BUtterfield 8 (1960) User Reviews

"You can't have everything in life. Be grateful for the few things you do get, no matter when they come from."

[Nazi_Fighter_David · 7/10 · 31 May 2008]

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

This one hasn't aged well...

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 27 February 2021]

... 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.

That mink coat!

[jotix100 · 7/10 · 20 September 2005]

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.

Vulgarity Has Its Purposes

[dragon-90 · 24 November 2003]

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!

An Oscar for Courage

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 2 February 2006]

As a lad I well remember in 1960 Elizabeth Taylor's struggle for her life with a deadly form of pneumonia. The news which usually when it talked about Liz Taylor it was usually about her various amours. this was different, the whole world was watching the bulletins as they came from London where she was in hospital. It was touch and go, but she made it.

Because she made it, she got an Oscar for Best Actress in 1960 for BUtterfield 8. It was not an award she highly prized. While she was filming BUtterfield 8 she cracked to the press loud and often about what a trashy film it was. She did it because she had only one more film to do on her commitment to MGM and MGM had this property kicking around for decades.

BUtterfield 8 was a novel by John O'Hara about a high priced call girl named Gloria Wandrous. It was based on the infamous Starr Faithful who was killed in 1931 and had a black book of some very influential clients.

Though it was written in 1935 the film is updated to the present. Taylor has a tempestuous relationship with her number one client played by Lawrence Harvey. He's the problem with the film. He's basically a cad, so much of one that one wonders what Taylor saw in him other than a successful social marriage. She certainly has some twisted values and finds that out too late.

Taylor got Eddie Fisher cast in the film as her friend. This was Fisher's second attempt at a movie career and there were no further offers from Hollywood for his services. As an actor he was a dud, Taylor says he doubled in that department as husband. 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. Back then that was one area Hollywood didn't go into.

So Liz got her Oscar at last more for her courageous battle with pneumonia than her performance. She sure did better work. Her second Oscar for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf was one she really felt she earned. She was not on screen again until 1963 when Cleopatra was released. And that's a whole other chapter in the Elizabeth Taylor saga.

"I loved it – every awful moment of it, I loved!"

[style-2 · 7/10 · 31 January 2005]

"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 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!"

Lordy! In every sense of the word...

[stills-6 · 6/10 · 31 May 2000]

Taylor is tasty in this role, but is it the way she smokes or the way she smokes? Much of this movie is cheap psychobabble, but Taylor smolders with a raw sensuality that you would never guess she had in her. You knew she was strong, beautiful, and flawed, but you never knew she could be all three and still be able to act with that much cleavage.

The unfortunate thing about this movie is that there are other people in it. It's Taylor's movie, but somehow it gets mangled and it ends up being Laurence Harvey's story. Who the Hell let the last twenty minutes of this movie get through the production line? What a complete letdown. And Bronislau Kaper's absolutely horrible musical score doesn't help matters. If there was ever a movie that didn't need this kind of filler music, this is it.

Not a call girl, nor a prostitute! Just the town's most popular tramp!

[estherwalker-34710 · 6/10 · 6 April 2022]

Gloria(Liz Taylor) is usually described as a high price call girl or prostitute, but she made it very plain that she didn't think of herself as such, as she refused to accept money, gifts or privileges for her 'services'. She claimed she chose her bed partners, rather than them choosing her. And, since she didn't charge them, technically, they weren't gigolos. The way she saw it, sex should be mutually pleasurable to both partners. Thus, neither should pay the other for their 'services'. At least, that's how it was supposed to work in her world. Thus, technically, she was just the town's most popular tramp. She explains that she was initiated into sex at age 13, by a friend of her mother's, while her mother was away for a week. And, she loved it! Didn't think of it as abuse. That got her started looking for sexual adventures.

