| BUtterfield 8 | |
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Theatrical release poster by Reynold Brown |
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| Directed by | Daniel Mann |
| Produced by | Pandro S. Berman |
| Written by | John O'Hara (novel) John Michael Hayes Charles Schnee |
| Starring | Elizabeth Taylor Laurence Harvey |
| Music by | Bronislau Kaper |
| Cinematography | Charles Harten Joseph Ruttenberg |
| Editing by | Ralph E. Winters |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | November 4, 1960 |
| Running time | 109 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
BUtterfield 8 is a 1960 Metrocolor drama film directed by Daniel Mann, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Laurence Harvey.[1][2] Taylor, then 28 years old, won an Academy Award for her performance. The film was based on a 1935 novel written by John O'Hara in the wake of the success of his critically acclaimed Appointment in Samarra.
The screenplay was adapted by John Michael Hayes and Charles Schnee from the 1935 novel, but the plot of the film bears only a superficial resemblance to the novel. O'Hara based parts on the mysterious death of Starr Faithfull in Long Beach, Nassau County, New York in 1931. Faithfull's body was found on a beach after an apparent drowning. In the novel the heroine is killed by falling under the paddle wheel of a steamboat.
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The unconventional title of the novel[3] and film[4] (capitalized "B" and "U") derives from the pattern of old telephone exchange names in the United States and Canada. Until the early 1970s telephone exchanges were commonly referred to by name instead of by number. BUtterfield 8 was an exchange that provided service to ritzy precincts of Manhattan's Upper East Side. Dialing the letters "BU" equates to 28 on the lettered telephone dial, so "BUtterfield 8" would equate to 288 as the first three digits of a seven-digit phone number.
Gloria Wandrous (Elizabeth Taylor) wakes up in wealthy executive Weston Liggett's (Laurence Harvey) apartment and finds Liggett has left her $250. Insulted, Gloria, whose dress is torn, takes Liggett's wife Emily's mink coat to cover herself and scrawls "No Sale" in lipstick on the mirror. But she orders her telephone exchange, BUtterfield 8, to put Liggett through if he should call.
Gloria visits a childhood friend, pianist Steve Carpenter (Eddie Fisher), in his Greenwich Village apartment. He chastises Gloria for wasting her life on one-night stands, but agrees to ask his girlfriend Norma (Susan Oliver) to lend her a dress. Gloria leaves, whereupon Norma jealously gives Steve an ultimatum: He must choose between her and Gloria.
Liggett takes a train to the countryside where his wife Emily (Dina Merrill) is caring for her mother. A friend, Bingham Smith (Jeffrey Lynn), advises him to end his adulterous relationships and return to Bing's law firm instead of working for the chemical business of Emily's father.
Gloria lies to her doting mother Annie (Mildred Dunnock), claiming to have spent the night at Norma's. A neighbor, Fanny Thurber (Betty Field), insinuates that Gloria spends many nights in "less than virtuous" circumstances.
Liggett returns home. Finding the lipstick and money, he phones Gloria to explain the money was meant for her to buy a new dress, to replace the one that he had torn.
While drinking later that night, Liggett advises her to ask a high price for her lovemaking talents, prompting Gloria to jam her stiletto heel into his shoe. She insists that she does not take payment from her dates and claims that she has been hired as a model to advertise the dress she is wearing at three different bistros that very night. Liggett follows her and watches Gloria flirt with dozens of men at several clubs. He drives her to a run-down motel owned by middle-aged female ex-vaudevillian called Happy (Kay Medford). After sleeping together, Liggett and Gloria decide to explore their relationship further.
Norma finds the mink coat in Steve's closet. He tries to explain that after Gloria's father died, Steve looked after her like a brother. Norma again asserts that she does not want to continue their relationship with Gloria in their lives.
Liggett disappears with Gloria for five days. His mother-in-law suggests to Emily that she divorce him. Emily feels he is frustrated by the life her family has handed him and insists she will be patient with him.
Liggett finally admits to Gloria that he is married. Far from being surprised, she thanks Liggett for the respect he showed her, finally calling her by name instead of "honey" or "dollface." Gloria describes herself to her mother about having been a "slut" and Annie slaps her. Now that her mother has finally heard the truth, Gloria says she has finally fallen in love with only one man.
Gloria visits her psychiatrist, Dr. Tredman, to insist that her relationship with Liggett has cured her of promiscuity. She rushes to Liggett's apartment building with the mink coat to return it, but sees his elegant wife Emily in the entryway and leaves in shame.
Liggett takes up Bing's offer of a job at the law firm. When he returns home, Emily has noticed that her mink is gone. Liggett nervously makes excuses and rushes out to search for Gloria at her regular clubs, but finds instead that he is just one in a "fraternity" of Gloria's ex-lovers. "We meet at Yankee Stadium," one says.
Gloria goes to visit Happy, who relates that her own wild and promiscuous life in her youth brought her nothing but pain and led to a depressing dead end. When she finds Liggett at a bistro the following evening, he launches into a series of drunken insults and taunts Gloria, saying "honey, baby, dollface, kid" and creates a scene. Gloria then drives a drunken Liggett to his apartment building where Emily, spotting them from a window above, watches as her husband throws the coat at Gloria, saying that he would never give the tainted object back to his wife.
Gloria goes to Steve, saying cynically that she feels she has earned the mink coat she is wearing, every thread and fur pelt. She recounts that when she was 13 years old, Major Hartley, a friend of her widowed mother, had repeatedly raped her while her mother was away.
The next day, a defeated Liggett asks Emily for a divorce. He explains that he loves Gloria so much that the thought of her deserting him drove him into a rage.
Norma, meanwhile finds Gloria asleep on Steve's couch, but he calmly asks Norma to marry him.
Back home, Gloria tells her mother she is going to Boston to begin a new life. She gives the mink to Fanny and leaves in her sports car. Finding out where she went, Liggett drives until he spots her car at a roadside café. (The café today is a single-story office building, 54 South Liberty Drive, Stony Point, New York.) He tries to apologize to Gloria by asking her to marry him, but Gloria insists that she is "branded" by his insults. He convinces her to go to Happy's to talk in private, but when Happy greets her sarcastically, Gloria speeds away.
Liggett drives after her, trying to catch up to her increasingly fast pace. While turning to see him follow her, Gloria misses a sign for road construction and hurtles over an embankment to her death.
When he returns to the city, Liggett tells his wife about Gloria's death and announces that he is leaving to "find my pride."
Parts of this film were filmed on City Island, Bronx. Studio shots were at Chelsea Studios.[5]
Elizabeth Taylor and her then-husband Eddie Fisher hated the film, referring to it as 'Butterball Four'.[6] Her now-famous response to the success of the film, made under protest in order to fulfill a contractual obligation to MGM before being allowed to depart to 20th Century Fox to make Cleopatra: "I still say it stinks."[7] Elizabeth reportedly hated the film because, at the time of its making, she was not only being tied down to the project by the studio, but also because due to her "stealing" Eddie Fisher away from his then-wife Debbie Reynolds she was referred to as a "slut" and a "homewrecker" by US fans, which is exactly what her character, Gloria, was based on.
Taylor won the 1960 Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Gloria Wandrous; the film was also nominated for Best Cinematography, Color that year. Taylor was also nominated for the 1960 Best Actress—Drama Golden Globe Award for the same role.
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