Butterfield 8 is on TCM right now!

I watched it knowing Elizabeth Taylor won an Oscar for her role, but it is one of the most unintentionally hilarious films I've ever seen.

Mrs. Thurber is a riot!

Watching this movie, I'm finally starting to understand why Liz was such a star.

She not only had the beauty, but she had the personality. She could really act.

Most of the other actresses of her day had either looks or ability. Liz had both.

This is the first movie she was heavily corseted in. The Wardrobe Department started getting concerned.

Yeah R4, you can tell this is when she first started gaining weight. She looks very bloated.

I'm guessing that Liz started drinking heavily around this time. The scene where she ordered more french fries from the waitress, made me laugh.

This is such a good movie, though. It's so sophisticated. And the writing is fantastic.

Face it, Mama, I was the SLUT OF ALL TIME!

Excuse me, but can anyone change a $100,00.00 bill?

I'm still trying to decide if Liggett's wife is smart, or a complete idiot.

That's the beauty of this movie.

[quote]R5 you can tell this is when she first started gaining weight. She looks very bloated.… I'm guessing that Liz started drinking heavily around this time. The scene where she ordered more french fries from the waitress, made me laugh.

She’d just spent a year shooting CLEOPATRA in Italy, getting a huge daily per diem to spend on throwing lavish dinner parties, etc. And she was turning 30. So the bloat was creeping in.

PS: this is a fairly awful movie.

^^^ Butterfield was filmed in early 1960, long before her scenes in Cleopatra were made.

Why awful, R9?

I think it's amazing.

Considering when it was made, this movie must have been ground breaking.

I never thought much about Eddie Fisher before, but he was kind of attractive.

I can't believe that Liz Taylor was only 28 in this movie.

She seemed older.

[quote]Face it, Mama, I was the SLUT OF ALL TIME!

And how many of you have said the same thing to your own mothers? Fess up!

Based on a real life incident, very interesting. This film is really all about Taylor looking incomparably beautiful.

Laurence Harvey is a wet noodle. Mildred Dunnock and Betty Field are fabulous. Liz is a star baby! Gotta run. Gloria is about to have an accident.

[quote]R10 Butterfield was filmed in early 1960, long before her scenes in Cleopatra were made.

Oh, you’re right!

I guess she just started the slide into permanent plumpdome all on her own.

So he chases her, she dies, then he goes back to his wife and lives happily ever after?

That's fucking BULLSHIT!

Speaking of TCM, whose idea was it to have this astrologer on babbling about "the moon in Jupiter"?! Talk about cringe -- Robert Osborne must be spinning in his grave.

NO SALE!

Faithfull's story has inspired several fictional works, the best known of which is John O'Hara's 1935 novel BUtterfield 8.[1][3][5] The case has been explored in numerous non-fiction books, including British crime historian Jonathan Goodman's 1990 true crime book The Passing of Starr Faithfull,[6] which won a Gold Dagger award.

One of Betty's favorite movies

Liz’s looks didn’t start deteriorating until she hooked up with Richard Burton.

R17, I think Taylor said that she started drinking after the death of Mike Todd, her third (?) husband, in 1958. That might account for the swollen look.

Swollen colon.

R16 I think Laurence Harvey was a dreamboat in this movie. Also great with her in the 1973 horror film Night Watch.

Did Laurence Harvey ever manage to muster an iota of chemistry with anyone?

[quote] Did Laurence Harvey ever manage to muster an iota of chemistry with anyone?

Yes, they look pretty hot and heavy here.

Harvey was always a cold fish as an actor. That's why he's so perfect in ROOM AT THE TOP (he does manage some chemistry with Signoret) and THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE.

I think it stinks.

I loved Harvey in DARLING with Julie Christie. They had chemistry. More than she had with Dirk Bogarde.

Harvey to Dina: But I can't go on disappointing you. Dina: Couldn't you try? I think John O'Hara also wrote the book that the movie with Suzanne Pleshette playing a nympho is based on.

And that would be the potboiler A Rage To Live with a very sexy Ben Gazzara. I don't think TCM would show it, but they may have.

TCM has shown A Rage To Live. Mediocre, and not one of Pleshette's finest hours.

I stole a grapefruit from a tree at Laurence Harvey's house in Palm Springs. He'd been dead for about 30 years so I don't think he minded.

r35=Lucy Ricardo

Did you get it autographed?

Anyone read the original novel by John O’Hara? I like his writing.

Paperback Writer O'Hara was no doubt a closet gay given his ouevre.

I found the novel easy to get into and hard to put down. The characters and their backgrounds are very convincing. It's a sad book, but I liked it.

I couldn't watch A Rage to Live without laughing.

Wasn’t RAGE supposed to be Suzanne’s breakout movie role? Who was her agent?

R40, Duh, that's what made it bearable! That and Brett Somers and Ben Gazzara shirtless.

Brett Somers was shirtless?

It's on again.

TCM in one hour!

I was the slut of all time!

Aww... it's just ending right now on TCM

Gloria is leaving for Boston and gives Mrs. Thurber her mink coat.

I missed most of it.

Taylor/Wandrous was an amateur.

10,000 and counting . . .

There was still movie censorship at the time but somehow they managed to push a sophisticated sex story while staying within the bounds of what was considered ‘acceptable.’ Barely. Because in time-honored fashion, the independent, mouthy, sexual woman has to die, just as she would have in a movie from 1939.

Per Wikipedia, it was the 7th highest gorssing film of 1960 with rentals (profit) of almost $7 million, big money at that time.

Taylor hated the script, she felt MGM were humilating her for ‘stealing’ Fisher away from little Debbie, and it’s probably true that many in the audience at the time thought this was the real Elizabeth.

By the time voting for the Oscars rolled around, Taylor was at death’s door with pneumonia, which certainly helped her Oscar chances. Anyway, all was forgiven as far as Hollywood was concerned. And as far as the public was concerned too.

I think Taylor is magnificent in it, gorgeous, glamorously overripe, brazen, no-bullshit. If a movie performance can be the equivalent of a “Fuck You!” to her detractors, this was it.

Box Office Top ten in 1960: SPARTACUS, PSYCHO, EXODUS, SWISS FAMILYROBONSON, THE ALAMO, THE WORLD OF SUZIE WONG, BUTTERFIELD 8, THE APARTMENT, OCEAN’S 11, FROM THE TERRACE.

BUTTERBALL 8

Liz felt Mike Todd had an agreement with MGM, to the effect that she didn't owe another film to the studio after "Cat." Having earned $500,000 for "Suddenly Last Summer" and headlining a major hit, she was disappointed when MGM reneged on their agreement. It seems Todd's agreement was merely a handshake deal.

The studio insisted that Liz return to work on "Butterball 8" for her old MGM weekly salary, which ensured enormous profits.

Liz disliked the plot, believing they were exploiting her notoriety. Unable to extricate herself due to Mike's handshake agreement, she intentionally overate throughout the filming.

She dubbed it "Butterball 8," as she was overweight, and saw the movie as a turkey.,