Product Details

• Actors: Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Orson Welles, Louis Jourdan, Rod Taylor
• Directors: Anthony Asquith
• Producers: MGM
• Format: Dolby, Color, Closed-captioned, Subtitled, Anamorphic
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: GBD
• Run Time: 119 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000LTY4HA
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,981 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

For elite passengers awaiting London-to-U.S. flights, takeoff can't occur soon enough. But then fog rolls in, grounding air traffic. Over the next fateful night, the jet-setters must face problems and not flee them. First-class stars book passage for romantic melodrama mixed with wry comic flourishes in The V.I.P.s Frances (Elizabeth Taylor) is runing from her neglectful tycoon husband (Richard Burton) into the arms of the suave Marc (Louis Jourdan). Filmmaker Max (Orson Welles) is dodging the taxman. Harried entrepreneur Les (Rod Taylor) is blind to the romantic devotion of his secretary (Maggie Smith). And a dotty dutchess (Margaret Rutherfor won an Oscar, Golden Globe and National Board of Review awards for ther delightful performance) is determined to save her ancestral manor.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Glossy look at the 1960's jetset, November 21, 2002

By 

Simon Davis (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The V.I.P.s [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"The V.I.P.s" was one of the first of the 1960's looks into the lives of globe trotting elite that filled the popular magazines of the time. This film in particular focused its main attention on what was without a doubt the most famous couple of the entire 1960's decade, super stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Made in the aftermath of the 2 year filming of the monumental production of "Cleopatra" and while Elizabeth and Richard where still just travelling companions prior to their marriage, "The V.I.P.s" tells the glossy story of the interwoven lives of a group of diverse people who find themselves stranded at London Airport because of the heavy fog which has grounded all flights indefinately. Each has their own particular reason for needing to get to their destination by a certain time and most of the action focuses on the dilemmas that they now find themselves in. Prominent of course in this story is the triangle formed by Elizabeth Taylor playing Frances Andros who is planning to leave her distant husband Billionaire Paul Andros (Richard Burton) and go off with Louis Jourdan who plays an ageing playboy Marc Champselle. While far from being Elizabeth's or Richard's most memorable work I still feel both are excellent in their roles which in some ways mirrored their own news worthy lives at the time. Rarely has Elizabeth looked more beautiful than in this role with her lavish outfits and fur hooded jackets that create a stunning effect. Burton also is effective as the tortured man with supposedly everything who is in danger of losing his lovely wife through neglect.

The supporting cast of "The V.I.P.s" is superb with first and foremost the wonderful Dame Margaret Rutherford stealing every scene she is in as a penniless Duchess bound for Florida to do some work in order to maintain her ancestral home. Her performance as the forgetful but very loveable old lady constantly misplacing her passport or sleeping pills is a total delight and quite rightly won her the 1963 Academy award for best supporting actress. Orson Welles in a rare 60's performance plays a very funny supporting role as a movie producer desperate to get out of England by midnight so as to avoid British taxes. Rod Taylor and Maggie Smith round out the cast as a business man and his personal secretary who find themselves in a crisis over a bank loan that needs to be fulfilled in New York. Maggie Smith hadn't come into her own as a performer at this early stage in her film career however she is very effective as the super efficient but mousy assistant who secretly loves her boss and lives her life through her work with him.

The chief focus of this film will always be on the central story concerning Taylor,Burton, and Jourdan but also enjoy the film for the wonderful supporting performances that are all gems in their own varied ways. Ably directed by Anthony Asquith to maximise the potential of each performer "The V.I.P.s' made a fortune for MGM upon its release in 1963 and really began the incredible string of successes the Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton enjoyed with their work during the rest of the decade. Elizabeth's beauty is something to behold in this film and if you like beautiful productions dealing with the problems of the beautiful people then "The V.I.P.s' is a great way to spend a couple of entertaining hours. Enjoy!

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A competent rather than stimulating film..., January 16, 2007

By 

Roberto Frangie "Robert" (Leon, Gto. Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The VIPs (DVD)

The V.I.P. lounge of the London Airport is cunningly designed to exploit the real-life Burton--Taylor romance... In itself, the film is competent rather than stimulating...

Liz (very lovely to look at) once again is the neglected wife, comforting herself with a lover... When he's threatened by his wife's departure, the husband, who has given diamonds instead of affection, shows he cares... Liz is unyielding, however; she wants him to suffer... Only when Burton decides to kill himself and she finds out does she realize he needs her... The couple are reunited: despite their great wealth, despite his previous indifference, despite her temptations (Louis Jourdan is waiting in the wings), they are respectable, conventional people after all...

The inevitable reconciliation is reached by means of improbable coincidences... But the details hardly matter... The Burtons behave like stars, he shamelessly working his speeches as though they were Shakespearean arias, she being very dignified and remote, on her best lady-like behavior after "Cleopatra." At the end, she has a tearful scene that gives her the kind of torrential emoting she had practiced since "National Velvet" and "The Courage of Lassie;" for the rest, she's cool and serene, her face undisturbed by normal human expression... Playing an instigator of male insecurity, she's not, for a change, altogether sympathetic here...

The Burtons by no means dominate the movie, and again, as in "Cleopatra," the chemistry isn't quite there... He has that deep sonorous voice he's so immensely proud of; she's working with her high, little-girl breathiness... He's stage-trained, an emphatic classical actor... She's movie-trained, skillful at not giving the camera more than it can absorb... His bombastic language and her movie-fashioned subtlety do not mix; often they don't seem to be occupying the same movie space...

Burton was one of the finest classical actors of his generation, but as a movie actor in movie star material, he was no match for his wife... When they have good scripts, with equally weighted parts, as in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," and "The Taming of the Shrew," they are truly responsive to each other...

In "The V.I.P.s" Burton gives too much and Taylor just barely gives enough, but it doesn't matter... It's Old Hollywood pretentious and a big-cast movie like this is only as good as its supporting actors... Maggie Smith, as the unsophisticated secretary with a crush on her boss, and Margaret Rutherford, as the eccentric duchess, stole the show and won a Best Supporting Oscar...

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Entertainment!, September 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The V.I.P.s [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This l963 all-star homage to the l932 classic, "Grand Hotel" doesn't quite match the old Garbo-Barrymore masterpiece. But it's still tremendous fun with an all-star cast, trying to out-act the other. Liz Taylor had just married Richard Burton and this was, in fact, the first movie they made together after Cleopatra. Liz looks ravishing in her silk gowns and Alexandre de Pairs hairdos. She's having an affair with Louis Jordan whose breath was reportedly so hideous in real life that Liz had to wear hidden nose plugs. Richard Burton is subdued but charismatic as her billionaire husband. Margaret Rutherford is a knockout as the poverty-stricken duchess/countess. Rod Taylor is so gorgeous and sexy you can understand his secretary's (maggie smith) glazed-eyed adoration of him. Orson Welles makes a typically hammy cameo as a HOllywood producer with Elsa Martinelli his current favorite starlet. Fantastic musical score, with each star having their own motiff. Knockout fashions by Givenchy/Edith Head/etc. Tremendous gloss and style. Wonderful pic to watch on a rainy day (which in the movie is a foggy day which keeps all planes from leaving London's airport--where all the action occurs). Might to want to watch this, along with "Grand Hotel" and then the Rod Taylor (yes, the fabulous, gorgeous Rod)in the swanky, more hard-edged "Hotel" which plays occasionally on American Movie Classics. But you simply gotta see Liz in her post-Cleopatra effort. Her beauty is still surreal.