Butterfield 8 [1960] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

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A Surprise Oscar for Elizabeth Taylor.......2003-08-28

BUTTERFIELD 8 is a screen adaptation of John O'Hara's earlier novel made to look modern for a 1960's audience. Elizabeth Taylor plays a promiscuous girl who wants to settle down with a respectable Laurence Harvey. Unfortunately Harvey is married to a wealthy woman (Dina Merrill). Taylor's friend Eddie Fisher watches the inevitable tragedy slowly unfold. The rest of the cast includes Mildred Dunnock, Betty Field and Susan Oliver. The movie drags in spots and many of the characters lack depth.

Elizabeth Taylor received an unexpected Academy Award for her role and the film was also nominated for Best Color Cinematography. The main competition for Oscars in 1960 came from ELMER GANTRY and THE APARTMENT.

DIAL AT YOUR OWN RISK..........2002-12-02

Based upon the John O'Hara novel of the same name, this film won Elizabeth Taylor an Oscar in 1960 for Best Actress. Not bad, considering that this, her last film for MGM, was a film in which she had not wanted to act.

Ms. Taylor plays a beautiful young woman, Gloria Wandrous, with serious self-esteem problems that lead her to live a life of cheap thrills. By day a dress model, by night a bon vivant, Gloria is a professional escort gotten by dialing Butterfield 8, loving and leaving so many men that she is regarded as being nothing more than a tramp. She is outwardly a bad girl with a good girl buried inside. Her childood friend, Steve (Eddie Fisher), is supportive of her and believes that she has more to offer the world than pure, unadulterated sex, while her mother (Mildred Dunnock) is in serious denial about her daughter's escapades.

When Gloria meets Weston Liggett (Laurence Harvey), an unhappily married attorney who has his own issues, she undergoes a change of heart as she falls in love with him. He, too, falls in love with her. Alas, the path of true love never seems to run smoothly. Their romance is no exception.

Laurence Harvey does a good job as Liggett, a man who struggles with his pride for having married his wealthy wife, Emily (Dina Merrill), whose family has him on a golden leash. Dina Merrill is quite good as Emily, but her role is terribly dated. She plays it as if she were a Stepford wife, a good little woman who will patiently wait until her husband stops boozing it up and whoring around. Her scene with her mother on this very issue, in which her mother congratulates her on her wisdom, is enough to make the viewer laugh.

Eddie Fisher, who was cast as Steve by means of being married at the time to Liz Taylor, displays zero talent as an actor. In fact, so uncharismatic is he on screen that he leaves the viewer wondering what it was that Elizabeth Taylor ever saw in him in real life. Susan Oliver, who credibly plays the role of Steve's girfriend, is made up to resemble Debbie Reynolds in order to capitalize on the Hollywood scandal of the time that saw Eddie Fisher leave his wife and children for Elizabeth Taylor. In fact, I took a double take when I first saw Ms. Oliver come on screen, so obvious was it that she was made to look like Ms. Reynolds. Talk about bottom feeding!

This is a film that is a curiosity piece at best, filled with what passed at the time as sophisticated repartee. While Ms. Taylor does a decent job with the role of Gloria, the film is so dated as to be almost laughable. Still, fans of Ms. Taylor will enjoy seeing her at her most beautiful.

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Manufacturer: Nickelodeon
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

All Children's DVD | Children's DVD | Categories | DVD | Video
Region 1 | Special Features | DVD | Video
DVD | Format (binding_browse-bin) | Refinements | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B000WQWPSC
Release Date: 2008-01-22

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