The Bad and the Beautiful ***** (1952, Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Barry Sullivan, Gloria Grahame, Gilbert Roland, Leo G. Carroll) – Classic Movie Review 2363

Producer John Houseman and director Vincente Minnelli must share the main credit for this splendidly jaundiced, authentic, incisive 1952 look behind the scenes at Hollywood. It focuses on a stop-at-nothing producer (apparently modelled after David O Selznick but there are lots of role models) and the people he victimises – a star actress (Lana Turner), a director (Barry Sullivan) and a writer (Dick Powell) – on the way to achieve success.

Oscar-nominated Kirk Douglas is absolutely excellent as Jonathan Shields the producer and Lana Turner rises to the occasion as his star Georgia Lorrison. But all the actors grab their chances, particularly Gloria Grahame as a Southern belle, Rosemary Bartlow, the ambitious wife of Dick Powell’s character, James Lee Bartlow.

With Charles Schnee’s screenplay based on the story by George Bradshaw, this is a dazzling bit of navel gazing by Hollywood. It was hugely successful, costing $1,558,000 and earning $3,373,000, and was the winner of five Oscars: Best Supporting Actress (Gloria Grahame), Best Screenplay, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration Black-and-White (Cedric Gibbons, Edward C. Carfagno, Edwin B. Willis, F. Keogh Gleason), Best Cinematography Black-and-White (Robert Surtees), Best Costume Design Black-and-White (Helen Rose).

Two Weeks in Another Town (1961) is a kind of sequel, certainly a follow-up, with the same star, director, producer and writer.

It was the second of three Oscar nominations for Douglas, but he never won and had to be content with an Honorary Award in 1996 ‘for 50 years as a creative and moral force in the motion picture community’.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2363

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