The Regaling About Richard Burton Blogathon – The V.I.P.s (1963)

This is my final of 3 reviews for the The Regaling About Richard Burton Blogathon being hosted by Gill of WeegieMidget.

Tnx for letting me partake Gill!

“I love you for what you are. Not what you think you are.” – Frances Andros

Number of Times Seen – 1 (3 Dec 2018)

Brief Synopsis – A number of interweaving stories of people who are stuck in the airport VIP lounge when their plane is delayed due to heavy fog.

My Take on it – This is a film that I knew absolutely nothing about when I chose it to watch and review for this blogathon.

The premise is really a great one and it works really well throughout.

This film gives us 4 completely separate storylines that they manage to interweave together through the course of the movie.

Each scenario is quite unique yet they manage to find common ground to have them intersect at various points along the way in order to make things even more interesting.

The cast is superb with Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Louis Jourdan, Maggie Smith, Rod Taylor, Orson Welles and Margaret Rutherford creating such interesting characters for us to care about.

Each of the characters is developed quite well and we get to see how they evolve over the course of the movie.

Rutherford was nominated and won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance here and her character is among the most memorable ones here due to her eccentricity.

All of the stories feel quite realistic and it’s not hard to truly believe that events like this could conceivably occur.

Bottom Line – Excellent premise that works quite well. They manage to give us at least four great scenarios that are each unique in their own way yet find common ground so that the stories and characters can mix together in order to make things even more interesting. Superbly cast with Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Jourdan, Smith, Rod Taylor, Welles and Rutherford all creating such enjoyable and interesting characters for us to watch develop over the course of these few hours. Rutherford deservingly won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance here. The stories are all very realistic and it’s quite easy to believe that these kind of events truly could happen. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Based on a true story, the movie was a thinly disguised account of screenwriter Terence Rattigan’s real-life friend Vivien Leigh and her attempt to leave her husband Laurence Olivier for Australian actor Peter Finch. Leigh and Finch made it to the London airport, but their plane was delayed by incoming fog, giving Olivier time to confront the two and bring Leigh home. She abandoned the plan after hours of fog delay. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy (8/10)

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