:
Elizabeth Taylor,
Elizabeth Taylor,
Laurence Harvey,
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:
Daniel Mann,
Daniel Mann
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: Not Rated
: Warner Home Video
: Drama
: 109 min.
: English, French
: English, French
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A woman who has long been short on feelings falls in love with a married man in this emotional drama. Gloria Wondrous (Elizabeth Taylor) is a model and party girl who lives for pleasure and is willing to take men for what she can get from them. Gloria bounces from man to man, but feels that she can only truly confide in Steve Carpenter (Eddie Fisher), a longtime friend with whom she shares a close but strictly platonic relationship, though his fiancée (Susan Oliver) suspects otherwise. Gloria becomes involved with Weston Liggett (Laurence Harvey), a wealthy but emotionally cold man who is married to Emily (Dina Merrill). Weston shows Gloria precious little respect or kindness at first, but as they share a few bouts with the bottle, they discover that both are desperately lacking in self-confidence and have little happiness in their lives. As Gloria and Weston reveal more about themselves to one another, they fall in love, but Gloria isn't sure if she can commit to one man, while Weston has to decide if he can leave Emily behind. Based on the novel by John O'Hara, Butterfield 8 earned Elizabeth Taylor her first Academy Award (for Best Actress) after four unsuccessful nominations. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
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| turgid and preposterous
by tboot
July 22, 2003 - 11:38 AM PDT
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1 out of 4 members found this review helpful
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| Possibly one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Though that might be colored by my having just read the book, which is fantastic. The book is set in the early '30s, set in the world of prohibition and the speakeasy culture of New York, during the tail end of the Depression. I have truly never seen a movie that has so little to do with the source novel. No wonder no one reads John O'Hara's novels anymore -- they were made into movies like this! The movie's set in the '60s, and takes several characters from the book, completely changes them (including the name of one of them (Eddie in the book becomes Steve in the movie, though this was probably because the character was played by Eddie Fisher, and they wanted to avoid confusion), turns their relationships into soap opera hysterics, removes all humor, subtleties of class differences, O'Hara's kaleidoscopic portrait of New York, and transforms it into a turgid, preposterous potboiler. Taylor is an eyeful for sure, and she chews the furniture like she was daring the Academy NOT to give her an Oscar, but what a piece of junk this is. They even add a car chase! For camp value only, and not much of that. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 5.67)
21 Votes
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