The VIPs – 1963 | 119 mins | Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Orson Welles, Louis Jourdan, Elsa Martinelli, Maggie Smith, Rod Taylor, Margaret Rutherford, Linda Christian, and even David Frost, were in this glittering film The VIPs. Written by Terence Rattigan when he found he was fog bound at Heathrow airport and unable to leave for New York; he whiled away the long hours of weary waiting by creating characters who, for varying reasons, were desperately anxious to get away.

Set entirely in London’s main airport, Heathrow, it tells the story of several people stranded at the airport due to fog, but eager to leave – Orson Welles because he had to leave the country before midnight in order to avoid paying very ruinous taxes, businessman Rod Taylor, accompanied by his loving and affectionate secretary Maggie Smith, is anxious to head to New York to prevent a takeover of his firm. And impoverished Margaret Rutherford, who would rather not go to Florida to accept a job. Elizabeth Taylor who was eloping with Louis Jourdan, but being unable to get away, had to spend the entire night with her husband Richard Burton in the airport hotel. It was a cleverly worked-out story, rather on the lines of Grand Hotel. Though many would not place it among Asquith’s best films, it attracted a vast public all over the world.

Excerpt© ‘Puffin Asquith’ by R.J. Minney.