The V.I.P.s (1963)
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | 01:58:48 | 5,33 Gb
Audio: English and French dub - AC3 1.0 @ 192 kbps (each track) | Subs: English, French, Spanish
Genre: Drama | Won Oscar | UK
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | 01:58:48 | 5,33 Gb
Audio: English and French dub - AC3 1.0 @ 192 kbps (each track) | Subs: English, French, Spanish
Genre: Drama | Won Oscar | UK
The V.I.P.s is a 1963 film gem starring off-screen couple Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Elizabeth Taylor plays Frances, a pampered society wife neglected by her businessman tycoon husband (Richard Burton). Frances's plan to run away with her suave French playboy lover (Louis Jourdan) is foiled by a flight delay. The situation is further complicated by spurned husband Paul's unexpected appearance on the scene in a last-ditch attempt to win back his estranged wife. Thus, Frances is faced with the predicament of choosing between the two men vying for her affections.
IMDB
A slick, glossy multi-character soap opera set in London's airport. Burton and Elizabeth Taylor shine in this film, which was shot after CLEOPATRA but released to a panting public before the aforementioned epic left the "road show" theaters. Burton signed on to do the movie, and Taylor kiddingly suggested she'd like to be in it as well; she was offered the role on the spot. As fog rolls in over London, the regular flight to the US has been temporarily grounded by the pea soup. Several people are desperate to get off the ground that night for various reasons. They are all strangers, but in the time they must spend in the airport's waiting lounge, they get to know each other fast. Taylor is a fleeing wife who has left her immensely wealthy husband, Burton, to seek a new life in the US with Jourdan, her lover. She is convinced that Burton no longer cares for her and she will not play second fiddle to anyone. She'd left him a "Dear Paul" letter. After reading it, Burton makes a beeline to the airport in the hopes of winning his spouse back. She thought that he wouldn't read the note until she was safe in the sky.
In this, the first of the stories, Burton and Taylor eventually do reconcile, but not before Burton has some agonizing moments as he contemplates how lonely his life would be without her. He comes out of his macho shell, tells her straightaway how much he adores her, and that problem is solved. But there are other woeful people seated in that lounge. Welles (doing a fine impersonation of Welles as a middle-European film director) is in the lounge with his accountant, Miller, and his latest "discovery," Martinelli. He is a rich director who spends his time in various countries to avoid paying income taxes anywhere. If he's not out of England by midnight, all of his money will be erased by their high taxes. Miller, a conniving accountant with Byzantine ideas, comes up with the answer. If Welles marries Martinelli, he can legally transfer his wealth to her, thus avoiding the Inland Revenue scythe.
Rod Taylor is an Australian entrepreneur who must get to New York by the following day to secure financing in order to hold off a hostile takeover of his tractor manufacturing company. Smith is Rod Taylor's devoted secretary and secretly in love with him. She prevails on the rich Burton to lend Taylor the money to tide him over. The final and most delightful of all the plots concerns Rutherford as a dotty duchess. She is in danger of losing her estate because she can't afford to keep it up. Thus she has secured a job in Florida as a social hostess so she can raise the cash. Rutherford is losing her marbles and has to take pills to relieve her fear of flying. She is rescued from having to fly by Welles' deciding to shoot his next film on her estate and paying her in advance for the rental.
Lots of humor, especially from Rutherford in a role that won her the Best Supporting Actress Award. TV's David Frost made his film debut here as a reporter, and all of the other actors were splendid. This kind of movie, a GRAND HOTEL in a smaller space, could have been a crashing bore, but Asquith's snappy direction and some bright lines from Rattigan's script saved the day. Filmed in England for a reasonable figure, it made scads of money wherever it was shown. While shooting, the working title was "International Hotel." Smith was excellent, and it was a toss-up as to which actress (Taylor or Smith) would be nominated for the Oscar. Rozsa's score sounded a little too much like his music for BEN-HUR.
