which diverges considerably from the book and is not better served by the change. Still, it could have been much worse!
Rating: 
Summary: Shallow
Review: Very slick and sophisticated, but with absolutely no feeling or depth. Harvey is appropriately slick and insincere, Taylor comes off as a shrill harridan, and Merrill resembles a mannequin. Some of the dialogue is ludicrous even for 1960.
|
