- Actors: Elizabeth Taylor, Laurence Harvey, Eddie Fisher, Dina Merrill, Mildred Dunnock
- Directors: Daniel Mann
- Writers: Charles Schnee, John Michael Hayes, John O'Hara
- Producers: Kathryn Hereford, Pandro S. Berman
- Language English
- Classification: 15
- Studio: Whv
- VHS Release Date: 9 July 2001
- Run Time: 109 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00004CPCD
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,860 in Video (See Top 100 in Video)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
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.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
BUTTERFIELD 8,-1960,colour,stars the beautiful and sexy-ELIZABETH TAYLOR-as well as LAURENCE HARVEY,EDDIE FISHER,are the three main leads in this film,that was filmed in and around New York.
Sexy beauty-ELIZABETH TAYLOR-plays glamorous Gloria Wandrous[what a Wonderful surname for such a wonderfully beautiful lady]is a glamorously dressed call girl who wakes up one morning in a luxurious bedroom that's not hers. She then leaves a wad of money left by an admirer,leaving a scornful reply in lipstick on a mirror,dials her service for messages and slips into a mink coat she found in a closet. Then the day,this movie and Gloria[Elizabeth]are set for a roaring start.
Elizabeth Taylor and Laurence Harvey especially act well together in BUTTERFIELD 8.
Infact both of them would reteam and costar in-NIGHT WATCH-1973,colour,also a great movie. In-NIGHT WATCH-Elizabeth Taylor is just so stunningly beautiful and glamorous and with her costar Laurence Harvey make a great team again-just as they do in BUTTERFIELD 8.
Regards,Bill.
Sexy beauty-ELIZABETH TAYLOR-plays glamorous Gloria Wandrous[what a Wonderful surname for such a wonderfully beautiful lady]is a glamorously dressed call girl who wakes up one morning in a luxurious bedroom that's not hers. She then leaves a wad of money left by an admirer,leaving a scornful reply in lipstick on a mirror,dials her service for messages and slips into a mink coat she found in a closet. Then the day,this movie and Gloria[Elizabeth]are set for a roaring start.
Elizabeth Taylor and Laurence Harvey especially act well together in BUTTERFIELD 8.
Infact both of them would reteam and costar in-NIGHT WATCH-1973,colour,also a great movie. In-NIGHT WATCH-Elizabeth Taylor is just so stunningly beautiful and glamorous and with her costar Laurence Harvey make a great team again-just as they do in BUTTERFIELD 8.
Regards,Bill.
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I am very dissappointed that I could not play it on my DVD player, nor could the person that I sent it to as a present. How do I address this problem?
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Butterfield 8 DVD
Elizabeth Taylor stars in this film, and as a fan I think its one of her best roles, as it requires acting a part not relying on her gorgeous looks, and playing an unsympathetic... Read more
Published 1 month ago by J. F. Fletcher
butterfield 8
Ws a gift for my mum. Didnt read the small print and didnt realise it couldnt be played on uk plAyer, so had to return it. Disappointed.
Published 3 months ago by jules
A Surprise Oscar for Elizabeth Taylor
BUTTERFIELD 8 is a screen adaptation of John O'Hara's earlier novel made to look modern for a 1960's audience. Read more
Published on 28 Aug 2003 by Peter Kenney
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