Although Cleopatra was actually shot prior to The V.I.P.s, film audiences first saw the notorious couple in this glossy, well-acted soap opera. Conceived as a quick follow-up to Cleopatra to capitalize on the unprecedented media coverage of that epic, The V.I.P.s was shot, edited and released in theatres while Cleopatra was still languishing in post-production. Its financial success no doubt took some of the sting out Cleopatra's box office returns, after audiences felt sated in their desire to finally see the couple they had been reading about for an entire year. Both actors come off much better here than in that well-intentioned epic misfire, cementing forever in the public's eye the peculiar feeling that these particular performers were largely acting out their own private passions and squabbles on the screen.
At an English airport, various V.I.P.s ("very important people") wait out a dense fog bank which has grounded all flights, with each character's emotional or financial security severely threatened by the unforseen delay. Les Mangrum (Rod Taylor) is the owner of a small tractor firm, threatened by a hostile takeover. Unfortunately, he has written a check without sufficient funds (a felony in England) to calm a nervous investor, and his delayed flight to New York may cost him not only his company, but also a term in prison. Max Buda (Orson Welles) is an internationally known film director who scorns lightweight entertainments, but who also knows how to hide his money from the government. Unfortunately, due to arcane British tax laws, if Buda's plane is still grounded, and he stays on English soil past the stroke of midnight, he will lose one million dollars to the British tax collectors. The Duchess of Brighton (Margaret Rutherford) is on her way to Florida, leaving behind her beloved estate to find a job. Land rich and money poor, The Duchess realizes that when her plane leaves for America, she might very well lose her home. And finally, Frances Andros (Elizabeth Taylor), beautiful, glamorous wife of multi-millionaire shipping tycoon Paul Andros (Richard Burton), has decided to leave her husband for handsome gambler and womanizer, Marc Champselle (Louis Jourdan). Can Frances and Marc spirit away to New York, before desperate, violent Paul does something drastic?
I know it's terribly out of fashion to admit this, but I like to see beautiful, rich people suffer through their exciting, dramatic lives on the screen. Of course, it's fantasy-laden and voyeuristic (and maybe even a tad masochistic), but it's what use to drive Hollywood for decades: glamourous stars emoting on the screen for our secret identification and enjoyment. It was entertaining. And purely entertaining films are often looked at with suspicion by most critics; there's a marvelously ironic moment in The V.I.P.s where Orson Welles flatly states that the purpose of modern cinema is not to entertain. Coming from the genius director, in the context of a splashy soap opera, is a good indication of the generally well-written screenplay. Screenwriter Terence Rattigan (The Browning Version, Separate Tables) along with frequent collaborator, director Anthony Asquith, know how to keep the various plot lines bubbling along, giving the actors smart, punchy lines to say to keep us amused while we take in the luxurious sets and gorgeous costumes. The comedic characters come off somewhat better, with Rutherford (she won the Best Supporting Oscar for her role, here) and Welles keeping things light for the audience. Rod Taylor is perfectly cast as the rough-and-tumble Australian businessman; his scenes with his secretary Miss Mead (Maggie Smith), have a good coarse/tender interplay. Of the main romantic lead triangle, surprisingly, Louis Jourdan comes out on top, giving a fairly layered performance as the film's only truly tragic figure. Unfortunately, as the catalyst between two strong male performances, Elizabeth Taylor is given little to do in the film but look stunning (which she does), while Burton perfects his cultured, world-weary, desperately lonely, romantic figure that made women in the audience secretly swoon inside.
It probably didn't hurt The V.I.P.s' box office that the story arc of Taylor's and Burton's characters involves infidelity. Clearly, they were smart enough to pick a film that would capitalize on their recent headline-grabbing affair, and they certainly do well by it. There is an unmistakable, indefinable chemistry between the two of them that works here. There have been many examples of off-camera lovers who were unable to transfer that buzz between them onto the big screen (I've always thought Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were good examples of this), but not the Burtons. Whatever was going on behind the scenes, was showing up on the screen, too, and audiences loved it. Filmed in the stately, old-fashioned tradition of Grand Hotel, The V.I.P.s is an entertaining trip back to the kind of films that Hollywood is incapable of making today.DVDtalk
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