Taglines: Some women were just a name… just a phone number…
BUtterfield 8 movie storyline. The movie opening credits play, while we watch a sleeping Gloria (Elizabeth Taylor) snoozing in the morning. She wakes up, and surveys her surroundings purposefully – in search of a morning cigarette. Making do with a glass of scotch instead, she meanders through the apartment, brushing her teeth, washing her face, going through a closet and trying on a mink coat for size. As she goes to into the living room, she finds her dress torn on the floor. With a sigh, she heads toward her purse on the table, and finds a note for her with some cash. “Gloria – I hope $250.00 is enough. -L”
Anger washes over her face, as she reels away from the note. Lipstick in hand, she scrawls “No Sale” on a large mirror in the living room, and leaves the cash on the mantle. She leaves a few dollars next to the scotch bottle to pay for her drink, and leaves the posh apartment in only her slip and the fur coat.
After hailing a taxi to a more middle-class area, she knocks on the door of her friend, Steve Carpenter, a composer. At his piano, he makes sarcastic comments as Gloria parades around the apartment. She takes off the coat and teases him – he quietly tenses and commands her to put the coat back on. Gloria persists in teasing him, flirting with him, until she sees that he is being very serious.
She puts on the coat, and is about to leave – making sure to proclaim that he is “the only person [she] can be honest with.” He replies back that he wishes she wouldn’t – he doesn’t want to have to see her throw away her life like this. After making to leave – he finally calls her back. Both forgiving, he makes coffee and breakfast for both of them.
She coyly says that she’ll need something to wear home, and that her mother will be appalled if she goes home dressed – or rather undressed – like that. Steve says that he is sure that her mother will not be surprised – but Gloria insists that though her mother is probably aware of her nightlife, they both quietly ignore it. She finally convinces him to call up his girlfriend Norma to bring over a suit for her.
Norma arrives with the suit, but is not too pleased to be seeing Gloria in the morning. The hatred is clear on both parts, but eventually, Gloria leaves while blowing Steve an antagonizing kiss. After she leaves, Norma makes her displeasure known to Steve and after a quick argument, proclaims that she can’t be with him while he’s in love with Gloria. Though he protests, she leaves, saying that it is her or Gloria.
Gloria arrives home in her little red two-seater car, to her mother’s extreme delight. The neighbor is over having a cup of tea with Gloria’s mom, and doesn’t miss an opportunity to direct a sarcastic and biting comment to Gloria when the chance comes. Gloria tells her mother that she spent the night at Norma’s apartment, which the neighbor scoffs at. While Gloria goes to shower, she gets a call from Butterfield 8 (the phone code used to call the upper east side in the 1960s), connecting Mr. Ligget to her. He had come home to see the lipstick, and wants to meet up with her tonight if she is able. She says that she’ll be in the neighborhood, and hangs up.
Meanwhile, Weston Ligget, known as “Wes,” travels upstate New York by train with his friend, whom he formerly worked with in a law practice. The friend can tell that Wes is troubled, and after Wes complains about married life, he tells him that he is a first-class heel. He offers him a job at the law firm again, whenever Wes would like, but Wes seems resigned to his job – which soon is revealed to be a leading role in his wife’s family chemical company.
BUtterfield 8 is a 1960 American drama film directed by Daniel Mann, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Laurence Harvey. Taylor won her first Academy Award for her performance in a leading role. The film was based on a 1935 novel of the same name by John O’Hara, following the success of his critically acclaimed Appointment in Samarra.
BUtterfield 8 (1960)
Directed by: Daniel Mann
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Laurence Harvey, Eddie Fisher, Dina Merrill, Mildred Dunnock, Betty Field, Jeffrey Lynn, Kay Medford, Susan Oliver, George Voskovec, Alex Mann
Screenplay by: Charles Schnee, John Michael Hayes
Production Design by:
Cinematography by: Charles Harten, Joseph Ruttenberg
Film Editing by: Ralph E. Winters
Costume Design by: Helen Rose
Set Decoration by: Gene Callahan, J.C. Delaney
Art Direction by: George W. Davis, Urie McCleary
Music by: Bronisław Kaper
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release Date: November 2, 1960 (Los Angeles)
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