Hotel Internacional

Mr. Sanders (Richard Wattis), the customer-service representative for British Overseas Airways' Heathrow V.I.P. passengers, has among his list of customers for today: Frances Andros (Dame Elizabeth Taylor), socialite wife of wealthy industrialist Paul Andros (Richard Burton), who is flying to New York City before catching a connecting flight the next day to Jamaica for a solo vacation; Les Mangrum (Rod Taylor), a tractor-company owner, is doing last-minute business at the airport with his faithful secretary Miss Mead (Dame Maggie Smith) before he takes that same flight to New York City for a meeting regarding financing for the company; movie producer and director Max Buda (Orson Welles), who has just finished shooting a movie in England, and his latest companion, Italian starlet Gloria Gritti (Elsa Martinelli)--whom he has no intention of ever putting in any of his films--are flying to Hollywood; and The Duchess of Brighton (Dame Margaret Rutherford), a doddering, now-penniless old woman who will be flying to Miami in economy--her first-ever flight--as she has taken a job there to earn money to prevent foreclosure of the mortgage on her family estate. All of their flight plans are placed in jeopardy when an unexpected fog rolls in over the airport grounding all flights. With the exception of the Duchess, who has been trying to calm her pre-flight nerves and who would not go to the U.S. if not for the need for money, the other V.I.P. passengers face possible negative consequences because of the delay. Frances, in reality, was leaving Paul for good, running off with purportedly-reformed gigolo and gambler Marc Champselle (Louis Jourdan), who was booked on the same flight. Frances and Marc's plans were to stay in New York City. They must leave Heathrow before Paul gets the letter Frances left for him at their house informing him of her intentions, which includes the end of their marriage in reality, even if he does not grant her a divorce. Les must get to that New York City meeting, as that financing was to prevent a hostile takeover of his company. In the process, he wrote a check for one hundred fifty-three thousand seven hundred fifty pounds sterling to purchase company shares, money he doesn't yet have, and was counting on as an outcome of that New York City meeting, the check could land him in jail for fraud, in addition to losing his company. Miss Mead, who is secretly in love with her boss, stayed at the airport to ensure that his flight left; she will do anything to help him and the company. And Max, a British citizen who has been living in Switzerland for tax reasons, must leave the country before midnight or be hit with a one-million-pound-sterling tax bill from the British government.