Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Cooktopi The acting in this movie is really good.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

marcslope Seven years before "Airport," there was this similarly laid out, lush MGM soap, which wasn't produced by Ross Hunter but looks like it could have been. The stars, the fashions, the mid-century-modern sets, the Miklos Rosza themes grinding and repeating in the background, all speak to a more innocent, more optimistic time. And best of all, while Hunter had only Perlberg and Seaton to bring Arthur Hailey's novel to the screen, MGM had the super-literate, super-crafty Terrence Rattigan to provide his own original story, expertly plotted out to afford a plethora of wide-screen star-gazing. Elizabeth Taylor, resplendent in St. Laurent, is about to leave Richard Burton for lounge lizard Louis Jourdan, but their plane is fogged in at Heathrow and Burton catches up to them, allowing for some civilized sniping between the two men, neither of whom seems good enough for her. Meantime, Dino di Laurentiis-like producer Orson Welles has to be out of Britain by midnight to escape some tax burdens; duchess Margaret Rutherford is headed unhappily to a new job in Florida to pay expenses for her Brighton mansion; and tractor maker Rod Taylor, subject to a hostile takeover, needs 150,000 pounds to cover a bad check, in which he's ably assisted by his plain-Jane secretary, Maggie Smith (all Janes should be this plain). Rattigan's epigrammatic screenplay darts dazzlingly between the four story lines, and he's instinctively fair-minded; nobody's all good or all bad, and even Linda Christian, as Rod Taylor's shallow girlfriend, isn't entirely reprehensible. Everybody's great fun to watch, and interesting people like Michael Hordern and Robert Coote and David Frost can be glimpsed in supporting roles, but the movie really belongs to the two Maggies. Rutherford picked up a supporting Oscar for playing essentially what she'd been playing for the previous 25 years, but who deserved it more, and she's not only pricelessly funny but unexpectedly touching. And Smith, silently loving her boss Rod Taylor (and who wouldn't), effortlessly steals a particularly good scene from Burton, bringing on the third act and walking off with the rest of the movie. Deep it isn't, and Rosza's themes feel a little obvious (I grew to hate that cutesy-English strain underlying every Rutherford scene), but what a luxuriously entertaining ride. That the prime storyline is based on Rattigan's own observation of the Vivien Leigh-Laurence Olivier-Peter Finch triangle being played out at the airport a few years before only adds to our sumptuous enjoyment.

Ben Parker I have no idea how you came to The V.I.P.'s, whether it was following Margaret Rutherford or Orson Welles, both of who are funny in this, but I hope you didn't come for Liz and Dick, whose storyline most resembles a movie plot, but is a dull love triangle. The only value of this movie is in the generous time each of its cameo stars get. Orson Welles for instance has multiple scenes, maybe adding up to 15 minutes screen time, I'd be curious to calculate it. They are all little scenes, but add up to a decent amount of value for the Orson Welles completionist. He plays a probably gay film producer who talks like Akim Tamiroff and is having some kind of nebulous trouble with the film he's making. Margaret Rutherford is really fun. She has this kind of batty effortless humour to her. Louis Jordan is infuriating. Rod Taylor is a stereotypical aggressive Aussie, at least the accent is good, because its genuine! Check out Orson in The Southern Star (1969) for the worst Aussie accent I've ever heard. I could try and tell you The V.I.P.'s isn't that great of a movie, but you've clearly gone pretty deep in whatever it is you're interested in, you may as well check it out. For fans of Orson or Rutherford I'd say sure, add it to your collection.

mark.waltz Who needs a TV movie about Hollywood's greatest screen team when you have the real thing? Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, fresh from making headlines in Rome on "Cleopatra", quickly followed that up with this soapy women's picture about a business tycoon's obsession with his estranged wife, and the love a secretary has for her boss that results in her saving his business from a takeover. Elizabeth Taylor tones down the drama from her series of successful potboilers of the late 1950's and early 60's ("Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", "Suddenly Last Summer", her Oscar winning performance in the silly "Butterfield 8") while Burton is excellent as her demanding husband whose obsession moves between violence and tenderness. Playing the role that Burton had been portraying in real life ("the other man"), Louis Jourdan is the man Taylor is planning to marry once she gets rid of her unwanted husband. Pretty ironic considering the five years of scandal that Taylor had been undergoing since the Debbie/Eddie scandal.Rod Taylor seems to be utilizing an Australian accent to his role of a man on the verge of loosing his business while his shy but efficient secretary (Maggie Smith) quietly thinks of a way to save the day. Smith, rising slowly to stardom from here on in, had been around for a while in a couple of minor films, but mostly on stage. Her resemblance to Myrna Loy is quite eerie, and it is ironic that in 1976, she would be playing a parody of Loy's Nora Charles in Neil Simon's "Murder By Death". There is none of the acid tongued diva for which she became well known here, just a woman with a huge heart trying to find the courage to come out of her shell. The delightful Margaret Rutherford won the Academy Award for her performance as a chatty countess down on her luck, sort of a Marie Dressler "Dinner at Eight" grand dame that brings regalness to a delightful down-to-earth character.The weakest of the story lines is that of the film producer (Orson Welles) dealing with his star while preparing to fly to America from London. It seems to have been edited greatly, although his brief interaction with Rutherford towards the end does give it some purpose. The result is a mixed bag that audiences can enjoy even if it is far from perfect.

highwaytourist I saw this back during the 1980's and it's OK. "The VIP's" was written by the distinguished British playwright Terence Rattigan, whose works include "Separate Tables." It's a multi-character programmer about various wealthy people who are stranded by fog at an airport while their lives are at a crisis point of one kind or another. The big story is the marital discord of a powerful businessman and his pampered but neglected wife, played by Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Their real-life affair and subsequent marriage had made front-page news around the world at the time of this film, and it was clearly made with the intent of capitalizing on their notoriety. There are other characters with problems, played by Orson Wells, Margaret Rutherford (who won an Oscar), Elsa Martinelli, Maggie Smith, and Rod Taylor, but that was just filler material. The result is a glamorous but routine film with nothing going on that you wouldn't see in an episode of "Dallas" or "Dynasty," but it's still easy to watch and the time passes painlessly.