Tagged: The V.I.P.s

The V.I.P.s: Richard Burton’s Astrakhan Coat and Holiday Red

Richard Burton as Paul Andros in The V.I.P.s (1963)

Richard Burton as Paul Andros in The V.I.P.s (1963)

Vitals

Richard Burton as Paul Andros, millionaire industrialist

Heathrow Airport, London, Winter 1963

Film: The V.I.P.s
(also released as Hotel International)
Release Date: September 19, 1963
Director: Anthony Asquith
Costume Designer: Pierre Cardin (uncredited)

Background

As December continues and plans are being made to travel home for the holidays, we’d be well-served to recall Anthony Asquith’s paean to the Jet Age, The V.I.P.s, a lavish and star-studded drama released five years after more passengers were making their transatlantic crossings by air than by sea.

Also known as Hotel InternationalThe V.I.P.s was released in September 1963, just three months after Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton scandalized the silver screen in Cleopatra. Though Cleopatra met with polarizing reviews, the buzz around Taylor and Burton’s illicit affair generated enough buzz about their subsequent cinematic collaboration, though The V.I.P.s was a relatively tame effort when compared to the Egyptian epic that had been the most expensive movie ever made at the time of its release.

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Rod Taylor in The V.I.P.s.

Rod Taylor and Maggie Smith in The V.I.P.s (1963)

Rod Taylor and Maggie Smith in The V.I.P.s (1963)

Vitals

Rod Taylor as Les Mangrum, gregarious Australian tractor manufacturing mogul

Heathrow Airport, London, Winter 1963

Film: The V.I.P.s
(also released as Hotel International)
Release Date: September 19, 1963
Director: Anthony Asquith
Costume Designer: Pierre Cardin (uncredited)

Background

A generation after Grand Hotel (1932) established the subgenre of the ensemble drama with a packed cast of international stars, Anthony Asquith updated the pattern for the jet age with the genteel director’s penultimate film, The V.I.P.s, which—appropriately enough, given its spiritual predecessor—had also been released as Hotel International. Continue reading

The V.I.P.s: Louis Jourdan’s Tweed Jacket

Louis Jourdan and Elizabeth Taylor in The V.I.P.s (1963)

Louis Jourdan and Elizabeth Taylor in The V.I.P.s (1963)

Vitals

Louis Jourdan as Marc Champselle, “a gigolo… a buffoon… a professional diner-outer… a notorious sponger!”

Heathrow Airport, London, Winter 1963

Film: The V.I.P.s
(also released as Hotel International)
Release Date: September 19, 1963
Director: Anthony Asquith
Costume Designer: Pierre Cardin (uncredited)

Background

Happy December! For the first month of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, we look to the stylish 1963 film The V.I.P.s, a cinematic celebration of jet-age luxury starring an impressive international cast as a group of travelers stranded at London’s Heathrow Airport and the neighboring Hotel International for a cold but passionate January night.

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