Sometimes I think of classic films as a portal into the past: a visual representation of how the world was or how they perceived the world should be. Case in point: The VIPs. Most of the film takes places in a London airport and a hotel by the airport. We see a world that doesn't exist anymore for a number of reasons: the de-glamourization of air travel, the decline of the British Empire and security restrictions following 9/11. The VIPs has multiple story lines that all coincide in the end so in that way it is like Love Actually or Crash. Let's go through some of the players.
Orson Welles is a film director accompanied by a ditzy Italian starlet who is trying to get out of the country before he owes a lot of money to the taxman. The Duchess of Brighton has to take a job in Florida to support the upkeep of her aging homestead. Margaret Rutherford won an Academy Award for the performance. Rod Taylor plays Les Mangrum, a businessman who needs to get to New York to make a bad check he wrote good. His secretary, Miss Mead, is played by Maggie Smith who somehow looks exactly like Maggie Smith as you know her today. I'm still trying to decide if Maggie Smith of today looks young or if the Maggie Smith of yesteryear looks old. Then, we have the main event or at least what gets bums in seats: Elizabeth Taylor plays Frances Andros who's leaving her husband Paul Andros to run away with Marc Champselle played by Louis Jourdan. This was 1963 about the time Cleopatra came out, so Burton and Taylor were still a seriously hot commodity. Oh, and there's a cameo by David Frost. Seriously.
We start out with the Reception Manager at the airport. And here is how the world is different: Reception Manager? Someone to meet you at the ticket counter and do all the crap people hate having to do when they fly? Does that even exist anymore? He's in charge of all our VIPs. We meet Paul and Frances Andros as Paul gives Frances a going away gift as she is on her way to a vacation in Jamaica. Or so she says... On the way in, they happen to bump into Marc Champselle. Frances pretends she doesn't like Marc but things change when Paul leaves because it turns out that the two are eloping together for reasons I don't understand. I really don't. Okay, he works a lot, but doesn't seem to be cheating. He buys nice gifts or his assistant does, come on, he hired the assistant. He thinks he's sending her on a very nice vacation and he came with her to the damn airport. I mean, come on, he didn't kill anybody. She stayed with Paul Newman when he was an alcoholic and sort of hung up on his dead friend. Of course he had those abs... Anyway, re: Paul Andros: Let's just buy a Dr. Phil relationship book and have a conversation, people! I know, when I'm neglected by a millionaire I'll feel differently, well, let's just see. I'm willing to find out for an Hermes Birkin tote. You know, for science.
The thing that delays all of their plans is the fog. Fog sets in. In London. London Fog. Who would have thought it? I love the symbolism of the fog, it's the thing that clouds everything, stops all action and leaves only thought about where they are, what they are doing and if they are where they want to be. Mangrum is worried his check will bounce. Orson wants his money. This is where Anthony Asquith really becomes the Hitchcock of the relationship drama. He uses every plot development to further the tension. See, Frances left a note for Paul telling him that she was leaving him for Marc, assuming that he would go to his board meeting and by the time he read it, she would be over the Atlantic. But if the flight is delayed by the fog, well, then we have a real problem. Frances decides to call home to tell the maid to tear up the note before Paul gets home, but Paul picks up the phone. Uh oh. Well, if the plane can just take off before Paul reads the note and gets to the airport. Well, that's not going to happen. After a false start into their planes, everyone is back in the lounge and guess who has managed to drive over. The way Asquith does the shot is incredible, stop on Taylor and Jourdan as they look up in shock and Burton simply steps into frame. Well, he read the note and he's not happy. Like he has a gun. I didn't know people could get guns in England. Did he have to say he was going to use it to pop a cap in a fox? What? This leads to a chase through the airport past the immigration terminal where Frances and Marc escape from Paul. Yeah, how would an all powerful businessman ever get past an immigration checkpoint? I don't know, buy a ticket? The news comes out that they're all stranded for the night and will be staying at the airport hotel. Instead of buying a ticket, Paul has Marc called over to a private airport office to show how all powerful he is. He offers Marc money to walk away. Yeah, this is pretty much a J.R. Ewing move right here, but I can't say that I blame him for being unhappy. Gun probably too far. Marc refuses, explains how unhappy Frances is and generally leaves Paul feeling like crap.
So, we all head to the hotel where Paul and Frances have an argument that really makes me wonder what it would have been like to be a fly on the wall in the Burton-Taylor household. She's unhappy and he decides to let her go, pretty much. Down in the lobby, a despondent Paul writes a letter and meets up with Maggie Smith who asks for the money Mangrum needs to stay out of jail. Paul recognizes Maggie is in love with Mangrum and gives her a blank check. Anyway, this makes our girl a hero and Paul gives his letter to the hotel manager to put it in the mail.
The next morning, the fog has cleared and all of our characters are here in the light of day. The hotel manager gives Frances the letter Paul gave him because he doesn't want to waste a stamp. Seriously, whatever happened to customer service? The guy just asked you to put a stamp on an envelope and drop it in the mail. This hotel sucks. Marc confiscates the letter to be read in New York and we resolve some of the other plot points, but why spoil everything? So, they happen to bump into Paul at the airport who has seriously deteriorated in the twenty four hours since his wife ditched him. Like remember Mark Antony after he lost the Battle of Actium? About to there, only no miniskirt, thank God. Frances tries to get him to go home, but he's clearly a broken man. She demands to see the later. Marc doesn't want to budge, but he relents. Turns out this is a suicide note. Paul's just done without Frances, which by the way, if you read a Richard Burton biography everyone tries to kill herself to hang on to Richard Burton. Seriously? Elizabeth Taylor, Sybil Burton, we can't act like grown women, we have to try to kill ourselves? What kind of message does that send? Anyway, Marc thinks this is a ruse. So, Frances decides even though she loves Marc she loves Paul enough to not want to see him kill himself. So, then we have something like a happy ending and you'll find that love actually is all around... Wait, wrong movie in a London airport.
Okay, so check out the trailer and check out Richard Burton. He was actually a very interesting guy apart from Elizabeth Taylor. Check out this trailer, it's crazy.
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