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THE V.I.P.S
If you're into a slick melodrama with an impressive all-star cast and a generous portion of soap suds as part of the story, you might want to give the 1963 film The V.I.P.s a look. A film that features Hollywood's most popular acting team at the time, unfortunately they don't have enough time onscreen together.
The film opens at the London Airport where we meet a group of people waiting to board a flight from London to New York. International business tycoon Paul Andros is seeing his wife, Frances off on the flight where they run into mutual friend Marc Champselle, a gambler/playboy/gigolo. Frances is planning to leave Paul and start a new life in Manhattan with Marc. Frances has left a note for Paul at home explaining everything that he will see after a business meeting but Frances and Marc plan to be in New York by the time he reads the note.
Max Buda is a famous film director who is fleeing London with his mistress, actress Gloria Gritti, in order to avoid some tax trouble. Les Angrum is an Australian businessman who is trying to get to New York to keep his company from being gobbled up by a larger one with the aid of his devoted secretary, Miss Mead. The Duchess of Brighton is also traveling to New York to get a connecting flight to Florida where she has accepted a job to try and save her elaborate home that she is about to lose. But then the plane gets delayed and eventually grounded by fog, altering all the stories we've been introduced to.
Needless to say that the story of Paul and Frances Andros is the primary one here and TPTB did right by casting Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in these roles; however, Hollywood's most famous acting pair spend way too much time apart during this film's running time. Taylor spends the majority of her screen time with Louis Jourdan, who is appropriate as Champselle, but it goes without saying that he never creates the chemistry with Taylor that Burton does, but the part of this story that works is Taylor's character, who is literally in love with both of these men and truly torn, a classic movie triangle in the truest sense that makes the movie worth investing in despite the lack of sparks between Taylor and Jourdan.
The film does have a few other virtues, including a deliciously hammy turn from Orson Welles as the eccentric filmmaker who underestimates his mistress and Margaret Rutherford actually won the 1963 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her down to earth and down on her luck Duchess who is getting addicted to pep pills. However, if the truth be known, this movie is effortlessly stolen by the divine Maggie Smith as the proper Miss Mead, putting her obvious love for her boss (Rod Taylor) on the back burner long enough to save his business, which is part of the way the final act actually connects what seemed like separate storylines up to that point.
The film features superb set direction and Miklos Rozsa's lush music score is glorious, but I still would have liked a little more of Taylor and Burton together onscreen.
If you're into a slick melodrama with an impressive all-star cast and a generous portion of soap suds as part of the story, you might want to give the 1963 film The V.I.P.s a look. A film that features Hollywood's most popular acting team at the time, unfortunately they don't have enough time onscreen together.
The film opens at the London Airport where we meet a group of people waiting to board a flight from London to New York. International business tycoon Paul Andros is seeing his wife, Frances off on the flight where they run into mutual friend Marc Champselle, a gambler/playboy/gigolo. Frances is planning to leave Paul and start a new life in Manhattan with Marc. Frances has left a note for Paul at home explaining everything that he will see after a business meeting but Frances and Marc plan to be in New York by the time he reads the note.
Max Buda is a famous film director who is fleeing London with his mistress, actress Gloria Gritti, in order to avoid some tax trouble. Les Angrum is an Australian businessman who is trying to get to New York to keep his company from being gobbled up by a larger one with the aid of his devoted secretary, Miss Mead. The Duchess of Brighton is also traveling to New York to get a connecting flight to Florida where she has accepted a job to try and save her elaborate home that she is about to lose. But then the plane gets delayed and eventually grounded by fog, altering all the stories we've been introduced to.
Needless to say that the story of Paul and Frances Andros is the primary one here and TPTB did right by casting Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in these roles; however, Hollywood's most famous acting pair spend way too much time apart during this film's running time. Taylor spends the majority of her screen time with Louis Jourdan, who is appropriate as Champselle, but it goes without saying that he never creates the chemistry with Taylor that Burton does, but the part of this story that works is Taylor's character, who is literally in love with both of these men and truly torn, a classic movie triangle in the truest sense that makes the movie worth investing in despite the lack of sparks between Taylor and Jourdan.
The film does have a few other virtues, including a deliciously hammy turn from Orson Welles as the eccentric filmmaker who underestimates his mistress and Margaret Rutherford actually won the 1963 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her down to earth and down on her luck Duchess who is getting addicted to pep pills. However, if the truth be known, this movie is effortlessly stolen by the divine Maggie Smith as the proper Miss Mead, putting her obvious love for her boss (Rod Taylor) on the back burner long enough to save his business, which is part of the way the final act actually connects what seemed like separate storylines up to that point.
The film features superb set direction and Miklos Rozsa's lush music score is glorious, but I still would have liked a little more of Taylor and Burton together onscreen.