BUtterfield 8 is a 1960 drama film directed by Daniel Mann, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Laurence Harvey. Taylor won her first Academy Award for her performance in a leading role. The film was based on a 1935 novel written by John O'Hara in the wake of the success of his critically acclaimed "Appointment in Samarra".
The novel was his first success.
The context tells us that O'Hara wrote the novel on which the film was based after the success of Appointment in Samarra, so it cannot be his first success.