Rather late in the film, Gloria ends up with a mink coat of the wife(Emily) of her then main boyfriend: Weston Liggett(Lawrence Harvey). Initially, she borrowed it as something from Weston's closet for her to wear, while Emily was away visiting her sick mother, since Weston had torn her dress. She went to see her platonic friend Steve(Eddie Fisher), who arranged for his girlfriend, Norma(Susan Oliver) to bring over one of her dresses, as she was about Gloria's size. Gloria left the mink at Steve's, and forgot about it for a few days. Unfortunately, she waited too long to return it, as she saw Emily(Dina Merril) returning home. Emily soon noticed it missing and queried Weston about it. He didn't have a good answer, but said he would look into it. Later, he happens to meet Gloria in a restaurant, already drunk. He berates Gloria about the mink, and about her persona, in general. After he gets in a fight with the manager, Gloria drives him home. She gives him the mink, hoping he can come up with a reasonable-sounding story to tell his wife. But, Emily is watching them from an upstairs window. She sees Gloria give the mink to Weston, and him throw it back at her, saying he didn't want to give it to his wife, after it had been worn by such a disreputable person. Thus, she ended up with the mink, and motored to see friend Steve. There, she sobbed that, in possessing the mink, that made her a high-priced call girl. However, I don't agree with her hysterical logic.

Many reviewers criticize Eddie Fisher's acting, and even Eddie said he hated his acting and the film. However, I, for one, didn't see anything wrong with his acting. He was Liz's current husband, and famous for his singing, but not for acting. ........... Weston's wife, Emily, seemed awfully blasé about Weston's womanizing, and his claim that he was preparing to divorce her, and marry Gloria. When told about Gloria's untimely death, she expressed her sorrow!

Steve and Norma are a secondary romantic couple, who presumably married, as they claimed they would immediately, the last time we saw them. However, for a time, Norma was weary of Steve's strong friendship with Gloria, based on a long time knowing each other, and, at one moment, she gave him an ultimatum to choose between them. But Steve calmed her, she trusting his word that he had no sexual relationship with Gloria.

Although Liz, surprisingly, won her first Oscar, and the film was popular enough to earn MGM a handsome profit, neither she nor Eddie was pleased with the film.

The film was based upon the 1935 novel by John O'Hara. From reading a few reviews of the book, I should point out that, unlike in the film, as described by Gloria, she was traumatized, not exhilarated, by the sexual abuse as a young teen. In either case, this was blamed for her later promiscuity. Also, in the book, Gloria was 22y.o., not the late 20s Liz Taylor.

The Best Kind of Trash

[gftbiloxi · 8/10 · 16 May 2005]

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

Good stuff, but Oscar worthy?

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 2 May 2017]

Butterfield 8 (1960) is certainly a cameraman's film. But despite the credits, I don't believe Charles Harten photographed Butterfield 8. He is also credited as one of three photographers on a Three Stooges compilation. As a matter of fact, I don't believe there ever was a Charles Harten. It was simply a name employed to cover the use of multiple photographers. If you don't believe me, you can look up Harten's credits on IMDb. They are a dead giveaway. We all know for a fact that Joseph Ruttenberg was employed. In fact, he and the mysterious Harten were jointly nominated for an Academy Award. Some or all of the brilliant deep focus effects are undoubtedly Ruttenberg's work. These effects help to cover Daniel Mann's rather static direction. For all that, however, Liz Taylor received an Academy Award for Best Actress – an award that many of us Hollywood insiders believe was really a show of support for Liz, rather than an indication of a stand-out performance. I'll admit it was certainly a quite adequate performance. It did have its moments, for sure. But best of the year? Liz was also nominated for a Golden Globe, but for that award, we critics voted a definite "no!"

A superb lead actress performance that deserved a better film

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 28 August 2014]

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

Glorious Gloria!

[jery-tillotson-1 · 10/10 · 2 July 2019]

