I recently read John O’Hara’s story Butterfield 8 and I liked it a lot so I put the movie, starring Elizabeth Taylor as Gloria Wandrous, the biggest slut in New York City.
I had high hopes, as the story was a fascinating look inside the head of a very troubled woman and Taylor won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance.
If you want to understand the Legend of Bette Davis, all you have to do is watch All About Eve. She owns the screen like no one in Hollywood does today. She’s not the youngest or the prettiest actress in any scene (Marilyn Monroe has a brief part) but it’s impossible to look at anyone else.
To watch The Lion in Winter is to know that Katherine Hepburn was one of the greatest actresses who ever made a movie. Like Miss Davis, she simply owns the screen.
Elizabeth Taylor is no Davis or Hepburn. And her eyes are not violet. They’re blue.
The movie was so bad.
So, so bad.
When it wasn’t boring it was just stupid. Elizabeth Taylor’s performance reminded me of a SNL skit about high school kids putting on a show and just acting the holy Hell out of it. She didn’t just chew the scenery, she stalked it and ripped its throat out. I will say that compared to her leading man, Lawrence Harvey, she looked like Bette Davis. Mr. Bill would have been a better cast than Mr. Harvey. A board with a smiley face drawn on it with a robot voice would have been more interesting to watch. There was no reason in the world for Gloria to fall for this dud. The fur coat she stole in the opening scene has more personality and charm.
It’s the kind of story that Hollywood really couldn’t do justice to back in 1960. I’m sure the one scene where Gloria finally tells her friend Steve about being molested as a kid was shocking to audiences. The book manages to paint a graphic, horrifying picture of abuse without being gross or prurient.
The exact same script with better actors would be a pretty good movie but I’m not sure modern audiences would even get it.