Cheap Butterfield 8 (DVD) (Elizabeth Taylor, Laurence Harvey, Eddie Fisher) (Daniel Mann) Price

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Customer Reviews of Butterfield 8

Ms. Taylor plays a beautiful young woman, Gloria Wandrous, with serious self-esteem problems that lead her to live of 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 struggle with his pride for having married his wealthy wife, Emily (Dina Merrill), whose family has him on a golden leash . Dina Merrill is good as Emily, but her role is terribly dated. She plays it as if she were a Stepford wife, a good little wife 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 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 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.

Tragic
This is a tale of a good girl gone bad. Men are *toys* to her until she meets Weston Ligette (Laurence Harvey). Falling in love, she is determined to turn her life around. A compulsive decision she makes early in the relationship results in tragic consequences. Never dull and the dialogue is brilliant. Elizabeth Taylor is at her best in this film.

Excelent script
Butterfield 8 was a disturbing film in its age. Elizabeth Taylor won an Academy award for this film.
The picture was supported by a fine dialogue. Once more Hiccock was right when he stated that the three most important fundamentals aspects for making a good film were ; first a good script , second a good script and third a good script .
Laurence Harvey is the lucky guy who commits adultery with that night butterfly , who later will fall in love with him . That perspective , however becomes in a complex device to explore the intimate world of all those people who live around them ; the fantasy world of Gloria, her glamorous desire to become a great lady , with an overshelter mother, a friend who makes the role of the brother she never had (Fisher is a mess as actor in this movie , maybe its only fault).
In the other side of the coin , Harvey is a married man who lives in a boring house with a unbearable wife , with nothing to say and nothing to give . So this marriage is just only a status convenience. He rebeals against this state of things but he is uncapable of break his marriage.
This situation is obviously hazardous for Gloria's growing expectations , who deeply in her mind still believes he'll divorce.
Powerful dramatis personae with an unexpected twist of fate.
Taylor in the peak of her cosmical beauty , but showing us also her powerful skill gifts acting.
Good transfer on DVD.
The picture may be today a bit old fashioned , but the visible analogies in that age with notable personalities of different worlds are obviously reflected.
The Profumo case for instance, was still fresh in the mind of the social pages and some other celebrities .
A good film to watch over and over.