***From Out Of The 1950s Film Noir Night- Hollywood Takes A Bow- “The Bad And The Beautiful”

DVD Review

The Bad And The Beautiful, starring Kirk Douglas, Lana Turner, Barry Sullivan, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, 1953

Hollywood over its long history has not been shy about touting its virtues in film. That proposition applies whether the subject is cinema as art, mere entertainment, or the bottom line, the dough-making bottom line. And those premises are intermingled and on display here in this 1950s film noir epic, The Bad and the Beautiful, as an all-star cast goes through its paces in this melodramatic look at the foibles on one hot-shot Hollywood producer, Jonathan Shields (played with a decided smirk by Kirk Douglas).

The plot line here unfolds as a series of flashbacks all centered on the relationship that three Hollywood denizens had with our bad boy Jonathan. A now high- gloss star played by Lana Turner (the beautiful of the title although not as fetching as in The Postman Always Rings Twice), who Jonathan found out in the bushes feeling sorry for herself, pining away for some mythical dead father, a women whom he transformed from a tramp and a dipso into a star who along the way fell in love with him, and his magical ability to give her the courage to light up the screen. His problem, or maybe better, hers was that he only loved making pictures and making love to some whores out on Eighth Avenue just for kicks. Chalk up eternal hatred number one. The second denizen a now high-priced successful big picture director played by Barry Sullivan who, when Jonathan was down and out working up the Hollywood food chain with low budget pictures, was his boy Friday through thick and thin. They were going to ride the stars together making great art until Jonathan got a chance to make a blockbuster break-out film with a known director leaving Barry behind, way behind. Chalk up eternal hatred number two. The third a now famous and honored screenwriter played by Dick Powell whom Jonathan plucked from some backwater college campus, brought to Hollywood along with his clinging if charming wife, who Jonathan matches up with a male star to keep her out of Dick’s hair while he is writing the great American screenplay and who dies in a plane crash with that movie star. Chalk up eternal hatred number three. The mix is cemented by, of course, the money man, the film rainmaker, played by Walter Pidgeon. And that combination of scenarios of those relationships when all three were from hunger (one way or another) is what drives the narrative here. Almost.

No, what drives the narrative is that Jonathan needs a smash film after coming up on hard times and he, through the money man, is asking, no begging this trio to bail him out for old times sake. Their collective response. No way, no way in hell. That allows each to flashback to their less than equitable relationship with bad Mr. J. Seems that our boy is out of the old school and just wants to make great pictures, great dough, and a name for himself in the hills of Babylon and doesn’t care who he steps on, over, or under to get there. Of course, shining through the brutal treatment, or so the argument goes, all three go on to great success so Johnny is really the catalyst behind them. So, come on guys, just one time for the old boss. See the film to see if they change their minds. What do you think?