Directed by Anthony Asquith, and written by Terence Rattigan, this average drama earned Margaret Rutherford an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress on her only nomination. She plays an eccentric elderly British Duchess who is scheduled to partake in her first airplane flight, a transatlantic one to Florida, because she needs the money. The nervous, pill popping Duchess is perhaps the only passenger who is not upset that all the flights from the London airport are delayed indefinitely due to fog.The other passengers, played appropriately by an all star cast, each have their own reasons for wanting their flight to take off as soon as possible. The airport personnel, particularly the reception manager Mr. Sanders (Richard Wattis), and their friendly, accommodating behavior,give one a sense of days gone by.Elizabeth Taylor's character is inexplicably eloping with a shallow career gigolo, Louis Jourdan, ending her 13-year marriage with her too busy famous financier husband, Richard Burton. The only reason given is Jourdan's need for her versus her capable husband's lack of same. Pretty weak, isn't it?Orson Welles's character provides the comic relief as a famous foreign movie producer-director, who claims British citizenship, that needs to get out of the country before midnight to save $1 million in taxes. Since all flights are ultimately delayed until the next day, his moneyman's (Martin Miller, uncredited) fall back solution is for Welles to marry the bimbo actress (Elsa Martinelli) he's traveling with, to avoid paying the tax man.David Frost appears uncredited as one of the many reporters who hound the celebrities. Rod Taylor plays an Australian, who owns a tractor manufacturing business, that's just about sealed an acquisition (buying their #1 competitor?) deal that will solidify their company's success. However, he must get to New York immediately to complete the transaction and/or account for some last minute wrangling, lest he face some dire consequences. In the airport, he's accompanied by his trusty, proper secretary Miss Mead (Maggie Smith), who secretly loves him.For my money, actress Smith (in lieu of, if not) in addition to Ms. Rutherford should have been recognized by the Academy for her role, which provides the link between the two Taylors' story lines, through Burton's character.Ironically, in the end, the Duchess doesn't have to fly at all per an arrangement she makes with Welles's accountant.

The V.I.P.s feels a bit like the photographs of Cindy Sherman. Every frame is utterly staged, every background synthetic, every dramatic moment artificial. In planes, and airport lounges and hotel rooms, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton pose becomingly at canted angles. He wears a hunter red tie and scarf with his dark suit. She wears beige, then pink, then crisp black and white. There are very few windows. The camera lovingly, unhurriedly observes them. The V.I.P.s knows it is a film, a product, a Hollywood thing. It doesn't pretend to be more. The film is a mechanical glamour play set in a beautiful 1960s box. Like in a Christmas display, the characters and settings are pretty packages with nothing inside. Liz Taylor is the beautiful but neglected trophy wife with an endless supply of wonderful head adornments: velvet hats, fur hoods, sculpted hairdos. Richard Burton is the commanding business tycoon who learns to love his wife only when it may be too late. Louis Jourdan is the charming international gambler angling for her Liz's affection. Another triangle includes Rod Taylor as a struggling Australian tractor magnate and Maggie Smith as the staid, British secretary who loves him. These are the kind of characters who'll later show up in the television glamour-comedies of the 1970s (Love Boat, Fantasy Island), those shows where the contrived problems of the super-elite are exposed, wrestled with and neatly solved within the course of 50 minutes. The difference here is that The V.I.P.s doesn't play anything for guffaws or vaudeville. Instead it's a pseudo-elegant melodrama comprising sedate cinematography, uncluttered sets, and subdued performances. Even the comic relief characters , Margaret Rutherford as the absent- minded aristocrat and Orson Welles as the tax-evading film director, evoke a Hollywood-style dignity. Almost everyone gets what they want at the end. And we are reassured that those who don't will triumph later. Absolutely nothing is at stake. Watching the V.I.P.s is akin to riding in a Rolls Royce Phantom, washing down a Valium with thirty-year-old scotch --totally relaxing, totally removed. Yet there are a few intriguing cracks in the soothing facade. Burton gives his trophy wife a diamond bracelet for her coddled wrist; He later wounds that same wrist in an act he claims proves his passion. Orson Welles marries a vapid but gorgeous Italian actress, but repeatedly kisses his petite, male accountant on the lips. Not much is made of these moments. But they are subtly suggestive, as though the perplexing, inexorable nature of messy reality is stealing in.

Though this movie is best know as a Richard Burton-Elizabeth Taylor vehicle, I wanted to watch it because it featured Margaret Rutherford's Oscar-winning role. I had previously seen the delightfully ditzy Dame (she really was a Dame) in Blithe Spirit and The Importance of Being Earnest, and she was fabulous in both, so I was eager to see her here. It was to my semi-disappointment that she was typecast for The V.I.P.s too, even if she excels at being scatterbrained. Hence her Oscar victory is more of a body of work thing, I reckon, 'coz she would've been just as deserving for the other two movies.Anyway, the movie's reminiscent of Neil Simon's works because it's about a collection of stories about a bunch of people stuck in an airport (and subsequently the airport hotel) due to weather delays. I would have to say that the personalities overshadow the characters, what with stars like Burton, Taylor, Rutherford, and the hammy Orson Welles. It was also one of Maggie Smith's first movie roles, and already she had that... Maggie Smith-ness in her. Even if I didn't get much out of the movie plot, it was lovely to watch the collection of luminaries.

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