Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Ben Parker I have no idea how you came to The V.I.P.'s, whether it was following Margaret Rutherford or Orson Welles, both of who are funny in this, but I hope you didn't come for Liz and Dick, whose storyline most resembles a movie plot, but is a dull love triangle. The only value of this movie is in the generous time each of its cameo stars get. Orson Welles for instance has multiple scenes, maybe adding up to 15 minutes screen time, I'd be curious to calculate it. They are all little scenes, but add up to a decent amount of value for the Orson Welles completionist. He plays a probably gay film producer who talks like Akim Tamiroff and is having some kind of nebulous trouble with the film he's making. Margaret Rutherford is really fun. She has this kind of batty effortless humour to her. Louis Jordan is infuriating. Rod Taylor is a stereotypical aggressive Aussie, at least the accent is good, because its genuine! Check out Orson in The Southern Star (1969) for the worst Aussie accent I've ever heard. I could try and tell you The V.I.P.'s isn't that great of a movie, but you've clearly gone pretty deep in whatever it is you're interested in, you may as well check it out. For fans of Orson or Rutherford I'd say sure, add it to your collection.

mark.waltz Who needs a TV movie about Hollywood's greatest screen team when you have the real thing? Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, fresh from making headlines in Rome on "Cleopatra", quickly followed that up with this soapy women's picture about a business tycoon's obsession with his estranged wife, and the love a secretary has for her boss that results in her saving his business from a takeover. Elizabeth Taylor tones down the drama from her series of successful potboilers of the late 1950's and early 60's ("Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", "Suddenly Last Summer", her Oscar winning performance in the silly "Butterfield 8") while Burton is excellent as her demanding husband whose obsession moves between violence and tenderness. Playing the role that Burton had been portraying in real life ("the other man"), Louis Jourdan is the man Taylor is planning to marry once she gets rid of her unwanted husband. Pretty ironic considering the five years of scandal that Taylor had been undergoing since the Debbie/Eddie scandal.Rod Taylor seems to be utilizing an Australian accent to his role of a man on the verge of loosing his business while his shy but efficient secretary (Maggie Smith) quietly thinks of a way to save the day. Smith, rising slowly to stardom from here on in, had been around for a while in a couple of minor films, but mostly on stage. Her resemblance to Myrna Loy is quite eerie, and it is ironic that in 1976, she would be playing a parody of Loy's Nora Charles in Neil Simon's "Murder By Death". There is none of the acid tongued diva for which she became well known here, just a woman with a huge heart trying to find the courage to come out of her shell. The delightful Margaret Rutherford won the Academy Award for her performance as a chatty countess down on her luck, sort of a Marie Dressler "Dinner at Eight" grand dame that brings regalness to a delightful down-to-earth character.The weakest of the story lines is that of the film producer (Orson Welles) dealing with his star while preparing to fly to America from London. It seems to have been edited greatly, although his brief interaction with Rutherford towards the end does give it some purpose. The result is a mixed bag that audiences can enjoy even if it is far from perfect.

David Frieze The ironic thing about "The V.I.P.s" is that what was the big selling point for the film at the time it was released - the relationship between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton - is by far the most tedious, ill-conceived and even embarrassing thing about it. Terence Rattigan was a very popular British playwright in the 1940's and 1950's, and his plays are undergoing a revival in England this year (2011), but the entire Liz-Dick-Louis Jourdan love triangle is soap opera at its worst. The dialog is brittle and stilted, and the actors (Burton especially) are encouraged to suffer amidst luxurious surroundings. Without spoiling the ending, I will say that the final shot, which I assume was meant to be a happy ending, reminds me of the brilliantly ambiguous final shot of "The Graduate", which was not.It's a shame, too, because the other major plot line of the film, involving an Australian businessman trying to save his company with the help of his silently adoring secretary, is actually quite well done, despite the fairly clichéd plot line. The dialog is less artificial, and the performances by Rod Taylor and particularly Maggie Smith are superb. Rod Taylor was an under-appreciated actor, I think, much better than many of the vehicles he starred in. Maggie Smith is just one of the greats - it was when, as a teenager, I saw her in this and "Hot Millions" that I fell in love with her. In fact, the most electrifying and beautifully acted (and directed) scene in the film is the short but absolutely pivotal encounter between Smith and Burton.The Orson Welles storyline about a film producer trying to get out of England to avoid taxation is, frankly, a waste of time and film. Welles is entertaining, but nothing about the scene or his performance is anything more than skin-deep.Margaret Rutherford won her Oscar as a befuddled and broke old noblewoman trying to save her ancestral home. There's nothing in her performance that she hadn't done many times, and peerlessly, before, but she is very funny and, by the end, quite touching.The production values are sky-high, and there is a platoon of first-rate British character actors (and David Frost) in support of the elegant stars, but it's all a little like biting into a beautiful chocolate and finding the center to be stale and inedible.

Nazi_Fighter_David Much of the action focused on a romantic triangle involving a pampered wife, a wealthy husband, and a penniless playboy lover… Liz once again is the neglected wife, comforting herself with a lover (Jordan)… When the destitute husband is threatened by his wife's departure who has given her diamonds instead of affection, Burton shows he cares… Liz, unyielding however; wants him to suffer… Taylor's performance is cool and serene… Her face undisturbed by normal human expression… Playing an instigator of male insecurity, she is, for a change, altogether lovely to look at… Maggie Smith plays the trusty secretary in love with her Australian boss Rod Taylor… Orson Welles's arrogant character provides the comic relief… Margaret Rutherford won a Best Supporting Oscar for her delightful role as the eccentric elderly duchess