Saturday 23 November 2013

The VIPs (1963 Anthony Asquith)

Various passengers awaiting a flight to New York from London Airport have problems when fog delays departure. Neat premise, written by Terence Rattigan, centres on rather dull tale of husband Richard Burton and unfaithful wife Elizabeth Taylor and lover Louis Jourdan; more interesting are businessman Rod Taylor (actually playing an Australian for a change!) and devoted secretary Maggie Smith (not her debut - that was in 1955); befuddled aristocrat Margaret Rutherford (winning her Oscar); and film director Orson Welles, who keeps kissing his accountant, and girlfriend Elsa Martinelli.


Ground staff includes Richard Wattis (who's oddly dubbed when he reveals the name of an African passenger he's about to greet at the end), David Frost, Michael Hordern, Dennis Price, Ronald Fraser, Lance Percival and Joan Benham (Upstairs Downstairs).

Made for MGM. Shot by Jack Hildyard with Gerry Fisher operating. Music of a superior quality by Miklos Rosza.

Best line from Rutherford: "I shall clearly arrive in Florida in an advanced state of drug addiction".


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