BUtterfield 8 (1960)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Daniel Mann

Writers:

John O'Hara (novel)
Charles Schnee (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

4 November 1960 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

...the best-seller that tells Gloria's story...from first man to last!

Plot:

The romantic life of a fashionable Manhattan beauty who's part model, part call-girl--and all man-trap.

Plot Keywords:

Divorce | New York | Model | Vamp | Beautiful Woman

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 2 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Elizabeth Taylor	...	Gloria Wandrous
Laurence Harvey	...	Weston Liggett
Eddie Fisher	...	Steve Carpenter
Dina Merrill	...	Emily Liggett
Mildred Dunnock	...	Mrs. Wandrous
Betty Field	...	Mrs. Fanny Thurber
Jeffrey Lynn	...	Bingham Smith
Kay Medford	...	Happy
Susan Oliver	...	Norma
George Voskovec	...	Dr. Tredman

Also Known As:

Butterfield 8 (USA) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | UK:15 (1994) | UK:X (1960) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | West Germany:16 (w) | Canada:PG (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

5th Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Afton-Linebrook

Trivia:

Gloria's car was a Sunbeam Alpine

Goofs:

Continuity: In the scene where Legget is Trap Shooting with his wife Emily, it is evident that she is unfamiliar with loading a shotgun. Emily can be seen loading another shotgun shell into the chamber of a Remmington shot gun with the brass forward, opposite the way a shotgun shell is loaded. In simple terms, backwards.

Quotes:

Gloria Wandrous: I spent the night with Steve's girlfriend, Norma.
Mrs. Wandrous: Ah, isn't that nice! She knows a boy whose girlfriend is that unselfish!
Mrs. Fanny Thurber: That's a girl who won't have a girlfriend long.
Gloria Wandrous: A compliment from you, Mrs. Thurber?
Mrs. Fanny Thurber: I must have said it wrong!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Buck Henry/The Grateful Dead (#4.5)" (1978)

Pseudo-shocking doings in the bedroom

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 ****