Elizabeth Taylor has stated many times over the years that BUtterfield 8 is not one of her favorite films and feels she won the Oscar because of her recent illness rather than her performance.
John O'Hara's 1935 novel is about the death of a call-girl and could not be filmed due to the Production Code. The novel was based on the death of Starr Faithfull, a 25-year-old woman whose body washed up onto the shore of Long Island in 1931 and became a sensation in the New York press due to her checkered sexual history.
Average Shot Length = ~11.3 seconds. Median Shot Length = ~10.8 seconds.
Before Elizabeth Taylor could start Cleopatra for a $1 million salary, she was legally bound to finish her MGM contract by doing this film, which she hated, for her standard $125,000 salary.
Gloria's car was a Sunbeam Alpine
Prior to the advent of digital technology, telephone exchanges were named instead of being numbered. Thus, Butterfield 8 (BU8 or 288) was the name of the exchange that provided service to ritzy precincts of Manhattan's Upper East Side
This film features the only dramatic role in Eddie Fisher's career, and the only film he made - in a major credited role - with wife Elizabeth Taylor. Just a year before, in Suddenly, Last Summer, Fisher had briefly appeared, uncredited, in one scene with Liz.