Several times a year, I love nothing more than to curl up with a nice, strong drink, and--preferably if it's rainy or snowy outside--pop in this unforgettable tribute to a phenomenal star and that long vanished world of 1960. For the next two hours I willingly become lost in an MGM Technicolored world of high glamour--where women wear ravishing clothes, where all the rooms are warm and inviting and elegant and everyone enacts their deep problems in bigger-than-life style. And everyone looks like the type of people you would love to spend a few hours with and who in no way resemble your boring next door neighbor. I remember being in college at the time and three times I, with several of my gay buddies, tried to buy a ticket to see this so-called torrid romance of a New York call-girl, played by the most notorious and magical and beautiful woman at that time: Elizabeth Taylor. The theater was sold out each time but it did have a life-sized cardboard cutout of the movie's main character, Gloria Wandrous, wearing that famous slip with a phone to her ear and above the message: "Call Butterfield 8 anytime and Get a Message You Won't Forget." There was an actual phone and if you picked it up, a recording gave you the show-times. Many of us were photographed next to this cardboard vision of decadent beauty and we all ended up weeping at the end of the movie at the beautiful but troubled woman's demise. We all know that Elizabeth Taylor fought hard not to make this film. She had thought she had finished her contractual obligations with MGM and was eager to start earning her $1 million salary to portray the Queen of the Nile. She was also horrified by the script, which she dubbed pornographic, but the script writers had based their work on the image of Elizabeth Taylor the world considered her at that time. She had "run off" with Debbie Reynolds crooner husband, Eddie Fisher, and had never apologized for it while Debbie posed for photographers with safety pins pinned to her blouses as if she had just changed diapers on one of her newborns. Elizabeth was also living openly with her new lover--a horrible no-no at that time. Another strike against this scarlet woman! But this star of stars did make the movie and it broke box office records around the world. The studio surrounded Taylor with the MGM personnel she had grown up with and the result is a lush, glamorous world where everything is clean and rich looking and the people are beautiful and dramatic. Camera man Joseph Ruttenberg, who was nominated for an Oscar for this film, bathes our star in flattering, warm light. The gifted Helen Rose created the character's striking wardrobe of beautiful gowns and suits and furs. The haunting but subtle musical score is by Bronislau Kaper. What stands out is that legendary MGM gloss where all the rooms and interiors are bathed in warm and inviting tones. A great added attractive element of this movie is the outstanding supporting cast with Mildred Dunnock playing the naive mother of our bad girl but even better is acting veteran Betty Field as the nosy neighbor who fires off some of the wittiest one-liners in the movie. Laurence Harvey has the unpleasant role of the rich jerk, Liggett, who verbally destroys Gloria at a climatic moment and then tries to woo her back. Dina Merrill is his long-suffering wife. The studio put yet another iconic image into this intoxicating brew and that's the unforgettable little red sports car that Gloria zips around Manhattan in. It's actually a 1960 Red Series Sunbeam Alpine that could be driven in style even today. This is an addictive movie to watch for those who long for those ancient days when major studios still knew how to pour on the glamour, with haunting musical soundtracks and bigger-than-life stars like Elizabeth Taylor who no longer exist.

Even bad girls want to be good.

[michaelRokeefe · 6/10 · 15 March 2002]

Daniel Mann directs this eye opener of its day. 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). Gloria has a very troubled past...being forced to the ways of the flesh at the age of 13. She picks the men she wants in and out of her life; but has a problem breaking off with the compulsive and enamored Harvey. Taylor's sultry role is near perfection and earned her the Academy Award. The subject matter by today's standards is far from taboo as it was; but is still very interesting. Supporting cast includes:Dina Merrill, Susan Oliver, Kay Medford and Eddie Fisher. It is hard to not watch the screen when Liz makes the scene.

Pseudo-shocking doings in the bedroom

[moonspinner55 · 4/10 · 2 April 2005]

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 ****

A Blazing Performance

[MGMboy · 20 August 2003]

`The most desirable girl in town is the easiest to find. Just call Butterfield-8!' So trumpeted the posters of this, Elizabeth Taylor's first Oscar winning performance. The film is a modernization of the 1935 novel by John O'Hara, which was based on the real life of the 1920's New York City call girl Starr Faithful.

