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If you're a Liz fan . . . even if you're not . . . this one, needs to be seen. Liz still hates it. Lurid, mesmerizing, stylish and somber film. The finale, is truly perverse.

Armanis, for those who really love this film, I believe I saw the DVD for sale on the TCM site for around ten bucks. Frankly, I think it's one of Liz's best.

Totally agree. Whether she hates it, or not . . . Taylor was well cast in this film. She gave an old fashioned, lusty performance. I own the DVD . . . it's fabulous. To me, BU 8 stands alone as a horror movie / soft core porn experience, featuring a huge star of the time. The fact that Taylor and Eddie Fisher are onscreen together, merely foretells the Burton / Taylor scandals, to come.

btw: a sex scene between Taylor and Fisher was excised from the final cut of BU 8; Fisher describes it in his 'BEEN THERE DONE, THAT' bio. According to EF: 'we did everything. I didn't have an orgasm, but everything else, happened . . . '

Check this out:

During her recent, LKL interview, Liz said that she was 'sorry if she hurt anyone.' According to EF, she hurt him quite a lot.

I'm watching it now. To be sure, I love the early-60's decor, but what impresses me most now is its glacially slow plot development. I can't imagine anyone sitting through a movie this slow today.

I place this movie somewhere among the ranks of films like VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, CRUISING, MAKING LOVE. Movies whose partial undertaking was basically to shock the audience into just how "frank" and "liberated" we could be nowadays in movies. It must've been hot stuff in 1960 to depict a woman who was unambiguously an unrepentent prostitute. Or was she just a "call girl"? Or an "escort"? Were fine shades of difference between this category being drawn at this time?

I rather view this film as being the "dark flipside" of the comic BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S, don't you? Taylor won the Oscar for this role that year; but I've noticed that, during this period, the Academy seemed to give the Oscar nod to any actress who was willing to play a hooker or an adultress... It's as thoughg the Academy were instructing Middle America to forgive this actress of her sin in even playing this role in a fictional capacity.

I will say that the linguistic tone of this film was novel for its day. A little bit more naturalistic, less stage-y than the films that preceded it even as recently as the 1950's.

Is this novel now considered an American classic? Or perhaps a "semi-classic"? When I taught high school from 2000--2004, the English teacher had placed John O'Hara's novel on the senior reading list. Somewhat daring, I thought. Especially considering the fact that the teacher whom he had replaced had been fired for placing SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS on that same Seniors' reading list. Who's to decide what's a dirty book anymore?

The best part of this film for me is the dramatic, dissonant music... Shades of Bartók, Stravinsky and Bernstein and some Bebop thrown in. Everything, it seems, from about 1957 to 1963 was WEST SIDE STORY-flavored. Do you suppose Eddie Fisher was really playing those sophisticated piano parts? They weren't exactly easy chords he was playing...

You're right, Armanis, this was a very different film for Liz.

I watched one of my favorite films on TCM last night, To Catch A Thief. Grace Kelly's hair was coiffed to perfection in that movie.

rasputin . . . a couple of other POL members have suggested that BU 8 be the movie for any young lady to watch . . . who wants to make it big, in New York.

I love everything about this film. How about 'Happy,' the owner of the roadside, brothel?? She could drive anyone, to suicide. The restaurant scene, in which the male patron chides Laurence Harvey: 'there are ladies present, and one of them happens to be my wife!' LOLOLOL.

Mildred Dunnock is eerie, as Gloria's mother, don't you agree? Clearly this woman is besotted by guilt, assuaged by self-effacement.

How about the confession? The skin bristling scene, that reveals the TRUTH, about Gloria's past. 'He let me sit on his lap . . . he let me hug him . . . he told me, I was beautiful . . . ' I have never witnessed a more striking or disturbing depiction, of the facts of life. Chilling. Especially since we know that Gloria's MOTHER, was partly responsible for her daughter's illegal relations, with 'Major Hartley.'

The car crash, is purely perverse. I've watched it, frame by frame. ET was directed to express pleasure, during this last orgasmic event in her life. Simply off the charts.

As for Eddie Fisher's abilities, with the piano . . . I'll have to go back to 'Been There, Done That,' to see if he answers that question.

rasputin, getting back to the 'hooker' / Oscar connection: it's noteworthy that Melina Mercouri was nominated as Best Actress, for Never On Sunday; she competed against ET'S BU 8, performance. Mercouri received the Grand Prize, for her NOS portrayal, at that year's Cannes Film Festival.

