The Bad and the Beautiful
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Writer: Charles Schnee
Based on: George Bradshaw‘s short story “Tribute to a Bad Man”
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Lana Turner, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Barry Sullivan, Gloria Grahame

Plot:
Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas) is a once-great producer who has fallen from grace. In a last attempt to resurrect his career, he calls in an actress (Lana Turner), a writer (Dick Powell) and a director (Barry Sullivan) he helped to make into stars. But all three of them are very reluctant to help Shields since he betrayed all of them in turn. While they think about it, their first encounters with Shields are retold.

The movie has its weaknesses, but altogether I really, really liked it. Mostly due to Kirk Douglas, Gloria Grahame and Vincente Minnelli’s beautiful direction.

The script’s structure feels extremely artificial. Those three people and their flashbacks one after the other – it’s a concept that works well on paper, but in action during the film it feels trite and unnatural. The stories within the flashbacks I liked, but the framework was just a bit trying too hard.

And the movie takes a bit to get started  and when it does finally get started, it’s Lana Turner who takes over and I really couldn’t stand her performance, nor her character, so that was a bit problematic for me.

But other than that there is nothing I can complain about. Kirk Douglas really embodies the charismatic Jonathan and you get completely why the people react to him the way they do. The only times that he isn’t the center of the film is when Gloria Grahame appears on screen. She is amazing and absolutely steals every little scene she’s in. I would have loved to see an entire film with her in that role and I was really disappointed that she had such a small role.

Vincente Minnelli really was one hell of a director. [I’ll probably have to do a Minnelli marathon soon.] And here he has a good cast (with the exception of Lana Turner) and gorgeous set and costume design to work with – and he makes it all a little better still. Also, I just loved the look behind the scenes of Hollywood the film gives you. It feels very up to date, despite being 60 years old.

Summarising: Loved it.