The V.I.P.s (film)

According to a biography of Rattigan, the idea of the film originated with the writer's experience of a flight delay due to fog at London Airport; and one of the story lines is drawn from the true story of actress Vivien Leigh's attempt to leave her husband, actor Laurence Olivier, for the actor Peter Finch, but Leigh got trapped in the VIP lounge at Heathrow due to fog.[5]

Asquith intended for Sophia Loren to play Taylor's role, remembering the box-office success of The Millionairess (1960) he did with Loren in the main role. However, Taylor, scared by the appeal Loren had for Burton, persuaded Asquith to hire her instead; "Let Sophia stay in Rome", she told him.[6]

This was the first time Australian actor Rod Taylor had played an Australian character on film. Terence Rattigan allowed him to Australian-ise some of the dialogue.[7] Stringer Davis, Rutherford's husband, appears in a tiny role as a sympathetic hotel waiter in a scene with her. Raymond Austin, a stuntman and a friend of Burton, appears in the film as Andros's driver. Television personality David Frost portrays a reporter interviewing the VIPs at the airport.

The film was shot entirely at MGM-British Studios, Borehamwood, Herts., with a few establishing shots filmed at what was then known as London Airport, later Heathrow. The terminal set was one of the largest ever constructed in the UK.

Critical reaction to the film was mixed. It nevertheless did extremely well at the box office, helped by the enormous publicity attached to Burton and Taylor's Cleopatra, which was out on release.

The film grossed $15,000,000 domestically,[4] earning $7.5 million in U.S. theatrical rentals[8] on a budget of $4 million. In addition to its North American success, it was one of the 12 most popular films in Britain in 1963.[9] It had admissions of 765,804 in France.[10]

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times praised The V.I.P.s as "a lively, engrossing romantic film cut to the always serviceable pattern of the old multi-character 'Grand Hotel,' and some of the other people in it are even more exciting than the top two stars. Louis Jordan, for instance."[11] Variety called the film "a smooth and cunning brew with most of the ingredients demanded of popular screen entertainment. It has suspense, conflict, romance, comedy and drama ... Its main fault is that some of the characters and by-plots are not developed enough though they and their problems are interesting enough to warrant separate pix. But that is a risk inevitable in any film in which a number of strangers are flung together, each with problems and linked by single circumstance."[12] Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times wrote "They can say it's in the tradition of MGM's Grand Hotel and 'Dinner at Eight' all they want; to me it's a grounded High and Mighty. And I do mean grounded—not only at London airport, but in the writing, directing, and some of the acting as well."[1] Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post called it "very good fun—sleek, adroit and enjoyable."[13] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote "The V.I.P.s is a pretty little cinematic souffle that melts in the mind, but its flavour is spicy and sweet."[14]

The team of Asquith, De Grunwald and Rattigan later produced another portmanteau film, the dramatic The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964). Robert Murphy disapproved of both films, remarking that "Asquith spent his last years making increasingly banal prestige productions like The V.I.P.s and The Yellow Rolls-Royce".[15]