The Bad and the Beautiful
1952
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Lana Turner, Dick Powell, Barry Sullivan, Walter Pidgeon, Gloria Grahame
It’s pretty astounding to me that a film like The Bad and the Beautiful actually got made in Hollywood, let alone made in Hollywood during the 1950s, let alone made in Hollywood during the 1950s and starring some of the most famous names of the time. The Bad and the Beautiful is a searing and unflinching look at the brutality of the film industry and the kind of ruthlessness that is needed to make it in show business.
Told in flashback, three Hollywood big wigs – actress Georgia Lorrison (Turner), screenwriter James Bartlow (Powell) and director Fred Amiel (Sullivan) – are called together by producer Harry Pebbel (Pidgeon). Pebbel asks them to consider, for old times’ sake, making one more picture with producer Jonathan Shields (Douglas). Each of them then remembers their involvement with Shields and what he did to each of them to make them hate his guts.
I love how mean this film is, because damn, it’s mean. Jonathan Shields is not a nice person. He is beyond driven, and willing to go to any measure to make his films. All three of the stories told over the course of the film involve Shields befriending the person in question (or, in the case of Lana Turner’s character, seducing), then using his relationship with that person to get films made – at any cost. Douglas’ performance, and the film in general, is incredibly brave. Douglas doesn’t just tiptoe near the edge of ego-driven megalomania, he careens straight to the cliff and soars right over it. There are absolutely no attempts to make Shields a hero. He is not. But he is the star of the film, and there is something oddly captivating about him. As horrid as he is, I can understand how the actress, the screenwriter, and the director all got taken in by him. Douglas as Shields is incredibly charismatic.