Miss Taylor was dead set against playing Gloria Wandrous. She felt was a deliberate play by M.G.M. to capitalize on her recent notoriety in the Liz-Eddie-Debbie scandal. Also, she was anxious to move on to her first ever million-dollar role in Fox's Cleopatra. She was told by M.G.M that if she did not fulfill her contractual obligation to her home studio for one final film on her eighteen year contract that she would be kept off the screen for two years and miss making Cleopatra all together. She swore to the producer Pandro S. Berman that she would not learn her lines, not be prepared and in fact not give anything more and a walk through. Mr. Berman knew her better than she suspected. In the end Elizabeth Taylor turned in a professional, classic old style Hollywood performance that ranks at the top with the best of her work. She brings a savage rage to live to her searing portrait of a lost girl soaked through with sex and gin. A woman hoping against all hope to find salvation in yet one last man. Weston Leggett, a man who is worse off than she is in the self-esteem department. In her frantic quest for a clean new life Gloria finds that the male establishment will not allow her to step out of her role as a high priced party girl. She is pigeon holed by her past and the narrow mores of the late 50's are not about to let her fly free. Not the bar-buzzards of Wall Street, not her best friend Steve who abandons her at his girlfriend's insistence. Not even her shrink Dr. Treadman believes in her. The three women in her life are blind to who she really is. Her mother will not admit what Gloria has become. Mrs. Thurber will not believe she can ever change and Happy, the motel proprietor is too self involved in her own past to care who Gloria is She is the dark Holly Golightly and this is the lurid red jelled Metro-Color Manhattan that is the flip side of Billy Wilder's The Apartment (also 1960). Wilder's New York is cynical. Liz's tony East Side phone exchange rings only one way, the hard way. This New York is dammed. Recrimination and death are Gloria's final tricks, and she goes out in a melodramatic blaze that Douglas Sirk might have envied in place of his usually unsettling, unconvincing happy endings. In the end we have a bravura performance by the last true star of the old system. Yes she deserved the Oscar more for `Cat'. Yes it was given to welcome her back from the brink of death in London. And even Shirley MacLaine's lament on Oscar night, `I lost the Oscar to a tracheotomy.' can not diminish this must see performance by Miss Taylor.

In what one could call a perfect example of what an `Oscar scene' is all about she says it all. `I loved it! Every awful moment of it I loved. That's your Gloria, Steve. That's your precious Gloria!' She gave it to us with both barrels blazing, and Metro, and Berman be dammed.

contains spoilers

[tempus1 · 6/10 · 28 September 2013]

Hmmmmm--the usual collection of 'reviews' from imbeciles who cannot spell, punctuate, write a complete sentence, or manage to learn anything about historical periods before Facebook. I cannot decide what the stupidest comments are here: the ones which blame Fisher for being lackluster in a nothing and hardly-written part? the ones which scream and carp about O'Hara's novel being trash and the film consequently being the same? the ones which backbite about Taylor's gorgeous and truly voluptuous figure, calling her 'chubby' and 'fat'? the ones bitching out Merrill for elegantly underplaying a thankless female- doormat role? the ones which think Fisher has to be 'gay' because he doesn't screw Liz? the ones which shriek about how 'ugly' and 'charmless' the handsome and talented Harvey is? the ones which call Taylor's character a WHORE although the novel and movie are both at pains to convey that she is in fact a 'loose woman', a party girl, and NOT a hooker? It's difficult to choose from such a cornucopia of MORONS. The movie itself is an O'Hara potboiler (which is what he wrote--get used to it, morons)based loosely on the life of Starr Faithful, and it is a melodrama, and Taylor didn't want to make the film. That said, she is surprisingly vivid and good, and the rest of the cast acquits itself more than gracefully. Taylor's delivery of laugh lines, never appreciated by most morons, is excellent here, and without the cheesy score (Kaper usually did much better at least than this) the movie would probably make it up to GREAT trash. Taylor is also drop-dead gorgeous, whether wearing a mink or a slip, and worth seeing even in a movie she disliked and did not want to make.

I always said I'll try anything once

[sol-kay · 7/10 · 23 September 2007]

***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. Gloria gets all heated up when she finds $250.00 left to her in an envelop at her sex partners Weston Liggett, Laurence Harvey, pent-house apartment on swanky 5th avenue in Manhattan. It's a big insult to Gloria that she's being paid for having sex with Weston as if she expected to have done it just for love and nothing else!

It's much later in the movie when the truth comes out that Gloria is not only, as she's called by Weston himself, a slut but a woman that jumps into bed with every man that she meets like a flea jumps from one dog to another. This somewhat confusing storyline makes it hard to believe the basic premise of the film involving a fur coat that Gloria takes from Weston's apartment because he tore her dress, when he was drunk, and didn't pay to replace it. 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. Gloria had been looked after since she was a teenager, for some 12 years, by her good kind and understanding friend of the family and now music composer Steve Carpenter, Eddie Fisher, who despite her knock out and sexy looks only wants to be her friend and spiritual adviser not lover; even though Eddie Fisher was married to Elizabeth at the time. In fact Gloria constantly flaunts her sexuality, in skimpy and revealing underclothes, at him but Steve doesn't give her as much as a second look or hug. It's later revealed by Gloria, to Steve, that she in fact was sexually molested at the age of 13 by her widowed mothers, Mildred Dunnock, boyfriend that messed up her mind making Gloria feel dirty and incapable of having a normal sexual relationship with anyone.

