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 And the script and story didn't come off well to me, the controversial, daring aspects come across as tepid and out of date now and the script is as far away from naturally-flowing as you can go, has far too much talk and reeks of melodramatic soap opera complete with some of the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

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.

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