The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
Directed by Vincente Minnelli

Film Review

Despite its surface gentility and melodramatic restraint, there is a deliciously cruel, almost vicious, underbelly to The Bad and the Beautiful, Vincente Minnelli's frighteningly astute commentary on Hollywood in its golden era.  This is not the only major Hollywood production to lift the lid on the vagaries of Tinsel Town - others notable examples include Sunset Boulevard (1950), Singin' in the Rain (1952) and A Star Is Born (1954) - but it is one of the most revealing, and it is not too hard to see who might be the inspiration for the main protagonists.  The episode involving the cat people appears to identify Kirk Douglas's character (Jonathan Shields) as the famous B-movie producer Val Lewton, although other incidents in the film suggest that he is more closely modelled on the producer David O. Selznick.  The film won five Oscars in 1953, in the categories of Best Supporting Actress (Gloria Grahame), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design and Best Screenplay.  Kirk Douglas was also nominated for the Best Actor Award, but lost out to Gary Cooper in High Noon.

The Bad and the Beautiful assembles a stunning cast, and each of the lead actors - Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Dick Powell, Barry Sullivan and Walter Pidgeon - turns in a faultless performance, all well-served by an intelligent, compelling and well-constructed screenplay.  Minnelli's direction is at its most elegant and inspired, subtly exposing the dual natures of each of the protagonists as their conflicting desires and ambitions ferment into a deadly cocktail, with explosive results.  None of the characters is entirely sympathetic - they are variously deluded, egoistical and unforgiving - and it isn't long before the ugly side of the dream factory begins to ram-raid its shiny façade.  Kirk Douglas's character may be the epitome of the unscrupulous, underhand Hollywood film producer, but in the end he is the one we most pity, the misunderstood star-maker who ends up being rejected and despised by the very things he creates.  Is it so unlikely that we should see something of Vincente Minnelli himself in the spurned film producer?  In any event, The Bad and the Beautiful is one of Minnelli's most personal and revealing films, and quite possibly Hollywood's most incisive and damning exposé of itself in its glorious heyday.

Film Synopsis

Film producer Harry Pebbel rounds up three people who owe their success to his associate Jonathan Shields, on the pretext of persuading them to work with Shields on his next film.  They are film director Fred Amiel, star actress Georgia Lorrison and screenwriter James Lee Bartlow.  All three were made famous by Shields, but they all bear him a grudge as a result of a personal betrayal.  It was Amiel who gave Shields his first break as a producer, and they had a successful time together making low budget B-movies.  When they came to make their first A-picture, Shields chose another director in place of Amiel, causing the latter to walk away in disgust.   Georgia Lorrison was an unknown bit player before she met Shields, the first studio executive to see she had star potential.  But having made Georgia into a star, Shields shattered her illusions by carrying on an affair with another woman.  James Lee Bartlow has most reason to hate Shields.  It was Shields who persuaded him to write a screenplay adaptation of his bestselling novel.  Aware that Bartlow is being constantly distracted by his wife Rosemary, Shields introduces the latter to the actor Gaucho, with tragic results...