Weston for his part develops a love hate relationship with Gloria in the fact that no matter how much he's in love with her he's still married to Emily. It's Emily's family the fabulously wealthy Jescott clan that set Weston up in the life of luxury at a no show, or work, job in one of their chemical plants. Slowly losing his mind Weston finally snaps when he finds out that Emily's expensive fur coat is missing, taken by Gloria, and the fact that the truth is soon to be revealed to Emily of his infidelity toward her was just too much for the poor man to take.

In one of the most explosive scenes in movie history Weston confronts Gloria at a local and very expensive bar & restaurant and all hell breaks loose. Spewing out a string of obscenities, that were allowed on the screen back in 1960, at Gloria Weston leaves her hitting the bottle and almost suicidal. It's later when Weston came back to his senses he tries to apologizes to Gloria for what he did to her, humiliating her in public, but by then it was already too late. An emotionally drained and deeply hurt Gloria had just about had all that she could take from him and made a dash for it, in her red sports car, with Weston begging for her forgiveness, in his Rolls Royce, hot on her tail.

The tragic ending has Weston finally realize that he can't juggle two women, Gloria & Emily, around at one time and not end up getting burnt. Weston had the best advice he could get in the movie from his mother-in-law Mrs. Jescott, Carman Mathews,in that it's time, after 150 years in the social registry, for a Jescott to get a divorce which she wanted her daughter Emily to get from Weston. If only both Weston an Emily listened all this tragedy, Gloria's death Weston's mental breakdown and Emily's estrangement, could have easily have been avoided.

Chick Town

[Spuzzlightyear · 6/10 · 27 October 2004]

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"(??). Of course, as you probably know, this film details Liz as the ulitmate Man Magnet, who sleeps with every man she sees but abhors at being called a wh---. Laurence Harvey and Liz try to make a go at it, but secrets and lies catch up with them, leading up to the well, unexpected conclusion (hey, it was the 60's, so I guess there was no way to go!) I enjoyed this film, although not REALLY as campy as it could have been, this is worth a hoot or two,

Sexy Liz Taylor Smokes and Drinks for 90 minutes

[Real_Review · 6/10 · 13 March 2019]

Watching 'BUtterfield 8 (1960)' is like stepping into another world. Everything is so foreign when compared to modern society - from the societal norms and morals, down to the interior decorating and the way people would place a call on a phone. At the center of this moving time capsule is the beautiful Liz Taylor, mesmerizing the audience. 80+ years later, this forgotten gem of a film still sparkles.

Real Review Posting Scoring Criteria:

Acting - 1/1;

Casting - 1/1;

Directing - 1/1;

Story - 1/1;

Writing/Screenplay - 1/1;

Total Base Score = 5

Modifiers:

Standout Performances - +1 ( Elizabeth Taylor );

Total Real Review Rating: 6.

Mr. O'Hara 's novel and the tragedy at Long Beach, 1931

[theowinthrop · 8/10 · 3 February 2006]

It's recalled now for the star's performance, which netted her her first Oscar. 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. Taylor's performance was first rate - probably the best reason today to see this film. Despite an apparent hard shell she is quite vulnerable, and her tormented relationship with socialite Laurence Harvey leads up to his degradation and her demise.

John O'Hara's novels are still in print. He was a master of American idiom - the class and background of his characters could be seen by reading their dialog. He had a great eye for details, and for social class conflicts. This first comes out in his first novel "Appointment In Samara", but it appears in "Butterfield 8" as well, where the class problems that arise from Gloria's affair with Weston Liggett can be called the tragedy of the purloined fur coat. Gloria, as the novel opens, has had her one night stand with Liggett at his home, a ritzy upper-east side apartment in Manhattan. She is unsatisfied with leaving so soon, so she takes a fur coat out of the closet to cover herself in. It is this theft that leads to the gradual revelation of the affair with Liggett, and it's affects on Gloria, Liggett, her mother and friend Steve (Eddie Fisher), and his wife (Dina Merrill) and their family and friends. The coat symbolizes the sexual relationship that Gloria threatens to take away from Emily Liggett, and how the social order is shaken by the affair.

