BUTTERFIELD 8 (1960) CONS12

Original MGM Insert Poster (14x36) for the Daniel Mann drama BUTTERFIELD 8 starring Elizabeth Taylor, Laurence Harvey, and Eddie Fisher. Taylor had just married singer Eddie Fisher, her fourth husband after the death of producer Mike Todd, stolen ostensibly from the Beloved Trouper Debbie Reynolds. The howl
of condemnation was loud. MGM decided to cash in on the bad publicity and make Taylor take this role of bad-girl-from-hell as the final film in her contract to the studio. Taylor purportedly hated the movie, but it turned out to be Gold for her. The film is adapted from John O'Hara's prohibition-era novel about a high class call-girl. But in this film, set contemporaneously, Elizabeth Taylor plays a hard-drinking, sexed-up, bed-hopping model, who gets her kicks from seducing and then dumping one man after another. Taylor always complained that the film was a total piece of trash. But her over-the-top performance was just what the role required and won her the first of her two Oscars for Best Actress. What is unfathomable is how anyone could be interested in cold-fish Laurence Harvey. When Taylor grinds her stiletto heels into Harvey's toes, we cheer. Elizabeth's best line in the film: "I'm not like anyone; I"m me." Truer words were never spoken. A rolled very fine copy of the insert.