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The V.I.P.s
original film poster
Directed by	Anthony Asquith
Produced by	Anatole de Grunwald
Written by	Terence Rattigan
Starring	Richard Burton Elizabeth Taylor Louis Jourdan Maggie Smith Orson Welles Rod Taylor Elsa Martinelli Margaret Rutherford
Music by	Miklós Rózsa
Cinematography	Jack Hildyard
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Release date(s)	1963
Running time	119 min
IMDb profile

The V.I.P.s, also known as Hotel International, is a 1963 MGM drama film. It was directed by Anthony Asquith, produced by Anatole de Grunwald and written by Terence Rattigan, with a music score by Miklós Rózsa. The film has an all-star cast including Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Louis Jourdan, Elsa Martinelli, Maggie Smith, Rod Taylor, Orson Welles and Margaret Rutherford, who won both the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Golden Globe in the same category.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Background and production 3 Reaction 4 Cast 5 External links

The film is set at London's Heathrow airport during a fog. As flights are delayed, the VIPs of the title play out the drama of their lives in a number of slightly interconnected stories. The delays have caused serious hardship for most of the characters and have plunged some of them into deep personal or financial crisis. The central story concerns Frances Andros (Elizabeth Taylor) trying to leave her husband, millionaire Paul Andros (Richard Burton) and fly away with her lover Marc Champselle (Louis Jourdan). Because of the fog, Andros has the opportunity to come to the airport to convince his wife not to leave him. Film producer Max Buda (Orson Welles) has to leave London, taking his newest protégée Gloria Gritti (Elsa Martinelli) with him, if he is to avoid paying a hefty tax bill. The Duchess of Brighton (Margaret Rutherford) is on her way to Florida to take up a job which will pay her enough money to save her historic home. Les Mangrum (Rod Taylor), an Australian businessman, is anxious to get to New York to prevent his business from being sold. His dutiful secretary, Miss Mead (Maggie Smith) is secretly in love with him. Knowing that it is a matter of great urgency, she decides to approach Andros, unbeknownst to her boss, and asks him to advance the money which will save Mangrum's company.

According to the playwright Terence Rattigan who wrote the screenplay, this is based on the true story of Vivien Leigh's attempt to leave her husband Laurence Olivier and fly off with her lover Peter Finch and being delayed by a fog at Heathrow.

The team of director Asquith, producer De Grunwald and writer Rattigan were to produce another portmanteau film the following year entitled The Yellow Rolls-Royce.

Stringer Davis, husband of Margaret Rutherford, plays "Mr Stringer", a tiny role as a sympathetic hotel waiter in a scene with Rutherford.

Critical reaction to the film was generally poor. It nevertheless did extremely well at the box office, helped by the enormous publicity attached to the Burtons' previous film, Cleopatra.

• The V.I.P.s at the Internet Movie Database