O'Hara based the story on a tragedy that happened in the summer of 1931 in New York City and Long Island (and that also affected Boston). A very beautiful young woman, Starr Faithful*, was found dead on the beach at the city of Long Beach in Nassau County, New York. Starr was soon revealed to have had a number of socially prominent acquaintances (one is hard put to call them friends). She and her sister Tucker and their mother and stepfather lived in Greenwich Village - their next door neighbor was Mayor James J. Walker (to be fair to "Beau James", it is not very likely that he ever really knew Starr and her family). She did have a habit of popping up at parties all over the place (rumor put her at a party to celebrate a Broadway production of Aristophanes' Lysistrata thrown by Bennett Cerf, and in honor of the star of the production Miriam Hopkins). She also slept around, one of her boyfriends being a ship's doctor on an Atlantic liner. But finally, it came out that in her youth she was sexually abused by Mr. Andrew J. Peters, a former Mayor of Boston. Peters actually was a cousin by marriage of Starr's mother. He continued seeing her as she grew up (she was a minor when the relationship began), and paid the family large sums to keep their mouths shut.

None of this background is in the novel or film. The novel does have a character (a respectable college professor) who has had a relationship with Gloria and is coming to New York to pay her some extortion money, but the tragedy of the Long Beach death is only approximated in the novel (where Gloria drowns in a freak accident on an aging steamboat), and is changed in the movie (I won't explain how). In any case the death of Gloria is an accident in the novel and the movie - although Gloria's final actions may have been based on a death wish.

Was that what killed Starr Faithful? Actually, her last biographer (Johnathan Goodman in "The Passing Of Starr Faithful") makes a case for her being murdered by gangsters who were after important secrets she might have had knowledge of. O'Hara would not have known of that theory, but would have just worked on the general assumption that his model committed suicide (which was accepted as likely in 1935, when the novel was written). Gloria may be based on Starr, but their fates are not quite the same even if their emotional problems seem very similar.

(*For some reason the spelling of the last name of Starr is consistently respelled incorrectly on this website - despite my attempts to correct it - as "Faithful" with one "ell" at the end. It has two "ells" at the end.)

Nice acting, but the melodrama of a lousy script almost ruins it

[Rodrigo_Amaro · 6/10 · 7 March 2022]

What an almost sorry ass kind of picture that gets some salvation to the quality of the performers. But as for the story, boy, "BUtterfield 8" takes sadness, pain and misery to a whole new level with a troubled script that doesn't go anywhere, jumps plausible explanations and gets weary the more the doomed love story progresses.

Here, the prostitute Gloria (Elizabeth Taylor, in her first Oscar winning performance) is involved in a romantic relationship with rich married lawyer Weston (Laurence Harvey) and trouble ensues since they cannot find ways to cut their ties and solve their problems with other people. In the woman's case it's her almost platonic passion with her childhood friend (Eddie Fisher) - who happens to be engaged with a jealous woman - and dealing with her own family with a lovely mother who pretends she doesn't care that her daughter is a call-girl; the man takes too long to realize he needs to get a quick divorce and make arrangements to get a job promotion at his firm.

You know that kind of melodramatic story where a nice couple is destined to fail simply because they got nothing in common and they can't handle the obstacles of life. Their relation only works in the forms of lenghty dialogues where they play with each other, the kisses and maybe in bed. At first she's insecure of mantaining a relation with this guy because he treats her just like another of her clients, just wants to buy her; and he acts in fits of rage and jealousy because he can't stand dealing with the fact she's a woman several men he knows also know her and enjoy her company - her services I mean.

After a weekend where both disappeared from the world and went into a hotel, then traveled on his boat, Weston and Gloria return to their daily lives convinced their love is strong and now they can solve all the problems they have in order to stay together for good. If only...That's when the film makes the creepiest and most unexplained twist of all time: Gloria's all head over heels with her friend while Weston goes into a wild rage because his wife's expensive coat went missing when in fact he knows that he left with Gloria several nights ago when they spend the night at the hotel, which brings us back to the beginning of the movie when Taylor wakes up alone in the room, completely lost and sees that Harvey left money for her and she was pissed with him. Anyway, that jumpcut from their good moment to the point where they have plenty of bickering and goes separate ways was a terrible decision made by the writers, poorly made and it almost hurt the film in irreparable ways.

