THE V.I.P.s (1963) **1/2 No wonder Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were always having problems, here she is trying to dump him for a French gigolo. Whether that's better or worse than a garden variety Frenchman is open to debate, but it's difficult to imagine Richard being impressed. The film has the feel of a made for TV Thursday night semi-drama with a target audience of prematurely old ladies, with Burton lazily flying circles around the rest of the cast. Liz doesn't come anywhere near playing to his level, though at least she's become a big enough star that they're not trying to stick her with Robert Taylor (who's actually more convincing than usual, as an Australian farmer) as a love interest anymore. Burton damn near doesn't miss anything, which makes him look silly when he gives you a minute: a Shakespearean whose platitudes descend onto a comic strip. Louis Jourdan rises to his big scene with Burton, but second place has to go to Orson Welles for perfect timing on a throwaway line. The entire point is, I think, to make regular people feel sorry for rich people, with the supposition being that working people would understand how embarrassing it must be to get paid for appearing in something like this.
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