Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

JohnHowardReid Butterfield 8 (1960) is certainly a cameraman's film. But despite the credits, I don't believe Charles Harten photographed Butterfield 8. He is also credited as one of three photographers on a Three Stooges compilation. As a matter of fact, I don't believe there ever was a Charles Harten. It was simply a name employed to cover the use of multiple photographers. If you don't believe me, you can look up Harten's credits on IMDb. They are a dead giveaway. We all know for a fact that Joseph Ruttenberg was employed. In fact, he and the mysterious Harten were jointly nominated for an Academy Award. Some or all of the brilliant deep focus effects are undoubtedly Ruttenberg's work. These effects help to cover Daniel Mann's rather static direction. For all that, however, Liz Taylor received an Academy Award for Best Actress – an award that many of us Hollywood insiders believe was really a show of support for Liz, rather than an indication of a stand-out performance. I'll admit it was certainly a quite adequate performance. It did have its moments, for sure. But best of the year? Liz was also nominated for a Golden Globe, but for that award, we critics voted a definite "no!"

jacobs-greenwood Directed by Daniel Mann, with a screenplay by John Michael Hayes and Charles Schnee, this slightly above average, if dated drama earned Elizabeth Taylor her first Best Actress Oscar on her fourth nomination. The film's Color Cinematography was also nominated.Taylor plays Gloria Wandrous, a wanton girl with the titled message service that models clothes occasionally. In fact, it's an ideal job for her because she gets to frequent bars where she seemingly knows all the male clientele from past liaisons. Enter wealthy Weston Liggett (Laurence Harvey), her latest pickup who insults her by daring to leave her money. Insulted by his gesture, and because he'd ripped her clothes the night before, she leaves his apartment wearing his "home with her mother" wife's mink. Liggett's problem is that everything has been handed to him once he married Emily (Dina Merrill), whose father set him up in the company business such that he's never had a challenge. Even though he initially dismisses her as beneath him (in class), Gloria becomes his challenge.Gloria's problem is more serious, and stereotypical - her childhood was fatherless and more (revealed near its end), plus her mother (Mildred Dunnock), who refuses to acknowledge what her daughter has become, remains blissfully ignorant. However, Gloria does have an old friend, Steve (her real husband Eddie Fisher), that tolerates her even though he's engaged to Norma (Susan Oliver), who's not so understanding about her fiancé's relationship with Gloria. Mrs. Wandrous has a straightforward neighbor (Betty Field), also her best friend, who's not too shy to "call a slut, a slut". In fact, the film's best scenes are those in which Taylor's character's character is laid bare amidst snappy banter with Field's and Oliver's characters. Jeffrey Lynn plays a lawyer whose simple practice Harvey's character covets. Kay Medford plays a roadside waitress Gloria sees as her horrible future; George Voskovec plays Gloria's shrink.When Gloria tells Steve that a relative took advantage of her (sexually) at an early age, and that she liked it, it effectively convinces him to finally marry Norma. When Emily returns to her husband, it's coincidentally at the same time that Gloria realizes she has her coat and tries to return it. Weston is so messed up emotionally that he chases after Gloria, who ends up killing herself when she drives her car off an embankment. It's possible that he'll return to Emily and they'll live happily ever after.

gavin6942 The romantic life of a fashionable Manhattan beauty (Elizabeth Taylor) who is part model, part call-girl, and all man-trap.According to MGM records, the film made $6.8 million in the US and Canada and $3.2 million in other countries, resulting in a profit to the studio of $1,857,000 - making it MGM's biggest hit of the year. This is hardly surprising, given the subject matter. It is very much in the vein of "Breakfast at Tiffany's", though far more open about its main character. (One could watch "Breakfast" and never realize what Hepburn was if they weren't paying attention.) Elizabeth Taylor won a best actress Oscar, which is probably well-deserved. Maybe not her best-known role in retrospect (few today have probably heard of this film), but certainly a nice showcase of her talents.

TheLittleSongbird 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