The V.I.P.S (1963)

A glamorous ensemble piece about a disparate group of V.I.P.s in a London airport whose lives are jeopardized by a fog which grounds all the planes thus preventing them from reaching their destination. For a variety of reasons, time is of the essence for each of them. The wife (Elizabeth Taylor) of a billionaire (Richard Burton) is running off with her lover (Louis Jourdan, a tycoon (Rod Taylor) may lose his company if he doesn’t reach New York in time, a film director (Orson Welles) must be out of the country by midnight otherwise he’s subject to a million dollars in British taxes, a Duchess (Margaret Rutherford in an Oscar winning performance) must get to Florida for a job that will enable her to keep her ancestral home. It’s quite enjoyable in its glossy “Oh, how the rich do suffer” movie way though as drama its insubstantial. Directed by Anthony Asquith (THE YELLOW ROLLS ROYCE) and co-starring Maggie Smith, Elsa Martinelli, Linda Christian, Michael Hordern and Dennis Price with a gorgeous Miklos Rozsa score.