BUtterfield 8

 

Butterfield 8 would probably not warrant much of our attention these days if it weren’t for the performance of Elizabeth Taylor, who won the Oscar for Best Actress, as Gloria Wandrous, a woman who likes to have fun in the company of men. It’s not a particularly good film, and the dialogue is especially cringe-inducing. For example, one character tells Laurence Harvey’s character about Gloria, “Oh, she’s…she’s frantic! Isn’t she like a rocket off the Earth? Who should know better than yours truly? Ooohh, mother, help me! I’d have left home for that. Nah… she’s got a traveling itch; she’s like a flea. Hop, hop, hop from one dog to another. She bites you, and she’s gone. She picks you up, and she drops you.” Such misogynistic talk permeates the film, and the attitude that it represents accounts, perhaps, for how the film’s plot punishes Gloria but not Liggett (Harvey), the married man who treats both his wife and his mistress, whom he allegedly loves, horribly. Of course, Harvey almost always played a cad in his movie roles, and Butterfield 8 is no exception. The film’s title, which should technically have the first two letters capitalized but autocorrect says otherwise, is the number for the phone service she uses for receiving and sending messages from her numerous male friends and from the agency for which she models clothes. Despite the obstacles – he’s married, she wants to define the terms of her relationships herself – they fall in love after spending a week together. They also have a lot of sex in a lot of places, at his apartment, in a motel room, on a boat, even in the backseat of her car – none of which are shown on the screen, of course. Still, that would be pretty risqué stuff for 1960. An argument over Gloria’s taking of Liggett’s wife’s mink coat leads to the end of their relationship, and Taylor’s reactions to Harvey’s emoting during the sequence at a restaurant and then outside his apartment are marvels of restraint. Remarkably, she won for what is a very subtle performance, not the kind of acting for which actors typically receive awards. The rest of the cast is filled with some strong but short performances by great character actors: Mildred Dunnock as Gloria’s mother, Kay Medford as the owner of the motel where Gloria and Liggett spend time together, and Betty Field as Mrs. Thurber, a friend of Gloria’s mother who has some great repartee with Taylor’s Gloria over the morality of her behavior. Dina Merrill also has some solid moments as Emily Liggett, the wife who seems to know more about what’s going on that she admits. In an unexpected twist, Eddie Fisher, Taylor’s husband at the time of filming, plays her long-time friend Steve Carpenter, a composer who loves and supports Gloria even though he has a girlfriend who doesn’t understand why he stands by a woman like Gloria. Butterfield 8 was also Oscar-nominated for its cinematography, but I don’t see anything about the camerawork that is particularly outstanding. The set design, particularly Liggett’s spectacular apartment, and costume design, especially the many outfits that accentuate Taylor’s beauty, should have gotten some recognition instead. I wondered at times if this film were truly meant to be camp or if it could be considered camp by now, but is some bad dialogue alone sufficient to be camp?

Oscar Win: Best Actress in a Leading Role (Elizabeth Taylor)

Other Oscar Nominations: Best Color Cinematography