It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

The movie is about a high-priced call girl. Elizabeth Taylor as Gloria Wandrous is a prostitute but Hollywood, in 1960, still bound by antiquated production codes couldn't reveal her real resume. This leaves the film uncomfortably constrained and contrived. The audience has to go with what's presented, a story line crafted to sanitize the world's oldest profession. So the censors have given us a character Gloria, who is a "club girl," a model paid to wear fashionable clothes and be seen in trendy watering holes. These gathering places are frequented by men in suits, the wealthy and influential whose hands are never empty of a glass, downing one drink than another, the highball or martini. Gloria, a "good time girl," is promiscuous, BUT what she's really selling and out to get is "true love." She herself is an elitist in her own line of work, not just a common gold digger, but also a girl with an elevated purpose. And then in comes one of the regulars Gloria has hooked, Weston Liggett played by Laurence Harvey. Harvey's an actor accomplished at playing characters practicing deception and enduring subsequent remorse, and he's able here to deliver this type of troubled personality. Liggett, we soon learn is suffering from a terrible malady. He is married to a wealthy society woman, and works for the family company where he feels undervalued and unproductive. With all the entitlements of the good life, he is still a wretch, enslaved to a life of dull, staid opulence. His wife Emily, played by Dina Merrill, is the ever suffering, understanding spouse, putting up with her husband's philandering. His wife's indulgence of his shortcomings only increases Liggett's self-loathing and guilt. What's a young, good-looking man with money to do when he's destined to endure such a banal lifestyle? Why take up with a fancy slut and then of course, fall obsessively, madly in love with her. Eddie Fisher, Taylor's husband at the time, is awkwardly positioned into this melodrama, giving less a performance than a "walk through." He plays Gloria's childhood friend Steve who serves as her devoted, unfailing confidante. He's always there for her when she is in need of emotional support, which for Gloria means an almost daily cry for help. Steve's jealous finance Norma hates his relationship with Gloria. Susan Oliver as Norma gives a serviceable performance as she has little to do but by turns look aggrieved and frustrated. Her confrontations with her boyfriend Steve are verbal jabs, inviting Steve to challenge her dramatic statements, ones usually centered around Gloria's cheap behavior: "Is she not the biggest tramp in the whole city!" Since Manhattan contains somewhere around 8 million inhabitants…this is certainly quite a distinction. Mildred Dunnock is Gloria's mother, a woman living a genteel life of denial. Her daughter is a "good girl." Mrs. Wandrous' one time man friend, and prospective husband, sexually abused the young teen-aged Gloria, a heinous exploitation over a protracted period of time. Whether the mother even knows of her daughter's childhood ordeal is never in fact made clear to the audience. Kay Medford, provides the most noteworthy, spirited performance in this otherwise dour production. She is the ironically named Happy, the owner of a popular motel, a rendezvous for illicit love. Happy, herself a "good time girl" in her younger days, maintains a cynical but upbeat philosophical outlook on life. She's a self-defined expert on male/female relationships, the guru ready to dole out wisdom and advice gained from her own hard luck lessons of life. Elizabeth Taylor reportedly disliked making this movie and her displeasure shows. Her portrayal is deficient in conveying the emotional and physical scars of misuse. Taylor gives us the emotional posturing of an uninspired acting technique. She's too much The Screen Goddess throughout, unblemished by any of the authentic grit and misery defining a victim of a sordid past and present. No piece of used merchandise, Taylor on screen is every inch the Movie Star. Liz got the best actress Oscar for this movie, purportedly the "pity vote," in acknowledgment of the illness that almost took her life. The win certainly couldn't have been for the undistinguished performance she gave in this movie.

This is a fascinating flick, although probably not for the reasons MGM intended. The story goes that Elizabeth Taylor was forced into it to fulfill her contract and she fought tooth and nail to get out of it and that she hated it to her dying day. If true, then La Liz must've been the consummate professional from top to bottom because she gives a riveting performance and she must've gotten a laugh at the irony of her Oscar for it. Another part of the intrigue is the sheer strangeness of the flick itself. All the characters are weird and detestable or just annoying. Liz's Gloria is supposed to be a prostitute but due to the Hollywood censorship of the time, the script dances all around that fact while admitting it one minute and denying it in the next. It's all pretty bizarre, but Liz's performance is unfailingly superb all the way through. Her husband at the time, Eddie Fisher, plays Gloria's best friend, a guy who acts thoroughly gay but who actually has a girlfriend made to look exactly like his ex, Debbie Reynolds. Laurence Harvey's Wes is a repellent and slimy alcoholic and his wife (Dina Merrill) is a world-class WASP martyr that has to be seen to be believed. There is some great catty dialogue between Gloria and the girlfriend and Gloria and the best friend of Gloria's oblivious mother. Gloria never gives any ground in any catfight and it's fantastic to watch. Anyway, this movie is interesting for a lot of odd reasons, but Liz elevates the whole mess to a very watchable and amusing flick.