The construction of certain scenes is very erratic but the dialogues and the performances makes of "BUtterfield 8" a decent experience that deserves some view. Taylor, Harvey, Fisher, Mildred Dunnick (perfect as the mother), Kay Medford et all are all very good in their roles, they manage to convince us about their problems, loneliness, passions, ambitions and anxieties. But this is the story that we've seen already, it has done before time and again, and we all know it does not end well for the couple. It's too predictable for its own sake. By the end when it got to the conclusion I was rooting for a minor change of events that could make me enjoy this as a mature film, but nope it had to go down as a moralistic fable from the early 1960's. It was bittersweet when it could be a lot more sweeter and hopeful since Hollywood is the place where movies makes us dream and fantasize. Here, we aren't allowed to that.

On a final note, Elizabeth Taylor disliked the film, she was forced to do it due to contractual obligations with the studio but in the end the movie was a hit and she won her first Oscar (very undeserving since the comedic performances were way better than the dramatic ones in that year). She's good but not great, just like the film. It's good but it missed some points to almost become a bad movie. In this mild review I'm just exposing some views, not sure if I can suggest it to anyone, maybe to die-hard fans of the people involved with it. Enjoy it if you can. 6/10.

"Liz IS big. It's the picture that got small"

[Galina_movie_fan · 4/10 · 22 December 2005]

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

Taylor and Harvey Make Fireworks

[smithy-8 · 9/10 · 22 October 2003]

"Butterfield 8" is a good movie, but a better sexy movie. This is Elizabeth Taylor's sexiest part. Even though Ms. Taylor hated this movie, she deserved the Oscar. Laurence Harvey was perfect as her leading man. Mr. Harvey should have been nominated for his performance, too. Of all her leading men, Mr. Harvey complimented her the best. Too bad they never worked again!

The movie was well-cast. The surprising performance was by Eddie Fisher, who is not an actor. He did a good job.

My first complaint about "Butterfield 8" is the description of the plot summary calling Ms. Taylor's character (Gloria Wandrous) a call girl. In the movie, Gloria Wandrous was portrayed as a model who liked to party. The point of the movie was Gloria was insulted that Weston Liggett portrayed by Lawrence Harvey gave her money for their first night together. Throughout the movie, she kept complaining she never took money for sex. Well, I never heard of a call girl not getting paid. Perhaps in the book, Gloria was a call girl. It seems censorship confused the storyline.

My second complaint about the movie was it should have been filmed in black and white. This movie was a black and white story and many of the colors were in black and white. MGM did the same thing years earlier in the movie, "That Forsyte Woman". Very distracting and what a waste of money! Both movies would have been accepted better if they were in black and white.

What a Wandrous World It Would Be-

[melvelvit-1 · 7/10 · 19 October 2006]

BUTTERFIELD 8 is a favorite guilty pleasure of mine -Garish and hilarious, this "wondrous" film holds a prominent place in the book "Bad Movies We Love" by Edward Margulies & Stephen Rebello:

"Although "Trash Yourself Cinema" wasn't actually invented for Liz Taylor, one would be hard-pressed to name another star who made so much money so many times for wallowing so deep in this kind of plush, overproduced pigsty."

***I can think of at least one other: "La Lana!" Just check out Douglas Sirk's IMITATION OF LIFE and Pedro Almodovar's HIGH HEELS...

Margulies/Rebello continue: "Taylor was notorious at the time, as a 'brazen hussy' who 'stole' Eddie Fisher from wife Debbie Reynolds, which makes this movie's opening sequence irresistible... It's hard to fathom why Taylor won an Oscar for this performance, though there's a brief flash of real acting when her character claims that she's not interested in rich men: 'I've had more fun in the back of a '39 Ford than I could ever have in the vault of the Chase Manhattan Bank!' Oh sure. But catch Laurence Harvey as the married sicko who can't help lovin' dat Liz, no matter how badly she treats him (when she grinds her stiletto heel into his foot, it's clear he digs it)."