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'Liz wore some gorgeous clothes, in this movie . . . but her cones were not effectively thrust upward and out. They sagged.'

Well Armanis got me all cranked up to watch this film tonight and then Rasputin threw cold water on it. I don't want slow but I'll give it a try.

Oh, I didn't mean to do that. The movie is probably "required viewing" for anyone interested in American film history, and de rigueur for La Liz fans.

How a film looks now-- and how it must have seemed upon its release-- can be two dramatically different things. BU8 is surely a case-in-point.

By all means, watch it and get back to us about it...

Oh, 'pani, I think you misunderstood. rasputin is right: BU 8 is a slow, downbeat picture, but it is NOT, boring . . . not, in the least. You've got to watch until the end, though . . . the finale, is truly deranged.

it's not slow as in boring - it just takes its time to unfold, as in languorous ... and the ending is definitely ... not ... slow!

I was SO disappointed. Ready to settle down and watch, turned to the correct channel and "The Long Hot Summer" was on. Since it has been in the 90's here, I didn't need to hang around and watch more sweaty people. (And besides, I watched "Body Heat" the night before - talk about sweaty!)

Click to view attachmentOh, no! Why not buy the CD, at TCM'S site . . . it's well worth it. And you can always make it a high school graduation, present.

Butterfield 8 was depressing to me the first and only time I saw it. I doubt it has improved with age. I know I have not.

it was on at midnight in my neck of the woods - too late for me!

Yes, it's depressing. That's one of the reasons why I love BU 8, so much. HUMORESQUE, is my favorite movie. It concludes with a harrowing, suicide.

I watched B8 last night. Three things kept going thru my mind:1. Liz was, at that time in her life, a spectacular beauty; 2. Another example of why I've never cared for Laurence Harvey; 3. Where were Liz and Eddie at this point in their personal relationship? Granted, I could research that on my own, but I was struck by the complete lack of onscreen chemistry between the two. They were always doomed.

As for the movie, I'll just say that Armanis finds it a whole lot better/significant than I did. While Liz was good, I'm not sure that was as worthy of an Oscar as any of her other nominations. And certainly her other Oscar for Virginia Woolfe was more deserved......one of the most outstanding cinematic performances ever. IMO, of course.

Hi Colonia,

I think what you don't like about this movie, is what makes it so special, for me. I loved Eddie and Liz, together. I was most impressed by Laurence Harvey. To me, he's creepy, elegant, and cad like: a little like Zachary Scott.

I think Liz was too young, in Virginia Woolf.

Didn't bother me at all. She was old enough to have had a history in the marriage and that is all that is important. There was a magic between those two that made you believe they could be so vicious to each other. And their real life marriage probably approximated the intensity of V. Woolf.

Oh, I say their own marriages, made VW look like a Disney film, especially since Liz was hooked both on booze and drugs. But the part, called for a '50 ish,' Bette Davis, this according to the author. I can't see BD doing 'Martha,' because she was by then, utterly lacking in any semblance of sex appeal. But Liz, in that wig, I thought looked too young. And acted, wayyyyy too young.

You've got to be fifty, to know.

btw: Liz has had a recent nose job ... and probably another face lift. Her nose is BARELY THERE, at this point. Half the size it was, in BU 8. What did you find spectacularly beautiful, about her?

Ah, we disagree. Particularly about the 50 bit. It just depends on your experiences. Plus, I don't think Burton was 50 yet when he did VW.

Beauty is so subjective. ET just seems to appeal to my eye. On the other hand, Julia Roberts is often described as a great beauty and I don't get that at all.

Leave poor Liz alone!! ;-) She's had a rough life - much, admittedly as a result of her , umm, inappropriate choices, but in maturity she has tried to fade into the background, hold her head high, and make a difference with her various charitable causes.

Colonia . . . I have ALWAYS applauded Liz, for her work to stop the spread of AIDS. The fact that I don't consider her to be a beauty, or to have any taste . . . is neither here, nor there. What I wish I could have been privy to, was Liz and Michael Jackson and his family in bed together, watching Disney movies. She described this scene, to Larry King: 'there's nothing odd, about it.' btw: If I could move as fast as Liz did, in VW, I'd be a miracle of the human race . . . fifty, is NOT, thirty-two. Not in any, possible way . . . but, we'll have to agree to disagree, on this.