John O'Hara "still the most published short-story writer in The New Yorker's history" based his book on the true story of a high class call-girl's death in questionable circumstances in 1931.This movie version attracts low ratings and often dismissive comments: British critic Halliwell that it was "coy", others that it is "dated" or "trashy". I think that it is none of these and that such criticism is woefully naïve indeed the movie is in some ways more adult than a modern supposedly adult audience is generally willing to countenance. What interested the perhaps more savvy readers of the original story was the insight into unusual lives which otherwise would only have registered as tragic violent deaths sketchily reported in local newspapers. The movie is not great art. It is a plainly but competently told tale. It is the tale itself - these two hard-bitten characters who could have just had the fleeting dealings of wealthy man with a high class call girl but instead became the centres of each other's lives, lives of a passion and intensity neither thought they were capable of experiencing. That they at first try to maintain their respective unconcern with the feelings of others but love turns this unconcern into torture of each other leading to a spiral of emotion and pain and finally almost inevitably, tragedy. As to casting, was it a coincidence that the two leads although differing in very important respects, were not a million miles from the characters they portrayed? Laurence Harvey's second marriage was to a very wealthy widow, seventeen years his senior. Liz Taylor's beauty, animal magnetism, passion and resolute independence may have been the equal of the character she played. If the two lack chemistry as a couple (they were in fact close friends), individually each deeply understood the character they portrayed - and each other's character's character. Each even perhaps recognising the character's anxieties. I believe it shows in the great performances - Taylor's first Oscar.What makes it adult in a way modern audiences might find too adult is Gloria's revelation - what made her become what she became. The familiar story of seduction aged 13 by her mother's boyfriend would today be a simple story of violator and victim. In Butterfield 8 it is the more truthful story of her corruption and "ruin" - later to become physically promiscuous, hyper-erotic but emotionally stunted. What complements and contrasts the two extreme central characters and gave additional authenticity were the other main female characters: Gloria's unworldly mother tortured by a suspicion about her daughter she could not face. Liggett's wife - not a wealthy spoilt brat but a forgiving and loving person whose inner beauty Gloria is forced to contrast with her own inner ugliness. In their own ways almost as extreme and unusual as the two central characters. But not impossibly so.

BUtterfield 8 (1960) * 1/2 (out of 4) Elizabeth Taylor won her first of two Oscars for this melodrama where she plays a prostitute who begins to fall in love with a rich client (Laurence Harvey) who just happens to be married. The troubled woman also has feelings for another man (Eddie Fisher) who is attached to another woman even though he may have feelings for the bad girl. The novel that this film was based on was about a true person whose troubled life eventually had her body washing up on shore during 1931 but this tragic tale has been watered down so that MGM wouldn't have any trouble with the production code but another problem is that they wanted to add that typical MGM polish but this is one case where it really killed the picture. Taylor went on record several times saying she hated this picture and thought she only won the Oscar due to her illness at the time and after watching this movie I Must say that I agree with her. This is especially true when you look at some of the other performances nominated. With that said, Taylor turns in a good performance but for an actress of her greatness you still can't help but say this is one of her lesser performances. It's also well-known that Taylor was wanting to finish off her contract with MGM so that she could go to Fox and pick up a million-dollar check for CLEOPATRA but I wouldn't say this effected the performance any. I think the actress was smart enough to see how poor this material was and it's fair to say that everyone was hampered with the screenplay. The screenplay is a complete mess as it really never seems to know what type of story it wants to tell and there are way too many times where a door is opened and something dark is about to come forward but for no apparent reason the subject and tone changes. If you pay attention during the first scene between Taylor and Fisher you'll notice what appears to be dubbed dialogue and I'm curious if this was done because the original was too "dirty" or if perhaps it was just that bad and they had the lines changed later. Either way, the problems continue from there because the screenplay doesn't offer up a single character that you like. I don't mind this when you have a hard film telling an ugly story but that's not the case here. The characters all come off rather unlikeable and when the film wants you to feel something for them you just can't because you don't care. Both Harvey and Fisher are decent in their roles but the screenplay gives them very little to do other than stand behind Taylor. Taylor, as I said, isn't great here but she at least manages to make you keep your eye on her. The minor sexuality in the film is brought to life by Taylor who looks as beautiful as ever. BUTTERFIELD 8 is a pretty poor movie from start to finish. There's not an ounce of life to be found, the story is a mess and you can't help but with some of the MGM shine had been removed so that the film could have dealt with the real subject at hand. As it is this film is certainly only for buffs who want to check out everything that has won an Oscar.