Camp value aside, there are a few problems with Liz' Oscar-winning opus: From Wikipedia:

"BUTTERFIELD 8 is a 1960 film about a promiscuous model (Elizabeth Taylor) who fears that she is on the verge of crossing the line from slutitude to prostitution, until she and one of her paramours (Laurence Harvey) fall in love. Their tumultuous relationship then threatens to engulf their loved ones--making eight characters in all. Eddie Fisher, Dina Merrill, Susan Oliver, Betty Field, and Mildred Dunnock co-starred. The movie was adapted by John Michael Hayes and Charles Schnee from the 1935 novel by John O'Hara. It was directed by Daniel Mann. It won the Academy Award for Best Actress (Elizabeth Taylor) and was nominated for Best Cinematography, Color. The unusual spelling (capitalized "B" and "U") comes from the old way telephone numbers were listed in the United States - a modern number would use 2-8-8 rather than BUtterfield 8. The eight main characters were all part of this exchange."

John O'Hara's novel was already "dated" in 1935- He based it on the real-life Roaring Twenties NYC party-girl Starr Faithful ("Gloria Wandrous" Glorious Wonder?). Her tale is, above all else, of it's time -like F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby".

Another Manhattan socialite/author, Gloria Vanderbilt (!), kept the saga where it belongs -but apparently didn't do a very good job: "The Memory Book of Starr Faithful" by Gloria Vanderbilt From "Publishers Weekly"- "Starr Faithful was a reticent, studious and beautiful young woman whose death in 1931 at age 25 gave rise to rumors of sexual misconduct. Vanderbilt (Never Say Good-bye) makes a misguided attempt to recreate the mysterious Starr's diary, which she called her "Memory Book," and which disappeared shortly after her death. Beginning when she is 11, Starr writes to "Mem," chronicling her maturation as affected by the erotic obsession of her cousin Andrew J. Peters, Boston's Social Register mayor 34 years Starr's senior. His avuncular interest in her education veils years of damaging sexual exploitation before Starr's social-climbing mother learns the truth. Starr's breakdown and subsequent delusional relationship with a ship's surgeon bring the guilty party to light. The flavors and excesses of post-WWI society are captured dead on here-with appearances by personalities (Aimee Semple McPherson, Carl Jung), places (the Cotton Club) and even ships (the Carpathia, the Franconia)-but these historical details cannot compensate for the novel's mundane portrayals and ultimately static tone. Moreover, Vanderbilt's period accuracy includes the cloying lingo perhaps favored by flappers but apt to prove nauseating to the modern reader (the ether that Starr's cousin uses to sedate her is termed "creamy dreamy"). As a psychological profile, this is intriguing guesswork-though a trivial and disappointing read. Literary Guild selection."

From "Library Journal"- "Vanderbilt bases her second novel on the scandal surrounding the death of a beautiful young socialite in 1931."

Too bad the story and it's implications have never properly been put into perspective because there's far more to Starr Faithful (her real name) than O'Hara, Vanderbilt & "La Liz" mined from her sordid tale...

total melodrama

[lee_eisenberg · 4/10 · 22 July 2018]

"BUtterfield 8" has to be one of the most undeserving movies to win an Academy Award (alongside the glorification of rich English people that was "Chariots of Fire"). I suppose that it's trying to make a point about child abuse, but it comes out as two hours of blandness. It truly goes overboard on trying to be a soap opera. It's well known that Elizabeth Taylor didn't like it; she and co-star Eddie Fisher (her then-husband) apparently called it "Butterball 4". The Best Actress Oscar should've gone to Shirley MacLaine for "The Apartment" (the story goes that they gave it to Liz basically as a get well present after her tracheotomy).

The car chase and its shocking result turn out to be the only interesting part of the movie. If you're looking for a poodle skirt-era soaper that's at least memorable, I recommend "A Summer Place": it shows how the parents are (meanwhile, the Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee characters actually have a healthy, loving relationship but their parents insist on keeping them apart because they're "not right" for each other). As for John O'Hara, I haven't read any of his works, but a good adaptation of one of his works is the Paul Newman-Joanne Woodward movie "From the Terrace". Daniel Mann's good movies - that I've seen at least - are "Come Back, Little Sheba", "Teahouse of the August Moon" and "Willard".